36 NAVY NEWS, OCTOBER 2011
Up for the antipodes?
TWOSIX.tv
The July edition of the Internal Communications DVD for the Naval service, reporting on the issues affecting you.
Coming up in this edition: Current Operations
sailors head to Australia and New Zealand for sun, sea, surf and, er, ships… and Aussies and Kiwis head in the opposite direction for sea and ships.
exchange
experiences and professional knowledge of sailors travelling in both directions – which makes it easier for the Royal Navy, Royal Australian Navy and Royal New Zealand Navy to work together and means personnel will take back fresh ideas about the way their day jobs can be carried out. The programme runs from March to July and generally works on a straight swap basis – namely a Royal Navy diver, for example, trades places with his counterpart from Australia or New Zealand. Typically around two dozen personnel take part. During this year’s Long
l LET(ME) Michael Monnington, of HMS Albion, in the engine room of HMAS Manoora during Long Look
The aim of the Long Look is
to broaden the
SAILORS are being encouraged to sign up for a four-month exchange with the Royal Australian and New Zealand Navies in 2012. Each year a few dozen British
Look, LPT Dean Goulding from RNAS Culdrose
HMS Protector Pt 1 found
himself putting recruits through their paces at HMAS Cerberus, the RAN’s main training establishment near Melbourne. There, trainees get their first of life as sailors (on an
taste
11-week course, one week longer than the equivalent training at HMS Raleigh for Royal Navy newbies). Early morning physical training begins at 4.45am(!) and Dean found himself in charge of 300 recruits – all on his own. Four hundred and fifty miles to the northeast, marine engineer LET ‘Tugg’ Wilson spent four months in Sydney keeping frigate HMAS Newcastle running as she patrolled the east coast, visiting Brisbane, Mackay, Cairns and her namesake city. On a more poignant note, Long
Look sailors who were attached to the New Zealand Navy found themselves supporting their Kiwi comrades during the massive aid and clear-up operation after the earthquake which killed more than 180 people in Christchurch. Feedback to the Long Look organisers on Whale Island in Portsmouth from some of this year’s sailors who took part in the
h Armed Forces Covenant HMS Protector Pt 2
TWOSIX.tv has been aligned with the Personnel Support Brief providing an enhanced, co-ordinated package for use by the Divisional system in disseminating information.
For further information contact:
Pauline J Aquilina DMC-Ops PR (Navy)
MoD Main Building Whitehall London SW1A 2HB
July 2011 people, travelling and Tel: 0207 218 5984/9621 85984 email:
DMC-OpsPRNavySO2Publications@mod.uk
Zealand, immersing myself in Maori culture, getting up close with local wildlife and sampling the best Kiwi cuisine. There is so much to see in New Zealand.” “Long Look
h fleetgraphicscentre 11/344 ©UK MOD Crown Copyright, 2011
great learning experience – I’ve brought a number of lessons back to the UK. I would recommend people to give it a go.” Long Look is open to most branches but only at sub lieutenant and lieutenant ranks for officers and leading hand through to warrant officers for ratings. Able seamen will only be considered from the diving branch. Entries must be received by
h November 25.
213/11, including an application form, or you can contact the programme’s co-ordinator, Julia Rooney, on 93832 3531 (mil)/023 9262 3531.
Details can be found in RNTM has been a TwoSix pix
THE latest edition of TwoSix. tv features reports on current operations worldwide.
h h
TwoSix.tv DVD has been aligned with the Personnel Support Brief to provide an enhanced package for sharing information. If you want to get your message out to the Naval service through these pages or the
TwoSix.tv DVD, please contact: Pauline Aquilina: 9621 85984 WO1 Russ Billings: 93832 5081 Pauline Aquilina is also the first point of contact for the Royal Navy Facebook site. Search for Royal
The
Navy and follow the Service online.
TWOSIX.tv July 2011 Peregrine Trophy Awards
swap includes: “It’s a fantastic opportunity. Not only does it allow you to work alongside a different Navy, but it’s also excellent for meeting new
For all Royal Navy & Royal Marines Personnel and their families
experiencing a different culture. It’s enhanced my personal and professional development.” “I travelled all over New
DVD Lucy O’Connor
Director Naval Personnel Strategy Divisional & Regimental Support Team
PERSONNEL SUPPORT BRIEF
NFF website offers redundancy help
FOR SOME, redundancy news will be what they wanted, for others redundancy news will be very unwelcome, writes Jane
section on our website
www.nff.org.uk to help in providing timely and correct information for those who need it.
Simply click on the dedicated button for ‘Naval
Service Redundancy Programme’ to find information under the following headings: Redundancy News; Resettlement Process; Employment/Training; Housing; Pensions/Compensation/Allowances; Appeals process; Fleet Redundancy Cell; Charitable Support.
h h h h h h h h
Each of the headings is set up with links providing
further information on the selected subject. The Fleet Redundancy Cell (FRC) will handle all individual questions from those Royal Naval personnel who are affected by the announcements, ensuring information and guidance is consistent and accurate. For families with questions please contact the
NFF.
