Guidance

VAPC east Midlands: meeting minutes 15 June 2020

Updated 12 March 2024

Location

Zoom meeting by BS.

Present

• Barry Smith (Chairman)
• Michael Whitehead
• Dick Hurwood
• Stavros Melides
• Larry Henson
• David Taylor
• Sam Wileman
• Tom Smith
• Andy Holt
• Helen Drew-Bradley
• David Wilson
• Jim Wright

Apologies

• John Berry
• Gillian Ekins
• George Ellison

Co-opted member

Bill Dixon-Dodds

Welcome

The Chairman welcomed members to the meeting which was the first meeting on Zoom the committee had undertaken. The platform proved adaptable and all members were able to join and contribute simultaneously as had been hoped.

The Chairman highlighted that the Members Appraisals for Dick Hurwood, Stav Melides, David Taylor and Jim Wright had been agreed by the Minister and their continuance in post had been promulgated.

The Chairman highlighted that with the ongoing uncertainty over the governance of VAPC’s, he had taken the decision not to undertake a re-write of the EMVAPC Strategic Plan. It was expected that the relationship with the different MOD/Cabinet Office organisations in the Veteran space and the resultant governance regime would not be resolved until later this year. However, the current VAPC handbook and TOR’s provide us with the latitude to undertake both the statutory purposes laid out in the various Statutory Instruments as well as our functional role in acting as advocates for implementing the Armed Forces Covenant and associated measures at local level.

Declarations of interest

There were no declarations of interest that would affect the work of the Committee.

Apologies for absence

The Chairman accepted apologies from those who were unable to attend the meeting. He emphasised that individuals’ attendance at committee meetings was a performance indicator that he was charged with monitoring by Veterans UK.

VWS update

Once client calls recommenced there would be a requirement for VAPC members to accompany VWS managers on a scheduled basis.

Highlights from the report:

• all VWS visits were suspended wef 16 March 2020 following government guidance on working from home and implementation of its Business Continuity Plan
• all DBS buildings closed wef 23 March 2020. Norcross and Glasgow have had minimal staff attendance to deal with urgent payment issue
• management at both sites are working with unions to implement a COVID safe environment to allow additional staff members to work in these locations
• helpline is open on a limited hours regime (between 10am and 3pm Monday to Friday). Clients are encouraged to use email to contact VWS
• all VWS staff have been issued with laptops and are working remotely from home
• each Welfare Centre has a mobile phone based service for supporting those with urgent welfare needs
• Vets UK website is updated frequently to reflect latest changes
• no updates can be offered regarding the War Pension Scheme
• all casework has been paused including new claims and appeals against previous claim decisions as the necessary case work activity is paper based and cannot be carried out remotely
• VWS remain unable to provide an estimate of how long claims and appeals will take to process
• support has been provided to 2 Service Personnel at Stanford Hall in preparation for their military discharge
• support continues to be provided to 7Bde PRU cases
• closer working with the Veterans Gateway (VG) has been implemented; VWS is now an Information Organisation Partner rather than a referral partner. This allows VWS staff access to VG databases to take direct referrals

Feedback was requested on the numbers of clients serviced via this procedural change.

EMVAPC retains the role of providing an overview of VWS activities in the EM region and a request to attend and present at the next meeting on 19 October 2020 would be made.

Confirmation of minutes of the last meeting held on 23rd March 2020 and matters arising

The minutes were confirmed with a minor amendment to the attendance list..

Item 9.1 WPS/VAPC Centenary Event - GE was no longer required to lead our engagement activities as a decision had been taken by the Chair of Chairs not to proceed with any further planning for this event

Item 10.1 - NHS Best practice initiatives The recent re-organisation of NHS England with the creation of an AF Health Transformation Division has impacted on the plan to create an NHS (England)-led EM AF Network. Engagement with the new organisation will take place on the large number of NHS (E) initiatives.

