Guidance

VAPC south east England: meeting minutes 18 January 2021

Updated 11 July 2023

Present

• Rob Nitsch (RN)
• David Anderson (DA)
• Graham Cable (GC)
• Dan Brooks (DB)
• Robin Draper (RD)
• Joan Ferrer (JF)
• Amran Hussain (AH)
• Kath Hutton (KH)
• Patrick Lyster-Todd (PLT)
• Andrew McHugh (AMH)
• Paddy Nicoll (PN)
• James Partridge (JP)
• Alex Sard (AS)
• Carron Snagge (CS)
• Ian Talbot (IT)

Not present

• Craig Jones (CJ)
• Kate Steels (KS)

Apologies

• Clive Hunt (CH)
• Soundararajan Jagdish (SJ)
• Roger Nield (RND)
• Alex Platts (AP)

Welcome and apologies

RN welcomed all to the meeting, noted apologies (see above) and outlined that he would welcome the use of the Zoom chat box and ‘hands up’ functions to input during the course of the meeting.

He stressed that as this was his first meeting, it was incumbent on and important to him to report on all activity he had been involved in since appointment, and invite discussion on matters noted in the pre-circulated agenda and documents.

Minutes of previous meeting/matters arising

The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed as a correct record. No matters of note arose.

Chair’s update

RN outlined his discussions with the Office for Veterans’ Affairs (OVA) and their current focus of activity, including the addition of a question on veteran status in forthcoming census and the creation of the Veterans Advisory Board.

KH mentioned that she and her colleagues had not seen any messaging regarding the census, so could not further disseminate that info via her professional channels. RN undertook to communicate that to OVA, and noted IT felt the same.

RN outlined his discussions with Veterans UK and confirmed their commitment to continue supporting our work.

Recruitment and resignations

RN reported that out of the recent recruitment efforts, 7 candidates had been selected for interview from 17 applications, with interviews split over two days (22 and 29 January).

RN noted that SJ and RND had notified him of their intention to resign, and RN thanked them for their effort and commitment (in absentia).

SEVAPC strategy and approach

Using the pre-circulated PowerPoint slides and documents, RN initiated a discussion on his proposed SEVAPC strategy and approach, and invited meeting attendees to discuss these proposals.

In outline, the proposals and discussion covered:

SEVAPC purpose.

SEVAPC stakeholder map and relationships.

Proposed outputs, achieved via:

• a team-based approach to covering 5 areas of work: Employer, education and skills; Finance and debt; Health and wellbeing; Making a home in civilian society; and veterans and the law:

• in which deeper subject related expertise would be developed, along with regional and national links with other stakeholders established

• to spread best practice across the region, and

• to be reported upon in full committee meetings

There would also be a coordination group comprised of the Chair, Deputy Chair, and Secretary.

Personal commitment of:

• participation in at least 6 veteran-related events a year outside committee meetings
• participation in at least 3 committee meetings a year unless indisposed
• taking up emerging issues on behalf of individual veterans

All aspects were presented, discussed and noted accordingly, and members agreed they were broadly happy with the proposals and discussions. The agreed next steps were that:

Action

Members would confirm they were happy with team composition, alert GC if not (or if they changed groups or became a member of more than one), and develop their own team structure and momentum.

GC will maintain teams list.

PN reminded the meeting of the e-reporting form he circulated prior to the meeting, and PLT undertook to assist him in further implementing that.

RD, AMH and CS would use feedback offered in the meeting to further work up the strategy and approach documents discussed, before passing back to RN for further development and confirmation at the next meeting.

DONM

The next meeting will take place before the end of March, and a draft agenda will be circulated in due course for discussion/additions etc.

The focus will be to confirm strategy and approach documents discussed above, and confirm team composition and leadership.

Note: RN has since suggested 29 March, 4.00pm to 6.00pm. Details will be circulated and availability checked by GC.

Any other business

AS suggested it would be useful to know where other committees are located. Afternote: these can be seen on The VAPC ‘about us’ corporate webpage.

Action

AMH indicated he knew a barrister that might be able to offer some expertise to the committee. RN agreed that co-option by AMH, or any member who knew any willing volunteers with relevant skills, was acceptable.

DB updated the meeting on NHS England veterans’ mental health services and employment pathways (into the NHS). He stressed the cross-cutting nature of these initiatives, and how SEVAPC work might interface with this.

GC indicated that he was missing three members’ contact permission forms.

Note: now all received.