AFC0034

Written evidence submitted by the UK Council of VAPC Chairs, The Veterans Advisory and Pensions Committees.

INTRODUCTION

The 12 Veterans Advisory and Pensions Committees are arms length non-departmental public bodies that reporting to the Minister for Veterans and People.  The role of the Committees is to raise awareness and provide support in relation to veteran  related services and issues.   Specifically the VAPCs will work to raise awareness of:

•               The War Pensions Scheme (WPS).

•               Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS).

•               The Veterans Welfare Service (VWS).

•               The availability of cross government support to the Armed Forces, their families and Veterans.

•               The Armed Forces Covenant and associated measures at a local level.

The Author of this report is the Chair of the UK Council of VAPC Chairs and this report is submitted as being representative of the inputs of the 12 area VAPCs.

BOTTOM LINE - UP FRONT (BLUF)

The Covenant and the associated duty should be extended across all Government and Local Authority departments including the MoD, not simply confined to those dealing with Housing, Education and Health and Wellbeing. 

The Armed Forces (AF) Covenant issues highlighted in the VAPC reports to the Minister of Oct 22 and Oct 23 remain extant, and the UK CVC and VAPC members are disappointed and disheartened by the lack of detailed response from the MoD to recommendations made to improve outcomes and ensure consistency across the whole of the UK.

The VAPC believe government rhetoric of “the best place in world to be a veteran”, is not matched by reality, especially given the challenges public services face in delivery of support capabilities.  This leads to veterans being targeted by the legal profession to join class actions, which often lead to more expensive outcomes for the MoD (eg Military Noise Induced Hearing Loss (M-NIHL)).

The aims of the Duty to increase awareness of the Covenant among service deliverers and policy makers is hampered by external pressures and constraints (principally resource), which directly impact Statutory Authorities (SAs) ability to deliver the Covenant.  Furthermore, the economic benefits of early intervention (prevention) with a specific Veterans in Crisis (VIC) cohort, need to be better articulated so that available resources are optimised to best effect.

For everyone in the veteran ecosystem there is a lack of clarity given the myriad of initiatives in the policy domain.  Too often massaging refers to such policies as UK wide, when in reality, they often relate solely to England.

The lack of an enforcement mechanism, supporting information and the ability to track progress in terms of improved outcomes needs to be addressed.  The current complaints procedures and where appropriate, appeals to the relevant Ombudsman are therefore sub-optimal.  The standard public law principle of judicial review, where enforcement of compliance cannot be resolved, means that too often complaints are unresolved because of cost and complexity.       

The AF Covenant – highlights, challenges & issues

AFC Partnership Boards (AFCPB) in areas where they are well functioning have been instrumental in drawing together SA provision of support with that provided by the 3rd sector.  This has helped to increase awareness of the Covenant and the new legislative demands in the areas of health, housing and education.   Too often elements of organisations still do not understand what the Covenant entails and have yet to incorporate it into their plans/processes/structures/mechanisms to effectively discharge their duty.  Moreover, too many organisations fail to appreciate the 3 separate cohorts of people to which the Covenant applies: Service Personnel (SP)and their families, Service Leavers (SL) and their families and finally, the veteran community with their families and carers.  Critically, they often fail to recognise the different complexities and challenges each cohort face and the significant variation in support and access needs within each of them. 

In terms of effective outcomes for the AF community, many veterans highlight their lack of knowledge of what support is already available leading to confusion about existing services and offers.  They also felt that all providers of services were not aware of the full array of services available from across the sector, which in turn, can further confuse .   Co-ordination between different elements of the veteran ecosystem in order to provide wrap-around support (i.e. a person-centric approach and not just signposting for the individual), needs to be created if the Covenant is to achieve its desired strategic outcome.   Success in this regard was demonstrated to some extent in various VPPP Phase 1 programmes, but integration of the full array of support elements is essential. 

Regional partnerships that exist, for example in the South West region and in Scotland and Wales, bring all of the military VCSE partners together, stimulating partnership delivery and access to shared funding opportunities and are widely recognised  as  representing best practice. 

The Third Sector forms a big part of the veteran support solution but they compete for scarce resources.  There is a need for SA providers to be aligned and integrated with the Third Sector into a Single Point of Contact (SPOC)-style service.  This would build on the successful Op Community pilots in the healthcare arena (e.g. Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland (LLR) Integrated Care Board (ICB)) where the outcomes, particularly in solving complex multi-disciplinary issues that VICs often exhibit, have been very positive.  Similarly, the success of the Military Navigator service pilot within the Lincolnshire Maternity service shows provision of this type of capability is critical for SP and their families having to cope with the mobility demands of military life.

Devolution has undoubtedly complicated delivery of the AF Covenant as responsibility for healthcare,  housing, education and in Scotland, the justice system, are all devolved activities.  Thus policies developed and published in London are often not available to those within the devolved nations.  Op NOVA is an example of this, as there is currently no provision in Wales.  Addressing these gaps requires improved communication and collaboration between the UK and devolved governments.  Clarity in messaging, alongside tailored initiatives is essential for achieving parity and ensuring veterans across the whole of the UK receive the recognition and assistance they deserve, whilst also reducing confusion across the whole of the veteran community.

