Guidance

VAPC London: meeting minutes 12 June 2019

Updated 22 March 2024

Venue: RAF Benevolent Fund, 67 Portland Place, London, W1B 1AR

Date: Wednesday 12 June 2019 at 11 am to 2pm

Present:

Lynn Verity (LV) Chairman
Jim Blake (JB) Deputy Chair
Alex Jablonowski (AJ)
Penny Long (PL)
Ken Courtenay (KC)
Paul Clabburn (PC)
Bob Money (BM)
Andrew Ross (AR)
Heather Betts (HB)
Jim Evans (JME)
Marion Knight (Secretary MK)

Apologies:

Roger Hood (RH)
Lynne Calame (LC)

Observers / Guests:

David Luscombe: Veterans Welfare Officer
Carole Woods: Veterans Welfare Officer
Nick Sharpe (NS): observer
Gail Walker Smith : observer

Welcome and introductions

1. LV welcomed Gail Walker Smith and Nick Sharpe to the meeting as observers with the possibility of becoming Co-opted members of the London VA&PC
2. LV also welcomed Dave Luscombe, London, SE and SW Welfare Manager and Carole Woods who would be taking over as the London Welfare Officer as Dave is retiring from the 4 July 2019
3. LV also informed the Committee that Julie Thain Smith had submitted her resignation as she had stood for council elections in May and had been elected. As such she did not consider it was appropriate to continue sitting on the London VA&PC
4. LV explained there would be a need to recruit new members and she would be asking JB to handle the recruitment process
5. LV also confirmed there would be a need to re-balance the sub groups

Apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were accepted from committee members LC & RH

Declarations of interest

The Chairman reminded Committee members that they must declare any interest arising out of their personal/business life which could conflict with VAPC business.

Minutes of previous meeting

Minutes of the Previous meeting were adopted, with one minor alteration under point 5 of the Centenary sub group section. PC explained RH would be responsible for pursuing this further. MK was instructed to send the minutes to Norcross for publication

Housing seminar report

PC had circulated his report prior to the meeting.

1. LV thanked PC, AR and BM for the all the work they had done to organise a very successful event. She also thanked the whole of the Committee for the part they had played at the Housing Seminar on the 3 June
2. LV explained Rob Rowntree, who had attended the Seminar was very impressed and had said that London VA&PC had done supremely well. PC and LV had received an e- mail from Kingsley Donaldson, who had offered his congratulations
3. PC echoed LV’s thanks and specifically thanked AR, BM LC and Tim Verity for his efforts on the day
4. PC explained, following on from the successful employment seminars held earlier, London VA&PC had worked on extending its stakeholder base to include RBL, Kent University and Renewing the Covenant team. This had also led to a donation for the event from the RBL and also Tesco and to the RAF club providing a room, free of charge
5. PC encouraged all Committee members to think about where funding for ongoing current work and future events might come from
6. PC gave a summary of his draft Housing report. He explained that Kent University have taken the information, from the group discussions at the Housing seminar and would provide an additional report, from which he hoped a best practice guide would be developed
7. PC explained that he was hoping there would be an ongoing working group to take this matter further and that he intended to form a group to initially include all Council members who had attended the Housing Seminar. Action PC.
8. The Committee members had a discussion with regards to encouraging Boroughs who had not attended to become involved. AJ is going to specifically target the City of London who had expressed interest in future involvement. Action AJ
9. PC will circulate any communication he has with the group he is establishing to all Committee members and they can circulate to the London Boroughs they are linked to who were unable to attend. Action PC and All.
10. The Committee members had a discussion on the importance of the sustainability of the work in the longer term. LV mentioned the proposed Armed Forces Champion for London, and PC explained that Len Duvall from the GLA, who had attended the Seminar had agreed to currently take on this role
11. Kent University are looking are interested in doing further research, however they would need additional funding to be able to undertake this work. HB suggested that the Kent University Report is circulated to the Forces in Mind Trust as they may be able to support with future funding. HB also suggested the Kent University report should be sent to the Veterans and Families Institute for Research. Action PC
12. LV asked Dave Luscombe and Carole Woods on behalf of Norcross whether VETS UK would centrally support future communication from Kent University, and they agreed. Action: Dave Luscombe & Carole Woods
13. LV believed Kent University should also sign up for the Armed Forces Covenant. PC said he would send an e mail to remind them that this should be investigated. Action PC
14. PC also dealt with his Awareness and Communication report during this agenda item. He explained he had published report following the Housing Seminar and went through some of the statistics with regards responses, notably impressions and engagements
15. HB encouraged a link with the COBSEO Housing sector and suggested to PC about attending a cluster meeting

Centenary: mission statement and the next 10 years

Committee debate: RH

LV asked the committee, (in RH’s absence) whether they wanted to leave is matter until the September 2019 meeting. LV suggested she could invite Kingsley Donaldson and/or Jonny Lighten to the next meeting for this debate. The Committee liked this idea and agreed the debate should be delayed until the September meeting but noted the timescales for organisation of events was shortening

