PRYORS BANK CAFÉ OPENS FOR BUSINESS
The Pryors Bank Café located in Bishop’s Park, Fulham, opened for business in July. Manned by ex-Service personnel, it’s a new facility that will complement the existing Mobile Beef Kitchen (another successful initiative) and will help to cater for the locals, visitors and football fans from Fulham FC’s football ground.
The cafe has been set up by the Sir Oswald Stoll Foundation, with a little assistance from the Department of Communities and Local Government and the MOD’s Veterans Challenge Fund.
Its aim - to support and nurture vulnerable ex-Service personnel by assisting them with employment and life skills training, thereby encouraging them to gain independent living and full time employment. |
This successful scheme which combines vocational qualifications within the hospitality industry and work placements, is structured on the proven Hoxton Apprentice Scheme and brings to these vulnerable people a much needed facility to allow them to help themselves gain an independent and fruitful life.
 For more information: call 0207 385 2110, e-mail: info@oswaldstoll.org.uk or visit http://www.oswaldstoll.org.uk/ The café’s website is http://www.pryorsbank.co.uk/ |
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| REACHING VETERANS IN PRISON |
It is important that those veterans who find themselves in prison are aware of the advice and support available to them as ex-Service personnel and the arrangements being made to reach them.
Prison In-Reach (PIR) is an initiative that aims for all veterans that are prison or probation offenders to be fully informed of the assistance available to them. This includes the help they can get before, as well as after, release.
PIR has ensured that the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency’s (SPVA) Veterans-UK website is now available to prison staff via its computer systems. Not only should prison staff now be better informed on the work of the SPVA and other service providers but they should also be able to share more details, as appropriate, with ex-Service offenders.
“I found the Veterans-UK website very useful. It provides a wealth of information on pensions and welfare issues. It was a straightforward task to find information on the UK Armed Forces Veterans Lapel Badge and to process an application”.
Bernie Marsh, Principal Prison Officer, HMP Dartmoor
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The Royal British Legion, Sailors Seamen and Airmen Families Association-Forces Help and the mental health charity Combat Stress all provide welfare visits to veterans in prison and their families. These visits do not count against an offender’s personal visit allowance. It can be important that offenders especially those close to their release date have access to such visits if they need them so that they can be helped through that often difficult but crucial period either side of release.
Looking to the future
PIR continues to improve the ways veterans are reached in prison. It aims to survey the prison population to find out more about the veterans among them, to provide better focus for its efforts.
What can you do
If you know any veterans in prison or their families, please draw the work of Prison in-Reach to their attention and the main sources of advice and support.
“The Veterans-UK website has been a great help in signposting ex-Service personnel to where they can access the appropriate advice and support. I used the website to help compile an information and leaflet pack for our ex-Service personnel; this includes information about all the main ex-Service charities and housing and employment opportunities”.
Nick Wood, Prison Officer, Offender Management Unit, HMP Everthorpe
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Continued from front page
Government have agreed to put in place similar measures.
“Equipping ex-Servicemen and women with the skills required by today’s employers is one of the best ways of ensuring their successful reintegration into civilian life following years of dedicated service to our country”.
Bill Rammell, Minister of State for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education, Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills
Free Bus Travel
The statutory bus concession in England will be extended by 1 April 2011 to include seriously injured Service personnel and veterans under the age of 60.
Automatic entitlement for Blue Badges to severely injured veterans
The Blue Badge Scheme provides a range of parking concessions across the UK for people with severe mobility problems. A scheme will be introduced so that severely disabled veterans in England will receive automatic entitlement to a Blue Badge without further assessment. Scottish Ministers will also implement this change. The Welsh Assembly Government is consulting on plans for a Reform Strategy for the Blue Badge Scheme in Wales, with this proposal considered as part of the review.
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Extending Key Worker Status for Service leavers
Servicemen and women in England have Key Worker Status but many do not have the opportunity to purchase a home. DCLG is extending Key Worker Status to enable Service leavers to access Key Worker Living 12 months after discharge.
High priority for injured troops in applying for adapted social housing
Seriously injured Service personnel can face delays in obtaining suitable adapted social housing where they are not given sufficient priority.
DCLG will give seriously injured personnel in England and Wales high priority for social housing. Statutory guidance will be issued to reinforce this message. Scottish Ministers will remind landlords of the existing high priority that seriously injured personnel in Scotland receive for adapted social housing.
Housing to prevent homelessness
To help prevent homelessness, DCLG will contribute £400,000 to provide new supported housing for Service leavers in England to enable them to make a successful transition to civilian life. DCLG will work with the Housing Corporation to deliver this initiative which will also be supported by MOD gifting land.
The Service Personnel
Command Paper is published on the MOD website at www.mod.uk |
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Mental Healthcare Update |
| As reported in Issue 9, four Mental Health Pilots are up and running, with pilots in Cornwall and Lothian preparing to launch. |
The pilots are complementing and partnering the services already provided by the NHS, the charity Combat Stress, the MOD’s Medical Assessment Programme and other agencies to offer better mental health services for veterans. They have already seen 60 patients this year and join the well established programmes in Northern Ireland and Humberside.
Early pilot results were announced at the annual military mental health conference held in July. Professor John Hall, from the Health and Social Care Advisory Service, who has been working with SPVA on the programme, highlighted how the pilots directly help veterans in the areas they serve and will also help identify gaps in local service provision.
Findings so far
Graham Fawcett working in the London pilot, based in Camden and Islington, reported on the first five months of the project and stressed the need to work closely with existing veterans’ services. All of their first referrals had been brought to the service by their wives or partners.
Dr Jenny Ormerod described the Humberside service, now established for 12 years. |
Most of the clients they have seen have been male army veterans, 65% have met criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
“It’s important to work alongside mental health, crisis and addiction services to ensure veterans receive an integrated package of care”
“The feedback we receive is that veterans like to be seen in a service specialised for their needs – this enables them to feel more understood”
Dr Jenny Ormerod
The Cardiff pilot, outlined by Neil Kitchener, have found that a number of veterans have co-morbid disorders, with major depressive disorders together with chronic PTSD and substance misuse, as well as problems with housing and lack of employment.
| An independent evaluation of the pilots has now been commissioned from the University of Sheffield, led by Professors Michael Barkham and Glenys Parry and they will report their findings in mid 2010. |
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Issue 11