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VETERANS UK ANNUAL CONFERENCE
The Government Veterans Programme: Looking to the Future - Derek
Twigg
MP, Minister for Veterans
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. And may I add my own personal
thank you to you all for coming here today. This Conference is a great chance
for us
to update
you on recent developments and the progress we’re making when it comes
to supporting you and your members.
And of course this Conference is a really valuable chance for us to get an idea
of your concerns and priorities. To get some honest and informed feedback, listen
to your ideas and get your perspectives on what’s happening at grass roots
level.
You are important partners for us in meeting the support needs of veterans. The
role of the ex-Service charities is well-established over very many years and
it is one that we value greatly. I’m very grateful to all of you for making
the journey here today – I know that for some of you it’s been a
long journey.
Though a major focus of our work is rightly those veterans who have problems
as a result of their service, it is important to remember that this is a small
minority. After all, we recruit people from all walks of life. And some of them
are from challenging social and family backgrounds.
But the fact is that the vast majority of those who leave the forces – at
the moment that’s around 24,000 people a year – make the transition
to their new civilian lives very successfully. The skills, the experience and
the supportive “band of brothers” that life in the Armed Forces provides – these
give most of those leaving real opportunities in life.
It is no accident that around 95% of those who take
up a place on our Career Transition Partnership scheme find a new job
within
6 months of leaving.
And that’s important – because this preparation for the future
and that journey of transition begins the day a man or women joins the Armed
Forces.
As far as I’m concerned supporting people on that journey is an important
part of our responsibilities towards those who have given service.
I would like to touch here on the subject of the Military Covenant. The Military
Covenant is about the nation keeping its side of the deal. It is about taking
responsibility for ensuring that those who have given service receive the
recognition and support they deserve for the commitments and risks that they
have taken on.
It is a responsibility that falls principally on the Government – on
behalf of the nation.
But it is also a responsibility for organisations and individuals across
the country. For the Government’s part, I want to make clear that it’s
a responsibility that we are entirely committed to meeting. There has been
much rhetoric about the covenant being broken but a narrow focus on a relatively
small number of cases in the media does not necessarily give a balanced picture.
I would not pretend that everything is as it should be: to take just two
examples, there is a legacy of under-investment in service housing and we
have still got work to do before arrangements for meeting the mental health
needs of veterans are what they should be. But, these are issues that we
have taken clear and substantial steps to address.
More generally, I would ask you to look too at the high quality of the basic
provisions for our personnel – whether it is operational welfare, the
quality of medical treatment, or the excellent resettlement arrangements.
I would ask you too to look at the work in hand to address the problems that
I have identified – work that Matthew Sykes has touched on and initiatives
that I will go on to mention. As Veterans Minister, I am committed to ensuring
that the whole of Government meets its responsibilities towards those who
serve their nation – often in such testing circumstances.
Let me turn now to some of the practical measures we are taking forward for
that minority of veterans whose lives can be compromised by physical or psychological
injury. Mental health is an issue of particular concern.
The overall numbers are small; around 1% of service leavers are discharged
for reasons of mental illness and only a tenth of these with PTSD. In many
cases, treatment to cure will be possible.
But we recognise that in some cases the injury will bring problems for the
individual and the family that are not quickly resolved.
And of course for some these problems will not emerge until many years after
discharge. We recognise the profound challenges that these individuals can
face and, working across Government, we have made real headway on the issue
over last 12 months.
Last year I talked about the work we were doing with the Department of Health
and Combat Stress to launch a series of mental healthcare pilot schemes.
Based in communities across the country, the plan is to give GPs access to
a regional network of military mental health expertise.
I’m delighted to be able to confirm that four of these pilot schemes
are now up and running. I have visited the schemes launched in Camden and
Stafford. We have two further pilots operating in Cardiff and Bishop Auckland,
and two more will follow in Lothian and Cornwall.
These are taking significant numbers of referrals already and I know they’re
going to be a tremendous resource.
We’ve also revised arrangements with regard to priority access to health
care – with effect from January this year any Veteran in England suffering
from a condition related to their service has the right to priority access
and similar arrangements are being put in place in Scotland and Wales.
This priority will continue to be subject to clinical judgement – more
urgent cases will take precedence – but it is a real step forwards.
Not least, priority will apply to treatment for mental health conditions,
reinforcing the measures I have already mentioned.
Let me mention too the
major new investment that the Government is making in mental health therapists
and our commitment to bringing referral times down to 18 weeks; these are
major improvements from which veterans will benefit.
With it’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Project the NHS
is spending £338M over the next 3 years to deliver 3000 new trained
therapists in England.
Prof Louis Appleby, the Government’s Mental Health Czar, is supportive
of the Community-based Mental Health Pilots for Veterans and keen for them
to be linked to this project.
