Guidance

VAPC London: meeting minutes 21 June 2023

Updated 22 March 2024

Venue: Barclays Rise, 41 Luke Street, London EC2A 4DP with some members joining using Microsoft Teams

Time: 4pm to 5.30pm

Present

• Robin Herzberg (FRH) – Chairman
• Caroline Flynn Macleod (CFM)
• Carl Stephen Patrick Hunter OBE (CH)
• Charles Perrett (CP)
• Alpa Raja (AR)
• Larry Stone (LS)
• Brian Willmore (BW)
• Alex Woolgar-Toms (AWT)

Apologies

• Jim Blake (JB)
• Annabel Goulding (AG)
• Bishnu Gurung (BG)
• Frances Luczyc Wyhowska (FLW)

Welcome

The chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.

The members of the committee congratulated the chair on his appointment.

Apologies for absence

It was noted that JB, AG, BG and FLW had been unable to attend.

Minutes of 22 March 2023 meeting

The minutes, which had been circulated, were approved and were ready to be sent to the Ministry of Defence for publication.

Action: FRH

Matters arising

FRH reported that he had been advised by officials that the Minister for Defence People, Veterans and Service Families had recently met with the Nepalese ambassador to discuss matters relating to Gurkhas. He noted that there would unlikely be any changes to pensions, but that amendments to welfare provision might be possible.

Previous London VAPC report to the minister

FRH reported that, on 23 March 2023, he received a formal response from the Department to the report to the minister, which was submitted by the London VAPC on 29 September 2022. The response from the Department was collated by topic and was therefore in a different order to the recommendations in both the national report and the individual regional reports. Nevertheless, it gave an indication as to how the Ministry of Defence was intending to address the issues.

Response to the minister on the covenant duty

FRH reported that, as requested by the minister in his letter dated 27 April 2023, the London VAPC had participated in the review of the new Armed Forces Covenant Duty and had made a series of recommendations.

Next London VAPC report to the minister

FRH reported that VAPCs will now only be required to produce one report per annum. This ties in with the parliamentary reporting cycle.  It is due to be submitted at the end of July 2023.

A draft of the report had been circulated to the committee. It included recommendations that: (i) charities should continue to receive financial support from HM Government, where necessary, to ensure continuity of service, particularly in the context of charities losing revenue due to the cost-of-living crisis. (ii) the Department should deploy adequate resources to monitor employer organisations to ensure they meet their commitments under the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (iii) the Covenant Duty should be extended to all areas of central government (iv) there should be improved reporting to, and quasi-auditing by, the central team on what is being delivered and what is not to ensure effective implementation (v) regiments should be encouraged to maintain databases of veterans (in order to maintain contact with them) on the basis that they have a “legitimate interest” in doing so (vi) the Fusilier Connect system recently introduced by the Royal Fusiliers should be treated as an exemplar system, and that the Department should encourage other regiments / parts of the armed forces to develop equivalent systems of their own, and (vii) everything possible should be done to minimise waiting times for veterans seeking all aspects of mental health and wellbeing services.

It was agreed to amend the draft report to note the important contributions being made by several members of the London VAPC (LS and FLW in particular) who are closely engaged in military charities. Members were invited to advise the chair of charities with which they were involved.

It was agreed that the chair should submit the report, as amended, in accordance with the timetable.

Action: FRH

Private Members Bill

CFM reported that the second reading of the Private Members Bill to increase the responsibilities of VAPCs to cover all aspects of veteran welfare, is due to take place on 14 July 2023, in the House of Lords. Lord Lancaster is sponsoring it through the House of Lords.

Review of welfare provision for veterans

FRH reported that Lindsay Alexander, a senior civil servant from the Ministry of Defence, was carrying out a review of welfare provision for veterans.

Strategy Development

LS gave an update on the strategy development exercise being led by Stewart Blackburn, chair of the Eastern VAPC, in which LS had been participating. Following a strategy conference in Birmingham on 31 March 2023, Stewart had issued a document setting out a strategy for the future. The strategy sought to clarify the role of the VAPCs, set out how they should be governed and supported, and proposed a series of actions.

The key conclusions of the draft VAPC strategy report were summarised; it was hoped the paper would be sent to the minister. There seemed to be good correlation with the Thompson review.

Performance Data

AWT reported on an online meeting he had attended on 26 May 2023, to consider the data relating to the War Pensions Scheme (WPS) and the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS). WPS relates to injury, illness or death before 6 April 2005, and AFCS relates to injury, illness or death after that date. He stressed the importance of ensuring that the selected Key Performance Indicators were appropriate for measuring the success or otherwise of the exercise.

Reports from the teams

FRH reported on the meeting of the national subcommittee on employment and transitioning held on 10 May 2023. A team from the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers gave a presentation on their new communication system, Fusilier Connect, which had launched on 23 April 2023.

Action: BW

Working with the Greater London authority and London boroughs

BW proposed that meetings should be arranged with the Greater London Authority, and a selection of London Boroughs, to discuss areas of mutual interest in relation to veterans.

CP noted that there were a series of touch points for armed forces affairs in local authority areas. These might extend to Representative Deputy Lieutenants, armed forces officers (usually staff) and armed forces champions (usually councillors).

It was agreed to proceed with the meetings.

Action: CFM

Working with charities

FRH reported that it had been agreed with the other VAPCs that he would act as the main point of contact with the London-based national charities. He observed that he would need assistance from other members of the London VAPC in this regard.

FRH reported that he had met with Lieutenant General Sir Nick Pope, Chair, and Richard Goodman, Operations Director, at the Confederation of Service Charities (‘Cobseo’) on 30 May 2023.

CFM agreed to contact SSAFA.

Any other business

CH expressed concern about the excessive focus on single diagnosis-based fund raising (particularly in relation to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) by military charities.

FRH reported that a recruitment exercise would be carried out in autumn 2023, in accordance with the Public Appointments process, to restore the membership of the committee to 20 members.

Date of the next meeting

It was agreed that the next meeting would take place at 4pm on 27 September 2023 at Barclays Rise or by video conference.