Guidance

VAPC south west England: meeting minutes 26 October 2021

Updated 10 January 2024

Meeting time

12.30pm to 2.30pm

Meeting location

The Rifles Officers’ Mess, Wyvern Barracks, Exeter, EX2 6AE

Attendance

Committee members attending:

Paul Cartwright - Chair (PC)
Jeffery Spencer - Vice-Chair (JS)
Charlie Radclyffe (CRA) - Secretary Chris Rose (CRO) Anica Alvarez Nishio (AAN) Hamilton Elliott (HE) Lee Bushby (LB) Duncan Tilley (DT) David Wood (DW) Tony Thompson (TT) Guy Williams (GW) Andrew Ottaway (AO) – via Zoom Ben Obese-Jecty (BOJ) – via Zoom

Apologies:

Franklin O-Antwi (FOA) Dawn Civill-Williams (DCW)

Declaration of Interest

There were no declarations of conflicting interests.

Minutes

Chair’s introduction and welcome

PC welcomed all attending, including those virtually, noting that this was the first opportunity for many newer members to meet in person. He proffered thanks to those organising (GW, CRA) and encouraged all to use the opportunity to continue the discussions that had been fruitful online.

He noted that the VAPC SW held a productive training workshop on the morning of the meeting, which was followed by the Minister for Defence People and Veterans (Min DPV) having his first meeting (virtually) with all the VAPC Chairs. PC summarised the key outcomes of that meeting as:

• The Minister’s five priorities, paraphrased as:

1. to resolve the Northern Ireland veterans’ issues
2. to address previous discrimination against homosexuals, women and Foreign and Commonwealth/non-UK members serving in the Armed Forces
3. to achieve a gold standard of care and access to the NHS
4. to enhance post-service employability for veterans, and
5. to improve coverage for veteran’s support across the nation

• The Minister values the VAPCs’ role, endorsed the VAPC’s new Terms of Reference (TORs) and asked the VAPCs to apply these to achieve tangible improvements.

VAPC SW members were able to listen to the exchanges, enhancing transparency and allowing VAPC SW members to hear first hand from the Minister. PC indicated that the next VAPC Quarterly (25 January 2022) should include a session on refinement of the SW Plan and for all team leaders to review their team tasking before that meeting. The Plan would also be subject to review by all members due to the promulgation of the Minister’s priorities and the expected National Strategy for Veterans revision, due to be released shortly.

PC also noted that the VAPC SW had previously produced a brochure on its operations, which was still extant less one email address; copies were available at the meeting for use by all members. Hard copy travel claims were also available for use. Action:

• 25 January 2022 quarterly meeting to have SW Plan review item (CRA)
• all team leaders to review team tasking by Christmas prior to the next quarterly meeting (team leaders)

SW Priorities

JS outlined the current SW priorities, all identified within the Issues Log (see next agenda item):

• National Statute is under discussion at Chairs. PC leading; no further action for VAPC SW other than to monitor
• review of VetsUK performance, ongoing, led by DW. To be coordinated with the work started by CRA to look into best practice in Pension reviews and promulgation of results
• regional VAPC best practice (led by CRO) and influencing the Office for Veterans’ Affairs (OVA) future support to VAPCs (led by JS), and
• Foreign and Commonwealth leave to remain/T&Cs – led by BOJ (link to Minister DPV priorities)

Recruiting and Training

PC would start the recruiting process for six vacancies in the SW VAPC later this year. A priority is to strengthen the committee’s ability to represent a range of veterans and their families, particularly through increasing the diversity of committee members. Active outreach efforts, including engagement with other VAPCs being made.

Feedback on training provided during 2021 and that desired for next year will be sought by AAN over the winter, tied into the new National Veterans Strategy as necessary. A VAPC-wide training initiative is currently led by the SE; SW has provided feedback and will contribute/support as this further develops.

Issues Log

The Log provides a helpful summary of key actions ongoing and a historical record of all major issues undertaken by VAPC SW. PC thanked CRA and JS for their work on setting up the Log, which Team leads and all members were encouraged to provide regular (monthly) updates and inputs, with key document hyperlinks, noting that 2-3 weeks prior to VAPC SW Quarterly meetings, updating the log would be important. Coord would look into version control. CRA offered a tech session to those using their ‘@vapc.org.uk’ email addresses.

Actions:

• Tech session for those using ‘@ vapc.org.uk’ email addresses (CRA) [Completed 28 Oct]
• JS asked SW NHS plans to be added to the Issues Log (CRA)
• review access to the G Drive for security reasons (Coord)

Ways of Working Best Practice/Collaboration between VAPC Regions

CRO summarised the replies received from most VAPC regional secretaries, with the majority keen to establish an informal coordination and providing some helpful process improvements. Most were in favour of: the ‘@vapc.org.uk’ email address; signature block and branding; desire for a central provided, cloud based IT system; GDPR-approved region contact list. Self-help would be needed until future discussions on an administrative budget for VAPCs for IT etc had taken place.

After an overview of the responses, a discussion on sharing perspectives across regions took place. Further discussion took place regarding the outcomes/minutes and follow-up of actions from Chairs’ meetings.

