Living in Our Shoes Full Report
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Living in our Shoes Understanding the needs of UK Armed Forces families Report of a review commissioned by the Ministry of Defence | June 2020 1 The Review Team Contents Andrew Selous MP, Lead Reviewer Andrew Selous has been the MP for South West Bedfordshire since 2001. He served Foreword ............................................................................................................................................ 2 as a Territorial Army officer in the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and formerly in the Honourable Artillery Company. He chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on supporting couple relationships and has a long-term interest in strengthening family ........................................................................................................................... life. Andrew is the Second Church Estates Commissioner and the Prime Minister‘s Introduction to the Review 3 Trade Envoy to South Africa. He is a former Minister for Prisons and Probation. Chapter 1 Supporting Military Families: .................................................................................................. 9 Professor Janet Walker OBE, FAcSS, FRSA, Lead Adviser to the Review The Nation’s Promise Janet is Emeritus Professor of Family Policy at Newcastle University. She was previously the Director of the Newcastle Centre for Family Studies where she led over 50 multi-disciplinary studies relating to: family relationships and family support; Chapter 2 Changes in Family Life: ......................................................................................................... 13 family breakdown; domestic abuse; parenting; family law reform; policing and Expectations and Transitions probation practice; children with a parent in prison; and services for looked-after children. Many studies were commissioned by government departments, including the Ministry of Defence. Janet has held public appointments in health, justice and Chapter 3 A Place to Call Home: ........................................................................................................... 23 social security and advised administrations overseas. In 2005 she received the Increasing Choice Stanley Cohen Distinguished Research Award in the USA for her contribution to family policy internationally. Chapter 4 Growing up in the Military: ................................................................................................... 47 Dr Gabriela Misca, Research Adviser The Impact of Service Life on Children and Young People Gabriela is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Worcester. Her current research focusses on understanding the complexity and diversity of military and veteran families, their support needs in coping with the demands of military life and Chapter 5 Not Just a Partner: ................................................................................................................ 93 transitions within and out of Service, and the visible and nonvisible combat injuries Employment Challenges and Opportunities of the Serving family member. Gabriela’s research has international reach and, as a Fulbright Scholar in the USA, she collaborated with support agencies and research partners to identify best practices in supporting military and veteran families, and Chapter 6 Health and Wellbeing: ....................................................................................................... 125 assessing their cultural transferability to the UK. Looking after Service Families Chapter 7 Returning to Civvy Street: .................................................................................................. 151 Our Approach to the Review The Final Transition? Andrew Selous and Janet Walker worked together on all aspects of the review, including: the Call for Evidence; meetings with key military and civilian personnel; visits to schools, Chapter 8 Duty of Care and Moral Responsibility: ............................................................................. 163 naval bases, army garrisons/bases and air stations throughout the UK; liaison with the Supporting Service Families Chief of Defence People, MOD Ministers and officials; consideration of the data and the key findings and the formulation of recommendations. Small Acts of Kindness: ...................................................................................................... Janet Walker was responsible for collating and analysing the information obtained during the review Chapter 9 199 A Pro-active Approach to Meeting the Needs of Service Families and contextualising the findings within the family policy and family studies literature. She was the lead author of the review report and the extended summary. Gabriela Misca ensured that the review was informed by the latest national and international research Chapter 10 Recruit the Person and Retain the Family: ......................................................................... 233 on military families; participated in some meetings with key stakeholders; assisted in the thematic Strengthening the Armed Forces Covenant analysis of the responses to the Call for Evidence; supported the interpretation of findings leading to evidence-based recommendations; and contributed to the writing of the report. Annexe A Review Methods ................................................................................................................. 261 Disclaimer It has been a privilege and a pleasure to undertake this review. All the views expressed and the recommendations put forward in this report are those of the Review Team. Our views are completely independent of the Ministry of Defence, the Armed Forces, and the Governments of the UK. Any factual errors contained in the report are ours alone. © Janet Walker, Andrew Selous and Gabriela Misca. 2 Living in our Shoes: Understanding the needs of UK Armed Forces families Introduction 3 Foreword Introduction to the Review People continue to lie at the heart of our operational capability; attracting and retaining the right numbers of capable, motivated individuals to The Remit deliver Defence outputs is critical. In order to achieve this, our Armed In January 2019, the then Defence Secretary, The Rt Hon Gavin Williamson CBE MP, commissioned Forces personnel must be confident that not only are they valued and will Andrew Selous MP to conduct an independent review to consider the diverse needs of Service families, be treated fairly, but also that their families will be supported and treated assess whether the current support offer is meeting these needs, and make recommendations properly in line with modern-day family life. I am grateful for the hard work accordingly. The terms of reference are described in Chapter 1. and research that has gone into preparing this independent review which draws on the principles of our nation’s promise under the Armed Forces Covenant. Our Service people provide a constant presence upon which we The Review Team’s Approach to the Review depend as a nation; whether it be overseas in times of conflict, building Andrew Selous invited Professor Janet Walker OBE, Emeritus Professor of Family Policy at Newcastle capacity or reassuring allies, or supporting our national effort at home University, to be his Lead Adviser. They worked together on all aspects of the study and the development in times of emergency. Knowing that your family is properly supported and refinement of the ecommendationsr in this report. Professor Walker was responsible for collating and when you are away frees Service people to focus on the job in hand. I look analysing the information received during the review, and is lead author of this and the Summary reports. forward to engaging with stakeholders to revise our Armed Forces Families Both brought their personal understanding of military life to the review: Andrew as a former Territorial Strategy for 2020. Army officer and Janet as the mother of a Serving Naval Officer. Dr Gabriela Misca, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Worcester, was invited to join Andrew and Janet as the Research Adviser on military families. She assisted in various aspects of the review and ensured that the findings and ecommendationsr are grounded in the most up-to-date research on Armed Forces families. Gabriela and Janet ensured that the review was evidence-based throughout Lieutenant General James Swift and contextualised within the wider military and family studies literatures. Chief of Defence People The review team was supported by Andrew Selous’s parliamentary office staff and his Office Manager June, 2020 Christine Wallace. The Armed Forces People Support team at the MOD provided information and acted as the conduit to a range of stakeholders. We invited as many members of the Serving community and their families as possible to contribute to the review and to tell us about their lived experiences of military life. We talked to the Chain of Command, welfare officers, and padres/chaplains in the Royal Navy, the Army, and the Royal Air Force. In addition, meetings were held with a wide range of stakeholders. During 2019, the review team gathered evidence to inform the study in a number of ways, including through: • a Call for Evidence from Serving personnel and their families • visits to three Naval bases; eight Army garrisons/bases; and three RAF stations • conversations with a wide range of Serving and non-serving members of the Armed Forces community, families and children, at each of the military bases visited • visits