Guidance

VAPC Yorkshire and Humber: meeting minutes 24 October 2022

Updated 6 November 2023

Attendees

• Alex Baxter (Chair)
• Mr Chris Nolan (Vice Chair)
• Col (Retd) Chris Mason (Secretary)(Co-opted)
• Dr Iain Burnside
• Mrs Helen Singleton
• Mr Alex Bentley
• Mr Rick Short
• Mrs Yvonne MacDonald
• Mr John Topping (Co-opted)

Apologies

• Lt Col (Retd) Terry Reilly RA
• Mrs Christine Landess (Co-opted)
• Maj Adrian Hunt
• Ms Elspeth Duemmer-Wrigley
• Mr Stephen Norton

Absent

• Mr Tim Cole
• Maj Pete Mason R Signals
• Maj Huw Bell
• Flt Lt Steve Griffiths
• Mr Nick Mitchell (Co-opted)
• Mr Andrew Palmer (Co-opted)
• Sqn Ldr (Retd) Mike Chambers MBE (Co-opted)
• Mr Craig Gadd (Co-opted)

1. General items:

a. Introductions and apologies:

The chair, Alex Baxter welcomed members to the meeting and noted apologies as above.

Introductions:

During introductions an opportunity was taken to allow Yvonne MacDonald to provide more information regarding her work with Homestart in Richmondshire. Homestart provides emotional and practical support to parents and families experiencing difficulties. She has only 2-3 veteran families on her books. A discussion followed as to increasing veteran awareness of the organisation particularly in her area e.g. Catterick. A presence on the Veterans Gateway it was agreed would be helpful.

Action: Chris Nolan (Vice Chair) to assist in establishing perhaps an electronic flyer on Veterans Gateway.

b. Minutes of the Last Meeting/ Actions with VAPC

The minutes of the last meeting (25 Jul 22) were approved.

All actions arising completed:

1 b. Chair has written expressing thanks to members who have recently stood down Certificates of appreciation produced and to be distributed.

c. Chris Mason has volunteered as Secretary and taken over the role.

c. Recruitment and membership

John Topping announced the death of recent past Vice-Chair Lt Col (Retd) Alan Skidmore. The Chair expressed our condolences to Alan’s family and stated his gratitude for Alan’s contribution to the Committee on behalf of veterans and it was agreed that John would pass on his Certificate of Appreciation to Alan’s family.

Concern regarding member non-attendance and failure to supply apologies was discussed. It was decided that the Chair would write to members to remind them of their responsibilities as Ministerial appointees to attend Committee meetings and actively engage in the work of Y&H VAPC. It was agreed that there is no prescribed minimum attendance. A failure to respond to the Chair’s letter would be regarded as an indication of an individual not wishing to remain a Y&H VAPC member.

It was agreed that through 2023, the HQ of Y&H RFCA in York will remain our meeting venue and if thought appropriate in future, it can support virtual attendance at meetings

Action: Alex Baxter (Chair) to write to members to remind them of their responsibilities as Y&H VAPC members.

Member re-appointment:

The following members are due to come to the end of their first term of membership of Y&H VAPC on 15/03/2023: Helen Singleton, Terry Reilly, Adrian Hunt, Steven Griffiths, Tim Cole Alex Bentley.

The Chair asks that these members complete the soon to be distributed Self-assessment Appraisal template which will assist in the process of supporting re-approval.

Action: Chris Mason (Secretary) will distribute the latest version of the VAPC Members Handbook with these minutes. It contains at the annex the required Self-Assessment Template. [Template also included as a separate attachment].

Above named members to complete the Template and return to Chair.

One member, Peter Mason will reach the end of his second term on 20/04/2023 and will as a result, need to apply at the next recruitment round for Y&H VAPC if he wishes to retain membership.

3. STRATEGY UPDATES:

a. Update from VAPC chairs & sponsors meeting inc. national meeting to discuss governance and terms of reference update.

The Chair updated the members on the latest Chairs group meeting. A discussion followed regarding the structural interactions and relationships within VAPC nationwide, particularly in terms ensuring regional concerns regarding Veterans’ issues reach Ministerial attention when appropriate.