Actions:

• write to VAPC secretaries who have not yet responded to see if they wish to do so (CRO)
• set up a voluntary, informal coordination mechanism (meetings?), perhaps linked to future Chairs meetings (monthly or 6-monthly) (CRO)
• volunteers sought for the VAPC SW 2022 quarterly meetings from within the membership (CRA)

Foreign & Commonwealth (F&C) Forces Issue

JS introduced: Veterans Advisory Board (VAB) apparently working on the issue, unbeknownst to the VAPC. [Afternote: VAB minutes for February and June 2021 were released after 26 October but the VAPC understand that they are considering F&C matters; the VAPC SW look forward to seeing the VAB’s future discussions and would request that MoD considers including VAPCs in future veteran-related consultations.] BOJ outlined concerns with regard to the current public consultation on Foreign and Commonwealth forces leave to remain and work, in particular the high costs of application for the F&C individuals and for their family members, the proposed length of service required (12 as opposed to 4 years), access to the NHS for injuries sustained while serving, and the fact that this would not be applied retrospectively (affecting potentially some 800 Fijian veterans).

After some discussion, PC noted that the Minister DPV had outlined that support to Foreign and Commonwealth was one of his five priorities and requested any comments to BOJ on his paper by 31 October, who would then draft a response to the Defence Secretary. Thereafter the outcome of the MoD Public Consultation could be expected (around mid-November?), which we would then review, adjust the draft letter to the MoD as necessary and then submit. In parallel, we would seek individuals within the SW who could be representative examples that the VAPC SW could support.

[Afternote: Government departments prefer organisations to use the phrase “Non-UK Nationals” instead of “Foreign and Commonwealth”.]

Actions:

• check for relevant cases with DTS and VetsUK (BOJ)
• check for relevant cases with SW Army Engagement (Wiltshire) (CRO)

VWS, DTS

Unable to attend due to late notification of final meeting timings. Greater notice will be provided for future meetings. Rachel Sergeant (VWS Welfare Manager, SW) to be invited to a future monthly or quarterly meeting.

Veterans UK Review

DW outlined briefly his approach to the review. He considered that extending his review to interested members from other VAPCs would be useful; CRO to follow up. A related pensions investigation taken by CRA will be coordinated with DW’s project. West Midlands would be a useful addition; DW would contact. DW offered to provide a first draft, constructed around the Minister’s 5 priorities. PC noted that Yorkshire and Humber (Y&H) VAPC have generated a paper on the data provided by VetsUK on how they measure their KPIs; it would be useful to connect prior to the Chair’s meeting on the 9 November 2021.

Actions:

• discuss Vets UK review with West Midlands (DW)
• liaise with Y&H VAPC re Vets UK KPIs paper (CRO)

Communications and Marketing

LB outlined his proposed strategy for communications by the SW to spread awareness of the VAPC across the region. Targeting the stakeholders through briefings (e.g. into the local brigades, the Defence Academy, etc) would help.

Actions:

• LB to re-distribute the draft strategy/comms plan [Completed post-meeting] and all to contribute

Regional Covenant

TT outlined the need to continue establishing relationships, noting his own work across Somerset. Encouraged all to continue updating the benchmarking documents as contact continues with Armed Forces Champions, Local Authorities, etc. VAPC SW support/input and advice to regional and county partnership boards, and potential value to be added, was discussed. DW noted that he had produced a report on the SW Partnership Board pre-COVID, which CRO would distribute to SW members, as appropriate.

Actions:

• provide benchmarking updates to AAN after new interactions (ALL)
• distribute DW’s pre-COVID SW Partnership Board report to relevant members (CRO)

Casework

A quick update on specific cases was provided by HE and others.

Transition and Finance

GW mentioned that the latest JSP 100 update was released in April 2021, to which Vets ID cards were added. PC stated that the VAPC SW provided a short update to David Richmond on his request for input to the MoD work on Northern Ireland veterans.

AOB

TT noted that he is working on several individual veteran’s cases.

CRO suggested that we could usefully add Housing to the list of covenant issues. DW mentioned that the SW Partnership Board was planning to harmonise the approach to veterans housing across the region but uncertain if this has been completed. London VAPC undertook some work on housing in London, which could be a useful source for some statistics and issues affecting veterans’ accommodation. FiMT was also a good source of data on veteran housing challenges.

PC/CRO provided a reminder for volunteers to take minutes at the next VAPC SW quarterlies. PC noted that some companies provided the opportunity for extra-curricular activities, such as minute writing; BOJ, as a Barclays veteran employee, would endeavour to identify a possible Barclays ‘citizenship’ individual from the Barclay’s military network. DW would also look for possible serving personnel.

Actions:

• look into Barclays staff to provide support with minutes writing (BOJ)
• look into serving personnel to provide support with minutes writing (DW)

Chair’s Closing Remarks

PC thanked all for attendance and their contributions and encouraged all to continue the excellent momentum. Meeting closed at 14.30; after which a team photo was taken of those present.

Note. In response to a VetsUK request to confirm the identity of VAPC members, TT checked some of the personal documents (driving licences, passports etc) with the appropriate proprietary security equipment.

Next meeting details

• monthly meeting: 30 November 2021, 5.30pm to 6.30pm , Zoom
• quarterly meeting: 25 January 2022 (TBC, following the release of the Government’s latest Veterans Strategy Action Plan)