SUPPORT TO FAMILIES DURING DEPLOYMENTS


Key areas of welfare support are those provided to families during periods of operational deployment. Whilst we have seen improvements to many elements of this support over the last few years, we still receive evidence from families who have felt a sense of isolation, either from their unit, squadron or the RAF, when their serving family member was away on operational duties.


We therefore asked a series of questions which enabled us to test levels of awareness, whilst also informing audiences of the various support programmes currently available. Our intent was to gather specific evidence we hope will be of use to those who provide this vital aspect of welfare support to non-serving family members.


Figure 11:


Many of the questions asked in this section were more relevant to the non-serving voters but it was necessary to ask all participants to respond to ensure parity of numbers across the whole survey.


It was apparent that, whilst not every family who took part in the survey has been affected by operational deployments, for those who have this period of separation was a major source of anxiety (Fig 11).


When asked about their experiences and knowledge of contact with the RAF, 19% of voters told us they would not know who to contact in the RAF if there was a family emergency and they needed to get in touch with their serving family member, which is of concern.


www.raf-ff.org.uk


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