The Committee also expressed some frustration regarding the timelines for the latest 6-monthly report submission. Matters beyond our control, the death of HM the Queen prevented the Y&H VAPC meeting and discussing the submission before the originally hastened deadline. It was thus decided to provide a concise report detailing the high-level effects of the current economic climate on veterans in our region. That the submission deadline then slipped does not change the Committees’ view that there is significant merit in brevity in the reporting process. This is for a number of reasons, first of which is frustration at the lack of acknowledgement and response to previous reports and secondly the time required by our voluntary committee members in generating these reports.

There was agreement that a possible move to annual reporting would enable a better use of Committee member’s input.

Action: Chris Mason will circulate the minutes of the VAPC Chairs’ meeting of 11/10/2022 with these minutes.

Chris Nolan reported that he had volunteered to take part in the quinquennial Service Review of VETERANS UK at the request of the Chairs’ meeting. An initial action to this review is a Self-Assessment, which we as a Committee are being asked to undertake. A copy of this spreadsheet will be forwarded to members shortly.

Action: Chris Mason will forward the Self-Assessment shortly.

b. Next 6 month report preparation, inc brain storming/ input session. Review last annual report, report progress & identified concerns.

This item was not discussed as the report has been prepared prior to this delayed meeting.

4. NATIONAL SUB-GROUPS UPDATE:

a. HEALTH & WELLBEING UPDATE:

Iain Burnside reported that he has recently attended the Veterans Covenant Healthcare Alliance (VCHA), which involved many good presentations involving the embedding of Veterans’ healthcare within the NHS. The committee agreed to contact our new area VCHA Representative, Mandy Stokes

Action: Chris Nolan to contact Mandy Stokes (VCHA)

[After-meeting note: Chris Nolan has made contact and arranged a phone contact with Mandy Stokes for 04/11/22.]

Iain has unfortunately had to give up his role as Veterans Champion to his NHS Trust (Mid Yorkshire Hospitals) because of pressure from his line management. He reported that the Trust was at risk of losing Veterans Aware Status.

Action: Alex Baxter will write to the Chief Executive of Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust to ensure he is aware of the benefits of having a Veterans’ Champion.

Iain reports little change locally in the levels of GP practice “Veteran Friendly” status at about 14%. Chris Nolan suggested that one way to tackle the Veteran-GP interface issues could be to provide the relevant information, including computer codes to the veteran to pass themselves to their GP.

Action: Chris Nolan will provide to the Committee a pre-sourced information sheet that could be used for this purpose, to then consider how it could be utilised.

It was raised that ongoing concerns relating to Veterans’ health in respect of the consequences of asbestos exposure during service, e.g. Sea King helicopters, accommodation and others with exposure to burn-pit smoke were not receiving the attention required despite being put up to the VAPC Health sub-committee repeatedly. Y&H VAPC wants to escalate these matters to ensure they are appropriately investigated whilst still at a stage where prevention and amelioration can be undertaken, rather than eventually becoming potentially solely a matter for compensation.

Alex Baxter provided the Committee with an information sheet from Humber and North Yorkshire Health Care Partnership explaining Integrated Care Boards. This will be passed to Members with these minutes.

Action: Chris Mason to pass ICB information sheet to members with minutes.

b. LAW GROUP UPDATE:

Deferred to next meeting as lead Elspeth Wrigley unable to attend today.

c. LOCAL AUTHORITY GROUP UPDATE:

Yvonne MacDonald has volunteered to join the North Yorkshire Covenant Board

Action: Alex Baxter will seek introductions to enable this.

Alex Bentley has volunteered to join York Covenant Board.

Chris Mason has likewise volunteered to join South Yorkshire Armed Forces Community Covenant Group.

Action: Alex Baxter will circulate a map of our region with the LA Covenant boundaries marked, looking for members to volunteer to engage locally to ensure we improve coverage.

5. AOB:

Alex Bentley raised some concerns regarding the ease of approaching support charities e.g. Royal British Legion. There were no specific details of any problems.

Action: Alex Baxter will explore accessing SSAFA and report back.

GDPR compliance:

Action: Chris Mason will explore GDPR regulations regarding contact details, to ensure we are compliant with the regulations. All present at the meeting said that they were content to be contacted.

[After-meeting note: Chris Mason has contacted VETS UK regarding GDPR and awaits a response.]

6. Next meetings:

The next meetings:

Monday 13th February 2023

Monday 12th June 2023

Monday 23rd October 2023

Venue: Yorkshire and Humber Reserve Forces and Cadets Association Headquarters, 20 St Georges Place, YORK, YO24 1DS.