Matthew Sykes has said something about the measures that we have been introducing
to bring down the levels of rough-sleeping among veterans; seven years ago
homeless charities were quoting figures that suggested that 25% of rough
sleepers had served in the Armed Forces.
We have taken major steps to address that and the latest research suggests
that the figure is down to around 6%. This is real progress and shows the
very important contribution of the charitable sector in this area - the Ex
Services Action Group on Housing - is a model of how to coordinate efforts
to make the best of limited resources.
The extraordinary work being done with rough-sleeping veterans in London
by Hugh Milroy and his team at the recently renamed Veterans Aid is another
great example. They are achieving miracles working with some deeply complex
problems.
But there is more to do. Ensuring that Service leavers have adequate accommodation
arrangements is an important part of the equation.
However, many of the rough sleepers are several years out of the Services
before their problems emerge. This year will see the conclusion of an important
piece of research by York University for which the MOD is a major funder.
It’s been looking both at the levels of rough-sleeping in London, and
at the effectiveness of the various interventions. This is important because
it will allow us to take decisions about the value of measures which are
effectively being trialled in specific areas.
London has seen the piloting of many of these new measures aimed at helping
these vulnerable people back into a more settled life.
This research will help us to decide which of these interventions should
be seen as best practice for central and local Government. And indeed for
charities more widely across the country.
I’ve been taking a keen interest in this as we’ve been trialling
a number of measures that are aimed at providing support around the point
at which people leave the forces.
One of these is a Patient Tracking System, part of our overall “Pathway
of Care”, for the most seriously injured that we’ve been operating
for over a year, the tracking system has been in place since October 2007.
This provides a “contact and check” arrangement for at least
two years after discharge – longer if judged appropriate. It allows
us to identify early problems sooner rather than later, and to facilitate
access to the help that may be needed.
We have similarly launched a pilot providing “light touch” mentoring
to leavers who are judged to be at risk of social exclusion. This again is
primarily a contact and advice service. A key objective is to help those
who find it difficult to handle the challenges of civilian life to build
their coping skills. We hope to have results from this by next year.
So … lots happening and encouraging progress is being made. But we
need to look across the whole of the piece. The Government also want to take
a more fundamental look at exactly what the appropriate level of support
and recognition should be, for serving personnel and veterans.
In particular, we want to hear views from across stakeholders about existing
arrangements and how they might be improved.
Looking after our people – those still serving, their families and
Veterans - is a huge job. For all of us in Government. For this reason, at
the end of last year, we decided it was time to get together – with
the service Chiefs, across the UK Government and with ex-service organisations – to
review that support.
We launched a cross-Government review just before Christmas so that we could
assess our progress so far and see where we might reasonably be looking to
achieve more.
The Strategy has a big remit and covers just about every area: accommodation
and home ownership.
Access to education and health provision for service personnel and their
families.
Transition to civilian life; care for those medically discharged;
Veterans’ and widows’ welfare.
Support to bereaved families and those of injured Service personnel.
Issues affecting Gurkhas and other Commonwealth service personnel and their
families.
The contribution of service charities is absolutely key to all this which
is why a special External Reference Group for the Review is being chaired
by my colleague Bob Ainsworth, Minister for the Armed Forces. The Chairman
of COBSEO is a member, as are the heads of the Royal British Legion; SSAFA;
the War Widows Association and the Family Federations from each of the single
services.
I expect the Review to be published in June as the Service Command Paper.
It’s the first ever study of its kind and I’m very grateful for
the hard work and contribution of the ex-service organisations. As valued
partners, your input to this exercise is vital.
As many of you will be aware Quentin Davis MP is also currently leading on
an associated recognition study which is looking at the understanding and
appreciation of our Armed Forces by the nation, and how this can be further
strengthened.
We’ve all seen – and been heartened by – the huge outpouring
of public support for our Forces in recent months. The thousands of people
who have turned out for the recent homecoming parades up and down the country
are – I believe – tangible evidence of the very deep appreciation
and respect that the British people feel for the men and women of our Armed
Forces. Quentin’s study is seeking to see how we can build on this
momentum.
In many ways the launch of a charity like ‘Help for Heroes’ follows
a tradition of public charitable support for our Forces. Indeed, Headley
Court itself was originally set up as a charitable institution.
Veterans Day is part of that drive for recognition – in this case for
the wider Veterans community – a chance to really raise your profile
and for the nation to say ‘Thank you’. This year the flagship
event is being held in Blackpool, and there are already over 80 events planned
up and down the country for 27 June.
Veterans Day is an annual event which is, I’m delighted to say, now
firmly part of the national calendar and I’d urge you all to really
get behind it. And if you are planning an event – however big or small – I’d
just like to remind you all that we are here to help and there is funding
available.
I know you’ve got a busy morning ahead of you – I’ll hand
you over now to Tony Stables who’ll update you on the COBSEO perspective.
Once again – thank you for coming. And I look forward to a lively Forum
session later on!