Outbrief from Chair of Chairs Virtual Conference

Chairs Conference 29 April 2020: The Theme of the conference was, “Towards an Integrated Approach”. This was the result of follow-up discussions from our Nov 19 conference. Our view was that in the rapidly changing veteran arena, VAPC’s were no longer as effective in delivering their outputs. Importantly, the OVA hierarchy felt we were no longer optimised for future demands although our regional links and perspectives were seen as a vital asset. The main challenge to re-brigading and any efforts to significantly alter our activities was that any changes to our statutory underpinnings in legislation were unlikely to occur until the next quinquennial review of the AF Bill in 2025. Hence, the policy of persuading our various stakeholders of the benefits in adopting good practice would remain our best weapon going forward. An important issue was the need to represent the 95% of Service Leavers as well as the wider Veteran community who make a successful transition and integrate well into civilian life. There tended to be a natural focus on the 5% who struggled with both transition and integration.

A review of the Vets UK statistics in terms of the backlog for both WP and AFCS claims indicated that they were on track to achieve their KPI in this area (127 days Average Clearance Time). A key issue is the amount of dead time waiting for evidence from medical specialists. Vets UK is undertaking a KPI review currently and we offered specialist expertise from within the VAPC leadership who had devised Waiting List Management techniques to improve performance in the NHS. One of the benefits of the Vets UK Digitisation Project will be to make the whole process transparent to claimants rather than the opaque reality of today. In addition, there was a need to make the Independent Claims Procedure which the VAPC are mandated to deliver a more open mechanism so that claimants can gain greater insight into the review activities. A feedback loop is vital in this regard.

In terms of our Mission it was agreed that we act in support of government and its various Agencies and cross-government departments. It was identified that work needed to be done on a system level diagrammatic representation of our stakeholders as we move away from a traditional hierarchical approach where we look up, across and down in the domain in which we operate.

An initial review of the impact of COVID-19 was there had been poor coordination between the major military charities. The opportunity to make a real difference for the veteran community during lockdown had been missed. It was felt that a menu of services should have been offered to the various Resilience Hubs that had been set up as a response to the pandemic in each of the LA areas. They could have assured LA’s/NHS that vulnerable Veterans within the HIGH RISK community were being serviced by military charities and particularly their befriending services. Another issue put in stark relief was the need in future for professional case workers. SSAFA, RAFA & TRBL needed to come together in the regions to provide these critical individuals. The age demographics of the current set (71 for RAFA. 61 for SSAFA) meant that during the pandemic many of these individuals were themselves shielding. Furthermore, the impact of digitisation across all of the different government departments involved in welfare and support to the veteran community demand a higher level of essential IT skills.

The main effort in the next period was to devise a 5 year strategic plan out to 2025, establish the Strategic KPIs that would underpin that Plan, develop the key priorities for 2021 and look at a proposal to establish a set of devolved lead roles for all VAPC Chairs. Individual chairs will become responsible for identified key strands of work and become the interlocutor between all of the various VAPCs and key stakeholders.

Individual member reports: updates future plans

Communications

Michael Whitehead re-emphasised the benefits of the Communications pilot which was up and running and how it would assist committee work. He explained to members how to get onto to the Veterans & Families Research hub where the pilot is hosted.

Health

Dick Hurwood as Sub Committee (SC) head reported:

• the delay in the establishment of the NHS England AF Network in the East Midlands had been overtaken by events as NHS (E) reconfigured its support to Veterans. A new national construct was being rolled out but the implementation at regional level was yet to be established. He would continue to engage with NHS England on this issue
• the rollout of Veterans’ accredited GP practices was continuing but the impact of Covid-19 on primary care as it re-configured for the pandemic meant that the programme had slowed considerably
• we still need to engage at regional level as priorities follow resources and those budgets are still set at CCG level. Hence, our influence and persuade campaign is vital to ensure that the needs of the veteran and other members of the AF community are heard. Although the NHS is becoming more centralised in its management control, due to the need to reconfigure, there are still aspects of its command & control mechanisms where localism drives behaviours
• we need pilots underway to be able to demonstrate, at both regional and national level, their benefits in terms of improved outcomes for members of the AF community. This will give us concrete examples of good practice to discuss with senior NHS leadership teams with whom we wish to engage.

Policy and Governance

The Chair as Policy & Governance SC head identified that the impact of Covid-19 on routine meetings meant that there was a marked reduction in AFC Partnership Board activity across the region. Efforts continued to try and ensure that the secretaries of the Boards continued to receive the latest updates in terms of the various Centre initiatives and relevant research reports on the veteran community.

