Veterans Issues
Veterans programme
Veterans programme
Veterans affairs secretariat
Veterans working arrangements
Veterans task force
Veterans forum
Veterans plenary
Minister's speeches
Veterans forum
Minutes of the Veterans Forum Meeting held in the Victory Services Club on 05 March 2003
Annex A. Progress
made by Working Groups.
Annex B. Comments by Chairman
COBSEO.
Annex C. DCMS Speaking Notes.
Annex D. Update from Scottish
Executive.
Annex E. Update from National
Assembly for Wales.
Annex F. Update from Northern
Ireland Executive.
Annex B To
D/SPP(P&V)/7/5
Dated 18 March 2003
NOTES FOR VETERAN'S FORUM - 5 MARCH 2003
Introduction
1. As you know COBSEO welcomed the Veteran's initiative and your appointment as Minister for Veteran's two years ago. Both before and in parallel with the work of the last 2 years we ourselves have run a number of studies to consider how best to serve the needs of our beneficiaries in the short and long term. So we have not been idle in pushing forward our own ideas in recent years. Such ideas have, of course been based on the wealth of experience and understanding we have built up in dealing with the many facets of the ex-Service community.
2. We have been particularly at pains to recognise the fact that our constituency will change both in size and needs in the years ahead. This has led us to consider how we should both respond to those needs and how we should organise ourselves in order to respond. So reform and evolution is a much used phrase in our lexicon.
3. We are grateful for the work of your staff over the past 2 years and we have been impressed with the enthusiasm with which Veteran's issues have rightly been highlighted by the Veteran's Initiative but of course there is a long way between intentions and practical solutions, which leads me on to the progress of the Working Groups set up 2 years ago and what effect they have had.
Working Groups
General
4. I think I reflect the COBSEO Executive view when I say that much of what has been achieved over the past two years is the result of previous efforts by the ex-Service organisations and the War Pensions Agency. I think we are all a little concerned that the Veteran's Initiative has been slow to get off the ground, there have been a number of staff changes and as yet we are not aware of any budget that would be of assistance to us. I do not want to be too negative about this and it is only too easy to be critical, but we do feel that it would be better for the Department to focus on those areas in which it can make a difference rather than trying to embrace everything with a scatter gun approach.
5. It is easy to lose sight of the fact that we deal with Past, Present and Future issues. What the MOD is focussing on rightly is being a good employer and ensuring future veterans are better served than their predecessors. The numbers of Veterans in the future is likely to be fewer than the many from past conflicts who we are still dealing with on a daily basis. The new Veteran's strategy of necessity starts with today and looks to the future with some recognition of past concerns.
6. We still have 13-14M people in the ex-Service community, many with issues from past inequity or injustice. We deal with over 300,000 of them every year. So while you are planning for improved (I hope) conditions for the future we are dealing with a vast volume of legacy issues as well.
In more specific terms:
Working Group 2 (Communications). This we believe has made some progress towards improving Public Awareness of the place of ex-Service people in the community, the debt owed to them by society and their needs. We need to see more clearly the strategy for communications that has been referred to and most certainly it will not be able to achieve better publicity without funding.
Working Group 3 (Identity). From our perception this started out to consider identity both in terms of definition (of who or what constituted a veteran) and identification (ie. how do you recognise a veteran). The WG seems to have got bogged down in the matter of identity cards which was a side issue and we understand the work of the Group is now on the back burner pending Home Office views on the national entitlement card.
Working Group 4 The National Curriculum Scheme has gone through a metamorphosis into "Co-ordinating access to information, marketing, publicity and resources for citizenship that will raise awareness of the contribution of veterans to society today" (catchy title!). My information is that with the major kick start from CWGC, IWM, NAM and TRBL the WG is beginning to make progress. However, to move ahead further there is clearly a need for project funding to augment the considerable resource applied to this area already by the Charities and perhaps enhanced interest and support from both MOD and DfES.
Working Group 5 Recognition and celebration of Services contribution to International security. This work is largely an expansion of what the Charities are involved in already - Festivals of Remembrance, Charity Days, The Cenotaph, maybe the Arboretum. Again, MOD practical and financial support is the key to greater progress. There is a superb opportunity in the 60th Anniversary Commemorations of WW2 between now and 2005. I am not clear about the WG Chairman's intentions - or for that matter the intentions of the Government in this respect, although I am in touch with Commodore Edwards.
Working Group 6 Of all the WGs this is the one with the greatest potential to ensure better care and services for the future. We have contributed strongly to the input in a spirit of partnership but are concerned to find that the first draft report is to go to officials before members of the WG see it. It has been represented to me this is not the best illustration of partnership.
Working Group 7 Resettlement initiatives have largely revolved around the disadvantaged few and we are concerned that though high profile, the response should be targeted and proportional. The major area of work for us here is refocusing those who have been through the official resettlement route and subsequently fail in their civilian lives.
Working Group 8 This has met only once formally and thereafter consultation has been bilateral. You will be aware that our view is that the Pensions review does not put Service pensions in the 'high quality' bracket, that we have serious remaining concerns in both this area and that of compensation which we will continue to voice robustly.
Working Group 9 The objectives of this WG are coming clear. Some 50% of the 14M ex-Service community are of pensionable age and thus we have a role to play in seeking better services for long-term care in the population at large. The WG has produced some views on the issues it should major on but these have not been generally circulated yet. We need to focus Government attention on current inadequacy and future improvements to all forms of care for the elderly and I hope this WG will address these points.
Veterans Strategy. This is a step in the right direction. The COBSEO Executive has commented on the draft and we await the final version, the wider ex-Service community will doubtless make its views known in due course! Of course it is an MOD owned strategy and we will embrace much of it, but we all have our own strategies, which should link with all or part of it. We would hope that such strategies will be two way streets but MOD must recognise the substantial volume of legacy issues which we will continue to deal with for many years to come. They do not fall necessarily neatly and tidily into the definition boxes of the proposed strategy. The role of the ex-Service charities is to fill in the cracks in Government provision and try to add value for the ex-Service community - where gaps appear we turn to campaigning in order to close them.
May I finish by reiterating our welcome to the Initiative and the strategy. We have been at this business for 80 plus years, so it is not unexpected that two years downstream we are clear that the MOD has only just started through a steep learning curve to address a few of the areas in which we hope collectively we can make a difference. Focussing on those and providing appropriate funding is the most productive way forward using the Forum to keep all informed and as the springboard for solutions to both legacy issues and those of today.
