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The Federation

PROVIDING AN INDEPENDENT VOICE FOR RAF FAMILIES

The RAF Families provides an independent voice for RAF families on issues of concern to them. The team communicates directly with RAF families and gathers the information necessary to represent their views to senior RAF staffs and ministers.

Using the HIVE Information Centres as a focal point for gathering information, and working closely with SSAFA-FH staff and established Community Development Workers, the Federation contributes to community support by providing 2-way communication between the RAF and its families.

The FF conducts regular visits to RAF units. Families are kept informed of FF activities via a dedicated interactive Internet website and the Federation magazine, Envoy.

Anyone serving in the RAF together with their respective partner, spouse and/or dependent children is part of an RAF family, whether serving accompanied or not. Parents and close relatives by blood or marriage/civil registration, whose lives are directly affected by the fact that a family member is serving in the RAF, are part of the extended RAF family and therefore entitled to be represented by the RAF FF.

RAF FF CONTRIBUTING TO TOP LEVEL STUDY

The Chairman of the RAF FF has been invited to represent RAF families at a Reference Group chaired by the Minister for Armed Forces, Bob Ainsworth MP and confirms that families’ issues are high on the agenda of the study.

Following the announcement to publish the first ever cross-Government strategy for the provision of support to the Armed Forces, their families and veterans, the External Reference Group for the Command Paper met at MOD Main Building in January.

The Command Paper (a formal Government paper published on Command of Her Majesty the Queen) will set out the Government’s response to the challenges facing the modern armed forces personnel in a changing society and a demanding operational environment. It will set out the recent progress made in responding to these challenges and an agreed cross-Government strategy for the future.

An External Reference Group has been appointed to advise Ministers and officials on the issues affecting personnel, families, veterans and widows/widowers and to provide an input to the work as it develops. The External Reference Group is chaired by the Minister of the Armed Forces, the Rt Hon Bob Ainsworth MP, and comprises senior staffs from The Royal British Legion, SSAFA Forces Help, COBSEO (The Confederation of British Service and Ex-Service Organisations), Naval Families Federation, Army Families Federation, RAF Families Federation, War Widows Association and Professor Hew Strachan, of Oxford University.

The first meeting agreed that the Reference Group would meet several times during the production of the Command Paper to provide an external view on the emerging work and to feed in issues raised by the wider Service community. The meeting discussed the intended scope of the Command Paper and agreed that it should look at a wide range of issues including: 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 injured service personnel; issues affecting Gurkhas and other Commonwealth service personnel and their families.

ISSUES, ISSUES

What Sort? How Many? and What Have You Done About Them?

Almost as soon as the Federation launched, staffs from various headquarters and other organizations were asking the questions above and, to be fair, for a few weeks at least, our response was “leave us alone for a little while to get on with it!”

However, the dust is beginning to settle, we have just about got our heads around the new database and, more importantly, people are beginning to contact us on a wide range of subjects. We are starting to get a sense of the types of issue coming across our desks and how we can best capture evidence to represent the RAF family.

The common theme across all issues is that our involvement has been to facilitate communication – be that between the serving person or his/her partner and the chain of command; between a SFA occupant and the staffs at DE or MHS; or between an individual and a welfare support agency. No problem has yet left us completely flummoxed but we have dealt with some fairly complicated policy issues and are learning all the time.

Clearly, as our service is confidential, we cannot publish details of issues and individuals. However, we can advise that we have been approached for advice in the following areas and that all this evidence is slowly building up a picture of the key issues impacting on RAF families’ morale:
• SFA – Entitlement; Maintenance; Retention; Special Needs adaptations; Treatment of irregular occupants
• Support to family during Deployed Ops
• JPA - Postings to/from Area of Choice
• Welfare support in isolated detachments
• Special Needs allowance(s) entitlements
• Boarding School entitlements
• Dependent’s access to UK benefits and allowances during, and upon return from, an overseas posting
• Allowances for travel when returning from overseas postings.
• Access to Dental facilities.
• Child Support Agency policy.
• Shared Equity Mortgages.

In terms of what we have done with this evidence, Dawn, the Federation’s Chairman, meets monthly with the RAF Community Support staffs to provide feedback but, to be honest, with only 2 months under our belt, it is has been too early to provide anything but general comment on emerging themes so far.

However, as part of the Command Paper work mentioned above, the Federation’s chairman has already met with the Minister for Armed Forces and, where appropriate, examples of issues impacting on RAF families have been cited to support the evidence being gathered during this very high level study.