Contact details for The Fleet Redundancy Cell: Room G43 West Battery Whale Island Portsmouth
MOD.UK DII: FLEET-REDUNDANCY CELL MAILBOX The FRC office is open from 0800–1630 Monday
– Friday. The office will also be open on the weekend following the redundancy announcements (October 1-2).
n Job-Seekers Allowance Job-Seekers Allowance may not be paid to wives,
Hampshire PO2 8DX Tel: +44 (0) 2392 628987 Mil: 93832 8987 E-mail: FLEET-REDUNDANCYCELLMAILBOX @
Williams of the Naval Families Federation. For those not affected personally by Tranche 1 there will be a continued busy schedule of work, some short-notice assignment notices and quick changes to plans. The NFF has launched a dedicated redundancy
husbands and civil partners who give up their job to follow their spouse on assignment if it is recorded that they ‘left their previous job voluntarily’. The Job Centre Plus Armed Forces Champion
offers this advice to ensure spouses receive Job- Seekers Allowance (JSA) and are not disadvantaged due to Service life: When a person states on their JSA claim form
that “my spouse/partner got a job somewhere else so I had to leave” their employer will be sent a form to complete and the claimant will also be asked to provide further information around the circumstances of leaving that job. The claimant may also be asked “have they moved out of the area they were working in beyond daily travelling?” All this information will then be sent to a decision maker who will look to see if the claimant may have ‘just cause’ in their personal or domestic life for leaving their job.
There are no hard and fast rules as to when claimants have shown ‘just cause’ for leaving employment, because the circumstances in which they leave employment are so varied. The decision maker should consider, as a whole,
all the circumstances in which the claimant left employment.
Some additional guidance located on the Armed
Forces Champion intranet site states: “Spouses of Service personnel who leave
employment to follow their partner will have just cause for leaving that employment provided they did not leave earlier than was reasonably necessary in order to arrange the move.
receiving
“This means they should not be precluded from Job-Seeker’s Allowance
(JSA) on the grounds of voluntary unemployment.
“Each case should be considered on an individual basis using the relevant legislation and the information
provided by the person claiming JSA.’
n NFF Survey Report – Future Accommodation for Service Families
report on-line at
www.nff.org.uk Many thanks to everyone who completed our
survey on Future Accommodation for Service Families. We had a fantastic uptake with 2,057 personnel
and family members taking part. The survey ran from June 10 to July 31 2011. Questions looked at the importance of home
ownership and gathered attitudes towards Service accommodation. Fresh criteria for accommodation policies were suggested and opinions collated. We received interesting comments via e-mail and on the message boards, making the data we feed back to the MOD more meaningful. Many different points were
common themes emerging. The results of the survey have been presented to the MOD’s Future Accommodation Project Team, key personnel within Navy Command and
Government.The team’s report is due to be published in April 2012.
n Changes to CEA Governance Since September 2008, the Children’s Education
Advisory Service (CEAS) has, in addition to its roles in providing impartial information, advice and support to Service families about anything to do with their children’s education, worked with assignment authorities and Commanding Officers in assessing the eligibility of potential applicants to claim the Continuity of Education Allowance – Board (CEA), and of existing claimants in respect of their continuing eligibility to claim the allowance. CEAS has undertaken much of the administrative
work associated with this, the result being its overall performance has suffered and its impartiality in the eyes of the Service community has been compromised.
The results of the survey are now available in a In the light of these concerns and MOD’s continuing
determination to ensure that CEA eligibility rules are scrupulously observed by all concerned, it has been decided that this aspect of CEAS’s CEA functions will be managed and administered by a new team within the Service Personnel and Veteran’s Agency (SPVA), established and resourced specifically for the purpose. The new Team is called the CEA Governance Team
raised with some
(CEAGT), based at Imjin Barracks in Gloucester, and will be operational from October 3. Service personnel and their families wishing to make initial or further applications for CEA Eligibility Certificates will still be required to approach CEAS (Tel: 01980 618244) in the first instance, to receive advice about the process and to be sent the appropriate forms. CEAGT will operate a Helpline for Service
personnel and their families, in respect of case work already submitted to them; the number will be: 01452 712612 Ext 5693 and the email address will be:
SPVA-DMSCEAGTGroupMailbox@mod.uk. All this and more about the change will be published imminently in a DIN. Despite repeated requests to establish when CEA announcements are due no firm information has been given.
The three Federations have become frustrated with the lack of news so a collective letter has been sent to Dr Liam Fox outlining the concerns families are highlighting regarding the difficulties of basing decisions on information yet to be announced. Watch this space for updates... Your experiences form the basis of our discussions.
To get in touch with the NFF tel: 02392 654374, email
admin@nff.org.uk or write
to: Castaway
House, 311 Twyford Avenue, Portsmouth PO2 8RN. We look forward to hearing from you.
TWOSIX.tv
July 2011
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