Welfare report

Dave Luscombe and Claire Woods

1. Dave Luscombe apologised for not attending the last meeting in April and explained this was due to a family illness. Dave explained he is retiring in July, and Carole Woods would be the Welfare Officer for the London area
2. Dave explained that since his appointment the Centurion headquarters had needed to overcome staffing issues and he confirmed all the recruitment and training had been completed. He explained that the Region was currently short of one telephone operator, otherwise all was in order
3. Tobias Ellwood will be announcing a Defence Transition Service on Armed Force’s Day and this Service would exist alongside the Welfare Service. Dave explained that the Welfare Service dealt with the wounded and sick a well as pensions. The Defence Transition Service was a service for veterans who do not have specific enduring welfare needs but needed to some transitional support. The Defence Transition Service would be up and running by October 2019
4. Veterans ID cards were continuing to be issued to be distributed
5. Dave explained that the Minister was considering re-designing the Veterans badge
6. A clear focus for Andy Dowds, Head of Veterans UK was the digitalisation of all records and a budget had been agreed
7. Veterans Gateway – this would be funded by the MOD. Dave also explained that Ulster University were working on the Housing element of the Gateway and PC noted this fact
8. Norcross will close, possibly in 2023 but no new location had been agreed
9. Kingsley Donaldson was keen that statistics are made available to all welfare officers and the Committee welcomed this and expressed the importance of this information then being provided to VA&PCs

Reports from subgroups

Policy and government affairs

1. JB explained he had not heard directly from the MOD or London District
2. JB had attended a meeting with the GLA and Reviewing the Covenant team and he would be attending quarterly future meetings. He was pleased to see that Len Duvall and two other GLA colleagues had attended the Housing Seminar
3. JB confirmed that Len Duvall has temporarily agreed to the be the Armed Forces Champion for London
4. Consultation on the Strategy for Veterans was now finished and JB had commented on behalf of London. HB explained that a Company has been engaged to take stock of all the responses and the publication of the report had been delayed until November 2019
5. JB explained that the 2 panel cases had been dealt with and neither case was taken forward and that both individuals had received advice

Health and welfare:

PL: report was circulated prior to meeting

1. JTS had written the report prior to her resignation
2. PL stressed that the Provost of Edinburgh regarded veterans as a priority, and it would be good to see the London GLA emulate his example
3. LV asked whether she could attend the Stoll Choir and PL agreed
4. HB has agreed to help PL with Health information. PL asked whether HB could attend the next meeting in London, as she was unlikely to attend
5. HB has recently responded to a request about Stanford Hall provision being brought into the NHS, this was currently being examined and she will provide an update at the next meeting

Employment:

AJ: report was circulated prior to meeting

1. AJ gave an update to the Committee. Barclays were undergoing a change of personnel, but the employment work continued and was in place and would continue to be funded. There was likely to be a steering meeting in July and AJ would need to attend. There was a need to continue to develop a strong industry partnership, with companies other than Barclays. AJ suggested that VA&PC should have a role in the governance if this was deemed appropriate
2. Nick Sharpe (NS) agreed to become a Co-opted member for the London Committee and stated he wanted to become a member of the Employment sub group. He suggested a Veterans Charity function - LV said that we would need the funding first and was important to recognise the Committee’s limitations

VAPC website - AR

1. AR explained he has been asked to be part of a group whose remit was to develop a UK wide virtual network with a social media presence. He was working with two other committee members on this, Jeff Spencer and Dan Brookes
2. The key to the work was financing this venture and the business case would be submitted to the Forces in Mind Trust (maximum £200,000 funding)
3. AR asked a general question whether the Committee members would help to obtain sponsorship if the funding was not available
4. AR explained the purpose was to have information in the public domain, an enhanced network capability, possible date repositories and a voice for veterans. It would offer support for each region and engagement with clients
5. AR explained that Johnny Lighten was on board (Chairman of NW Region). LV encouraged AR to let Jonny lead this work and suggested the group report to the next Chairmans’ meeting in November 2019
6. AR asked about financing and was advised there would be a need for a National Bank account and Rob Rowntree at Norcross would need to agree to this proposal

Treasurer’s report

AJ: report was circulated prior to meeting

£330 in bank account. LV suggested AJ should take the £30 he had put into the account back initially as the £300 donated by Tesco’s was supplied to keep the bank account open. AJ declined to do this

Any other business

Date of next meeting: Wednesday 4 September 2019.

MK explained that prior to this meeting she had a lot of information to circulate and that she had loaded all the information to the London VA&PC Google Drive as previously agreed, but that she was not sure this was being widely used. Committee members agreed to persevere with the Google Drive to obtain information and prevent the need for large e mails and attachments. MK would continue to upload documents and circulate links. MK will continue to ensure LV receives all reports via e mail as well. Action MK & AR