F e d e r a t i o n N e w s
NEW GOVERNMENT – NEW GOALS
We Live in Interesting Times! As we welcome in a new Coalition Government and congratulate them on their combined election success, it remains to be seen how the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats will combine their sometimes conflicting defence-related Manifesto pledges into a coherent strategy. Within days of the announcement of the new Administration, the RAF Families Federation took the opportunity to remind the new Defence team of the need for enduring cross-Government support to our Armed Forces, their families and veterans as articulated in ‘The Nation’s Commitment’, published in July 2008. The Federation will look to ensure that ‘promises made are promises kept’ and that the new Government delivers enduring recognition of the challenges confronting the Armed Forces community.
The Chairman has already written to the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for Defence, the Minister for Armed Forces and the Under Secretary of State for Defence to draw to their attention the independent role of the Federation and it’s pledge to support the new Government in enhancing the quality of life for military families. The Federation will hold the new Administration to their combined Manifesto pledges as they impact on Service families.
Government Pledges to Service Personnel The new Government believes they need to do much more to ensure the Armed Forces have the support they need, and that veterans and their families are treated with the dignity that they deserve. In an announcement on the 20th May they pledged to:
• Maintain Britain’s nuclear deterrent. • Aim to reduce MoD running costs by at least 25%.
• Rebuild the Military Covenant by: o Ensuring Service personnel’s R & R can be maximised;
o Changing the rules so Service personnel only have to register once on the Service register;
o Explore the potential for including Service children as part of the proposals for a pupil premium;
22 Summer 2010 Andrew Robathan
Dr Liam Fox (Conservative) – Defence Secretary
Nick Harvey (Lib Dem) – Armed Forces Minister
(Conservative) – The Under Secretary of State for Defence
www.raf-ff.org.uk
o Provide university and further education scholarships for the children of Service personnel who have been killed on active duty since 1990;
o Provide support for ex-Service personnel to study at university,
o Create a new programme, ‘Troops for Teachers’, to recruit ex-Service personnel into the teaching profession;
o Provide extra support for veteran mental health needs; and
o Review the rules governing the awarding of medals.
• Double the operational allowance for Armed Forces personnel serving in Afghanistan, and include Armed Forces pay in plans for a fair pay review.
• Ensure injured personnel are treated in dedicated military wards.
• Look at whether there is scope to refurbish Armed Forces’ accommodation from efficiencies within the MoD.
• Support defence jobs through exports that are used for legitimate purposes, not internal repression, and work for a full international ban on cluster munitions.
But What Might a Strategic Defence & Security Review Mean for Families? The new Government has already launched its Strategic Defence & Security Review and we await with great interest to see how that might impact on military families. Readers may recall that the then Minister for Armed Forces published a Green Paper in February 2010 outlining some of the
The New Faces
issues that might need to be addressed. Funding constraints will clearly play their part and some difficult choices will have to be made as staffs grapple with prioritisation of requirements.
We are aware that, on the people front, work is focused in eight key areas:
Career Structures Career Management Recruiting Pay Pensions Allowances Accommodation
Human Resources Administration.
Clearly, we cannot predict the outcome of any of this work but we have asked the relevant staffs to consult us as and when they consider it appropriate so that we can feed in any relevant evidence from the family perspective. Our evidence will be more relevant to some work strands than others and we will play our part in trying to influence the agenda to deliver the best results possible for all RAF families. RAF family members will wish to be reassured that the RAF staffs at Air Command and MoD have been working hard in the background over recent months to prepare the ground for the Review and they will keep us informed of progress. Hopefully, by the time the Autumn edition of Envoy goes to print, we will be able to provide an update on any Review and its emerging findings or recommendations.
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