A series of sub-group work streams had been identified and small teams of committee members were assigned to each of these workstreams.

The first of these was in the area of transition. A recent FoI request had identified that the take-up of Enhanced Learning Credit in our area was less than 10%. Team 1, led by JW would look at whether, the programme was still fit for purpose and recommend possible improvements.

A recent report on the Housing Needs of Ageing Veterans who have experienced limb loss was passed onto SW for commentary and to identify if the research had missed any key component in the needs of this disadvantaged group.

The recent FiMT research paper on Veterans in the Justice System was passed to JB for analysis and commentary. The intent was to compare and contrast the recommendations with the efforts of Project NOVA that had been established in a number of areas in the region. The intent was to look at the scaleability of any improvements, their value and applicability to every police force in our region as well as the efforts of Project NOVA partners in the prison environment.

The Living in Our Shoes report which articulates the latest understanding of the needs of AF families was passed to TS for analysis and commentary. There are a large number of recommendations, the majority of which lie in the MOD’s bailiwick but there is a need to understand how the service providers within local government as well as the 3rd sector need to adopt the changed context of a less mobile and more dispersed service workforce.

Welfare

DT identified that in any of our engagement with 3rd sector organisations we need to adopt a new mantra of “Identify, Assess, Report” so that we can begin to build up a database of their capabilities both in terms of breadth and depth in order to assess their resilience and effectiveness in supporting the veteran cohort they were targeting. This should be shared with our stakeholders although there are clear issues associated with us taking on this Kitemarking role.

Recruitment update

A recent review by Vets UK highlighted that out of our current total of 15 members there were 5 who were due to retire during 2021. Although 2 individuals were possible 2nd term appointees, it had been accepted that a further recruiting round would be required in autumn 2020 to replace those members due to retire in 2021. Members were asked to help identify new candidates for the committee and encourage them to apply once the recruiting round is opened up.

Update on centenary of the WPC/VAPCs

Discussions were ongoing with Vets UK on whether a day training event for all VAPC members would be authorised to take place at the National Arboretum on 21 June 2021, the centenary of the establishment of the War Pension Committees.

Update on EM NHS AF Network Provision

The detailed analysis of the various initiatives underway within the UHL by the non-executive director, who is the AFC lead within the hospital, remains in abeyance. The reconfiguration of secondary care to address COVID needs has also reduced the impetus to roll out best practice initiatives across the region. The work that needed to be done to capture the full complement of different initiatives that various Health Trusts had implemented across the region was also on hold.

Understanding how Covid-19 has changed needs of Veterans & meeting those requirements

The Chair re-iterated that committee members should engage to the maximum possible with their local networks to maintain an overview of the support that was being provided to the veteran community during the crisis from all of the different elements of the various support agencies, both statutory and 3rd sector. There was particular interest in whether those needs had changed as a result of the pandemic. Examples to support the view that, because of their training/experience in military life, veterans were proving to be more resilient than others at facing the exigencies of lockdown were of interest.

Any other business

EMVAPC Directory. Work continues on the directory of organisations providing a service to veterans in the region. Unfortunately, the inability to meet with the various organisations to understand the depth of their capability as well as the reach of the organisation in our region because of the impact of COVID has significantly reduced progress.

Advice on engagement with charities for Veterans. Allied to the issue of a Regional Directory, discussion focused on what could be done to advise Veterans, who are approached by a charity, to avoid them being taken advantage of. The range of outcomes varied from the charity giving them false hope of solving a particular issue through to it being a financial scam. It was agreed that a statement would be created that we would put on our Twitter feed advising Veterans on the checks they should perform as well as the various contacts they would find helpful before getting involved with a specific charity.

Armed Forces Day Celebrations. The Chairman highlighted that the formal elements of Armed Forces Day were to be cancelled but that informal events at a community level were being identified as suitable activities that could take place despite the social distancing measures that were likely to be in place. Photographs of any members’ engagement in community celebrations would be welcomed so that they could be posted on our network feed.

Date of next meeting

The next meeting is planned to take place at 10.30 am on 19 October 2020 at PWOG Grantham. However, if the constraints imposed by COVID-19 were still extant, the aim would be to hold the meeting on Zoom hosted by the Chairman.