Guidance

VAPC south west England: meeting minutes 7 June 2022

Updated 10 January 2024

Meeting time

10am

Meeting location

The Rifles, Taunton, Somerset

Attendance

Committee members attending:

Paul Cartwright (Chair) (PC) Jeff Spencer (Vice-Chair) (JS) Anica Alvarez Nishio (AAN) Amanda Brown (AB) Michael Bryan (MB) Kieran Bird (KB) Hamilton Elliott (HE) Emlyn Phennah (EP) Charlie Radclyffe (Secretary) (CRa) Chris Rose (CRo) Tony Thompson (TT) Guy Williams (GW)

Guests:

Arren Hymes (DTS) - AH

Apologies:

Rachel Brannagan (RB) Lee Bushby (LB) Ben Obese-Jecty (BOJ) Philip Orr (PO) Andrew Ottaway (AO) Franklin Owusu-Antwi (FOA) Abbie Pierce (AP) Duncan Tilley (DT) David Wood (DW) Emma Jones (VWS) - EJ

Declaration of Interest

While the VAPC SW Committee recognises the importance of avoiding conflicts of interest, it also recognises benefits drawn from the lived experience of its members. We, therefore, operate a policy of naming and noting any activities or experiences which could be considered conflicts while concurrently actively drawing upon the widest experiences of its members to inform its work. At all times, we endeavour to clarify explicitly when members are acting on behalf of the committee and when they are acting as private individuals. No conflicts of interest were declared for this meeting.

Minutes

Chair’s introduction and welcome

The meeting opened at 1000. PC welcomed the members of VAPC with an especially warm welcome to the newly recruited members.

Independent Veterans Advisor (IVA) Feedback

JS gave an overview of the April visit by IVA David Richmond to the VAPC SW symposium at RAF St Mawgan.  He clarified the independence and reporting structure of the role of the IVA and that the VAPC do not report to the IVA but to the Minister for Defence People and Veterans (MinDPV). The symposium was successful at bringing together serving personnel, veterans, members of numerous organisations supporting veterans and the wider veteran-aware community. Its success has been noted as a role model for similar events nationwide.  It is hoped a similar event will be organised for Spring 2023 in another county within SW: those who may be interested in organising should step forward.

Feedback on 11 May Chairs & MinDPV meeting and 12 May VAPC Chairs meeting

PC gave an overview: MinDPV broadly supportive of VAPC, acknowledged the need for clarity around VAPC role and related statutory instrument and governance documents. He is hoping to put forward a private member’s bill, which he thinks will be popular. Brigadier Hull is now in place and minded to improve the relationship with VetsUK (bearing in mind this is one small piece of her brief). Nonetheless, post-meeting Rob Rowntree of VetsUK contacted PC to follow up and begin working on priorities. Much enthusiasm in the room; will be seen whether this translates into meaningfully improved communication from Departments of State (MoD/Vets UK).

SW TOR report - Sept 2022

TOR report areas were merged into existing SW teams, with attending members confirming their positions. TOR areas of research included: OP COURAGE, data-sharing and HARDFACTS, VetsUK assessment, Housing, Veterans and the Law, Transition, and Public Perception. While traditionally, we would have had further discussion on team allocation, given the change in ways of working due to Paul’s departure, the timing of the summer holidays and the need to produce the SW report for inclusion in the national TOR report to Min DPV in the autumn, JS, CRo and AAN working together have decided to allocate team placements. Hopefully, these will be acceptable in the short term and will be re-evaluated at the October Quarterly Meeting. Team Leads should engage with their teams to finalise and circulate action points by 27 June 2022 and be prepared to brief at the next monthly meeting.