So, if you have an issue and you think it merits inclusion in our database, you know what to do! Write to us, e-mail us via the website: www.raf-ff.org.uk call us on the hot-line: 01780 781650 or come and see us during a liaison visit to your unit. We would love to hear from you – without you, it’s a pretty meaningless existence!!

UNIT LIAISON VISIT TO LYNEHAM

The new RAF Families Federation has undertaken its first official liaison visit to RAF Lyneham.

Why Lyneham first? You may ask. Well, blame their WO Welfare, Chris Kimber, who heard the Federation Chairman speak at the annual Community Support Conference and promptly invited her to visit the unit. This gave a perfect opportunity to launch the programme of unit visits that will see the Federation visiting as many units as possible this year and which is taking shape nicely.

Dawn, the Federation’s Chairman and Jenny, the Issues and Liaison Team Manager, arrived at Lyneham to be hosted to supper by key unit welfare staffs including OC Base Support Wing, OC PMS, WO Welfare and, a surprise but welcome addition of the wife of the new Station Commander. Staying in an Officers’ Mess was a new experience for Jenny and, once she had got used to the idea of toddling down the corridor to the shared ablutions and the lack of home comforts in a standard transit room, she declared herself quite adequately compensated by the price of beer at the bar!

The next day started with a windscreen tour of the unit so that Dawn and Jenny could get a feel for the type and condition of the SFA available to Lyneham families. The team then set up for a presentation in the HIVE and were pleased to meet a small (but vocal!) group of family members who were interested to hear what the Federation intended to do on their behalf. Not surprisingly, there was a healthy dose of scepticism and it was quite clear that the families at Lyneham certainly had a range of issues they want to see represented at the very top.

Dawn and Jenny met the new Station Commander, Group Captain Mike Neville, and were able to brief him on day 3 of his command tour – talk about catching the poor chap at his most vulnerable! Nevertheless, he was extremely enthusiastic about the Federation and was keen to establish close links between the Federation and the unit welfare and community support staffs.

Then it was off to visit an airman’s quarter, to provide a more detailed insight into the condition of some of the Lyneham SFA. This visit was particularly eye-opening and resulted in some high-level correspondence between the Federation, Modern Housing Solutions and Defence Estates Housing staffs once the team got back to base.

It was then time to brief the Station Executives and other members of the Community Support staff. Again, the audience was interested in the concept of the Federation, supportive of the Federation’s efforts to date but challenging in their desire to see real results. The Federation were left in no doubt that the families expect to see progress on a wide range of issues and we left Lyneham all the more convinced of the need for a ‘light blue’ voice to represent the concerns of RAF families to the policy staffs at the very top.
To arrange a visit, please call Jenny Ward on 01780 781650 or e-mail us via the website: www.raf-families-federation.org.uk

MEETING WITH THE MINISTER

In early February the Federation’s Chairman joined the chairmen of the Army and Naval Families Federations to meet with Derek Twigg, MP, the Under Secretary of State for Defence.

This 6-monthly Family Forum is a unique opportunity for the Families Federations to report their concerns direct to the Minister and, whilst the senior Service policy staffs are present, including the Deputy Chief of Defence Staff (Personnel), the floor definitely belongs to the families’ representatives and we devoted over 1½ hours to updating the Minister on our concerns.

Although the RAF FF database is still in its infancy, the Chairman was able to highlight housing as a significant area of concern, particularly emerging evidence of the inconsistent performance of DE HICs. She also mentioned evidence of career management concerns amongst those serving and reported that, to date, over 60% of calls to the Federation have been from those in uniform. The Minister was pleased to see the progress the Federation had made and reassured the Chairman that the Families Forum was an extremely important medium by which RAF families could make their voices heard.

Other areas discussed with the Minister included: the negative impact of adverse media coverage of military issues on family members; the review of Continuity of Education Allowance (Board) being undertaken as part of the Strategic Remuneration Review; the impact of “stream-lining” within the Personnel Policy field (reductions of up to 38% of personnel staffs in MOD and the potential impact of this on the quality of service provided); communications between the Services and their families; affordable child-care; additional salary sacrifice schemes; adult education for Service families; and progress on the Command Paper (covered elsewhere in this edition).

Finally, on the day of the Family Forum, the 2008 Pay Award was announced and we were able to provide direct feedback to the Minister. The Federation Chairmen advised that the award was seen as “reasonable” in the current climate of public sector pay awards (the best to date) and were particularly pleased to see an increase in X-Factor, since the families had contributed evidence to that review. However, the point was made that an increase in accommodation charges, whilst graduated depending on the grade, would not be welcomed since personnel were yet to be convinced that real improvements in the quality of Service accommodation had been delivered.

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