Key Themes

Community & Relationships

The VIC group needs to be identified as a recognisable group to allow Equality Impact Assessments by SAs to aid them in meeting their duty of due regard.   The current myriad of organisations offering support creates complexity and incoherence, about which veterans frequently complain.  We recommend the development of easily identifiable and regionally appropriate Joint Contact Points linked into joint & combined (virtual) regional support hubs, manned by MoD welfare staff, LA and DWP Forces Champions, together with relevant Third Sector personnel.   None has the resource to deliver this service alone and by creating a co-ordinated system, it could provide the safe and effective referral pathways for the VIC cohort.   The Defence Transition Service model of working with all stakeholders to provide the necessary support to vulnerable SLs and their families has proved extremely successful.   The re-brigading of VWS and DTS personnel into a new MoD Welfare construct offers the first step in building this new type of capability,   Within this proposed structure there will be a need to address the F2F needs of some veterans, could mesh into a SPOC-style service and reduce the potential for confusion and congestion faced by veterans seeking help.

We have particular concerns about the recent changes caused by devolution initiatives in England with the proposed formation of new LA structures, which already appear to be adversely affecting coherence and illustrate the fragility of the commitment to the Covenant within local government.  This is particularly so  when dealing with Health & Wellbeing Boards where local government changes do not mirror the NHS structures. It is feared that the forthcoming transition to Strategic Authorities, following the English Devolution White Paper of 16 Dec 24, will further  reduce coherence across the veteran support structures if not carefully managed.   The leadership and the sharing of best practice delivered by the Mayor of Greater Manchester to other Combined Authority leaders in the relation to the Covenant is welcomed and to be applauded. 

Health & Wellbeing

There is a continuing unacceptable post code lottery in terms of healthcare support to the AF community.  The mismatch between rhetoric and delivery is stark.  Too often the ICBs’ analysis of the needs of the AF community and their subsequent Action Plans appear weak and more of a box ticking exercise.  There are outliers such as the LLR and the Lincolnshire ICBs who are extremely supportive and class leaders in developing the appropriate plans underpinned by robust JSNAs.

In the Primary Care arena, the migration to ensuring each Primary Care Network is Veteran Aware rather than trying to make every GP practice accredited is bearing fruit with some 95% achieving the required status in England and Wales.  However, the lack of understanding of the Covenant within the social prescribing community remains a concern.  The VCHA accreditation scheme is also bearing fruit in terms of veteran awareness in secondary care settings as well as care homes.  However, all these voluntary schemes need to move to an assurance-based model for all of the different elements of the healthcare system.  The VAPC Believe that there is a need to refresh the NHS AF Forward View strategy to reflect the opportunities that the new Long-Term Plan for the NHS will bring.  Perhaps through the development of a set of common rules that create the conditions to improve the service offered to the AF community.  In addition, sharing best practice across the Health & Wellbeing Boards within each LA area needs to be mandated.   Innovations such as considering their AF community as a cross-cutting theme in all their health and wellbeing activity, which has been implemented by Rutland County Council, if adopted more widely would remove many of our concerns about ensuring that the needs of this hard-to-reach community are satisfied.

Housing

Accommodation issues continue to be prevalent amongst both Service families and single personnel.

The majority of SLs and their families look to become owner occupiers but there is an increasing minority who look to social housing as their best option, given the challenges in terms of cost and availability of private housing.   Unfortunately, the availability of this type of accommodation is highly constrained so despite “homes for heroes” announcements and the trumpeting of the adoption of new rules for England (Scotland has had such a rule in place for some time) in terms of local connection constraints, the reality is that the homes are simply not there.  This causes enormous frustration and concerns for SLs and their families, particularly when they wish to rebuild family ties in a particular area where house purchase is out of the question due to cost.   Better communication is required to inform SLs of the constraints in terms of availability of social housing in a particular area where they might settle along with contact details of approved housing providers in the area. 

Education

The Education domain and its response to the imposition of the duty of due regard to the Covenant remains something of a black hole from the VAPCs perspective.   The growth of academy’s across the sector and the emergence of large Multi-Academy Trusts has made it very difficult to derive any real insight into the performance of these institutions with regard to the Covenant and more work is required to gain an understanding of how the Service Pupil Premium (SPP) is being utilised to benefit the service child.  Supporting Service Children in Education (SSCE) Cymru gets only a proportion of these monies and they are not allocated per child,  which adds to the complexity in determining what benefits the SPP has brought to the pastoral wellbeing of the service child in Wales.  The MoD, Local Authority Partnership (MODLAP) membership also needs to be expanded to achieve continuity of outcomes wherever SP and their families reside.    Accessing school places at a preferred location or at an institution that has specialist capabilities remains a frequent concern for SP, SLs and their families, particularly when they relocate at short notice or after admission application deadlines.  There continues to be variations in policies and processes in different LAs across the UK when dealing with service children.  Families with children who have special needs or disabilities face particular challenges and this leads to some children being out of a school setting for extended periods of time.  The lack of response from schools and Education Authorities to the survey on the impact of the new legal duty is a clear indicator of the focus on the Covenant and the needs of service children that needs to be applied to the various elements of the system, including within the Department for Education.  Progress on the UK AF Families Strategy which was intended to address the challenges AF families face, also appears patchy at ground level pointing to the need for more resources and greater focus on addressing those challenges both now and in the future.

23rd January 2025