Teams should work to the goal of producing a paragraph or two on their specialist area by 15 September, in time for the Autumn TOR Report. Please see the timetable below:

15 September	Draft team inputs	SW members to AAN
19 September	Draft November 2022 VAPC SW TOR	AAN to SW members
22 September	Edits and comments on draft SW report	SW members to AAN
25 September	Final draft circulated	AAN to SW members
27 September	Locked draft agreed at Sept Quarterly	ALL
29 September	SW report sent to Chairs	AAN

Veterans Welfare Service (VWS) and Defence Transition Services (DTS)

PC welcomed Arran Hymes who gave an overview of their remit: a limited staff for the most severely challenged service leavers, organising multidisciplinary teams to access health and social care.  Focussing on DTS (VWS were not available), Arran Hymes explained that there are numerous continuity and data management issues and inconsistencies across units during the transition to civilian life, which they continue to try to work to resolve, as well as issues of safeguarding, etc. DTS services are provided from two years pre-discharged until two years post-discharge (and, in practice, longer). Even if the veteran declines at first, the option for support remains open.

National communications

Following a request to Chairs for essential support on comms from our sponsor, a point of contact has been appointed at Vets UK (Jo McGhee).  An initial meeting between JS/JM established the context for our needs.  JM is meeting the Government Gateway team, and JS has requested he attend. From a SW perspective, JS is keen to get a fresh pair of eyes to look at VAPC comms generally, and CRa and AAN are keen to refresh or reconfigure the G-Drive (and/or other file storage system) from the ground up, reducing folders and instituting a consistent, logical system for record-keeping.  If one of the new members would like to step forward to take on this task, it would be much appreciated.

Post-meeting note

JS attended the virtual brief on the Vets UK digitisation project. This project is progressing well but, significantly, does not include issues, feedback and complaints. This will be addressed in Stage 2. VAPC needs to be involved at an early stage of this enhancement and JS will raise this at Chairs on 15 Jun 22.

National working groups

• Support: CRo reported there had been one meeting, with a further one planned for later that day, during which Graham Cable (SE) will outline the plans for VAPC member training, including induction for new members; he welcomed the SW onboarding work, which would serve as a useful basis for other regions. Half the secretaries attended. There is momentum to build on this. Induction and Comms are now part of the Support brief. CRa requested that someone on Support team helps maintain a record of FOI so as to have a single repository and avoid duplication (see below).

• Vets and the Law: TT reported the next meeting is 8/7. The focus is to get information out to police, commissioners, and chiefs to inform and engage.

• Transition: GW reported UK is trying to get AF liaison officers (as Wales has). Wants to ask MOD for more info on CTT. Would like to share job applications. He is also planning to talk with John Stephenson, Forces Transition Group.

• Health: MB said he would join this group, which will become a national working group

Coordination with RFCA & HQSW 

CRo reported the potential for interaction. Col McDade is focused on serving soldiers, though keen to help with vets, transition, and hold regional surgeries. This is an opportunity to come up with a three-year strategy and set targets. There is a potential for forums and similar activities alongside the HQ SW county surges. We might consider having a presence/staffing a table at these regional events. CRo to send out details with Minutes.

Veterans People, Pathways and Places   

Naomi Adie is charged with bringing the SW together. Invictus is being paid and is responsible for identifying all the little charities which need to be connected: who they are, and what they do. KB to bring her to the next meeting.

Round table

TT attended SWAFPB North Somerset.  Reported knowledge of serving personnel about the Covenant is decreasing. Dept of Work and Pensions has 50 people employed and is worried about the central government withdrawing funding. 25 & 26 June are Armed Forces Outreach days.  The Warrior programme has lottery funding for 3-4 years: hybrid online and face-to-face course provider.

FOI requests 

There was a general consensus that it would be advantageous to have a national record of VAPC FOI requests to avoid duplication of efforts. Based on his extensive knowledge and his ability to leverage this to assist veterans more widely, PC asked CRa to establish and lead this work.

AOB

PC announced his resignation with immediate effect due to conflict of interest, other professional commitments and, primarily, his regard for the calibre of the new recruits and the high level of expertise on the committee overall.

NB. Please would everyone circulate their TOR team action points/targets by Tuesday, 21 June, or as soon as possible afterwards