The Armed Forces Covenant
What should we make of it? by Dawn McCafferty, Chairman of the RAF FF
Whilst recognising that there could hardly be a worse time to publish a document that attempts to capture the way in which the Government and wider society values its Armed Forces, we welcome the publication of the Covenant and its supporting documents and acknowledge that legal reference (in the Armed Forces Bill) to the existence of a Covenant is an important step forward…
T
he Covenant itself is a statement describing the relationship and mutual obligations between the
Government, the Armed Forces and wider society. It is reproduced here so readers can read it first hand. What is perhaps more important is the supporting publication –Te Armed Forces Covenant: Today and Tomorrowwhich describes in more detail the commitments being made.
Readers living in the Devolved Administrations need to appreciate that much of the detail relates only to England but, rest assured, the Devolved Administrations have previously demonstrated their intent to mirror, where possible, the commitments made by Central Government and we will continue to encourage them to do so via the pan-Administration External Reference Group.
The inclusion of military families at the heart of the Covenant is very welcome and confirms our belief that operational effectiveness derives to a large extent from the support offered to those in uniform by those who love them most. Specific, family-related commitments announced as part of the Covenant include:
An (unexpected) increase in Council Tax Relief from 25% to 50% for those deployed on eligible operations.
38 Envoy Summer 2011
A £200 per year Pupil Premium for Service children (announced earlier this year). We wait to see how schools actually spend this little pot of gold to the benefit of their Service children. Why not ask your school and provide feedback to us?
An additional £3m fund to support state schools with significant numbers of Service children. No details on how this is to be spent but likely to focus on those schools experiencing significant changes in pupil numbers as a result of Defence restructuring.
Consideration of expanding the new Veterans Card to Service families to ease access to commercial discounts or privileges. The three Families Federations lobbied hard for a dedicated Service family members’ identity card to ease access to military support facilities, but funding and security considerations meant this was not taken forward. We will continue to make the point that, if Armed Forces community members are expected to identify themselves as such, they need a means of doing so.
Working with banks and building societies on how they lend to members of the Armed Forces. This is particularly important from a housing perspective, with
many Service families struggling to afford home-ownership.
There is too much detail in the supporting document to reproduce all relevant items here but we include a few snippets to whet your appetite:
Mental HealthWe have previously expressed concerns about the lack of provision of mental health support for family members. An initiative to allow free access to an on-line mental health wellbeing site run by Big White Wall, is very welcome. This should launch in the next month or so and we look forward to seeing how this service is received.
NHS The commitment to ensure that the Department of Health gives due consideration to the needs of Service families during the NHS reform process is important if we are to ensure disadvantage in accessing NHS services is addressed.
Education A Department of Education consultation is due to launch in 2011/12, looking at schools admissions and appeals processes. The MoD (and the Service Families Federations!) will engage in this process to ensure that the needs of Service children are taken into account. The MoD is also reported as developing a ‘unified and proactive
www.raf-ff.org.uk
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