THE news last week that Prime Minister David Cameron had backtracked on plans to enshrine a military covenant in law did not surprise people like Pete Richards, an ex-serviceman who had little help when he left the forces.
Last June Mr Cameron, just a month in as leader of the Coalition Government and addressing service personnel on HMS Ark Royal, said: “It’s time for us to rewrite the military covenant to make sure we are doing everything we can.
“Whether it’s the schools you send your children to, whether it’s the healthcare that you expect, whether it’s the fact that there should be a decent military ward for anyone who gets injured, I want all these things refreshed and renewed and written down in a new military covenant that is written into the law of the land.”
The covenant is an informal understanding of the State’s duty of care to its armed forces which at present is seen as an obligation rather than a rule set out in legislation.
Cameron’s new covenant – which would have included rights to prioritised NHS treatment, decent housing and education for service families’ children – was to be given legal standing in a new Armed Services Bill.
It was due to be debated in Parliament last week but was withdrawn after claims it had been watered down. An amendment had been included that said the defence secretary was to report annually to Parliament on the state of the covenant rather than making the covenant law. So what happened?
“Money,” said Pete. “When you’ve got something enshrined in law it’s a huge financial commitment. Perhaps he has realised there are so many broken people.”
And the need for help is to get ever greater. “We’re not drawing back from conflicts,” said Pete, whose reaction to the news was blunt. “It’s disgusting.”
Since the end of the Second World War hardly a day has passed when British forces have not been involved in a war, conflict or campaign. In recent years they have fought in the Falklands and Kosovo, there have been two Gulf Wars and, of course, they are currently in Afghanistan where the fighting is fierce.
In one outpost in the Helmand province, soldiers on a six-month tour of duty can expect to be shot at every single day.
Pete, who was in the RAF police and saw active service in the first Gulf War and the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, said: “I was shot at three times in my military career. You get shot at three times before breakfast in Afghanistan.”
The psychological stress is almost beyond comprehension. Yet Government provision for the people’s needs when they leave the force is virtually non-existent.
The slack is being taken up by groups and organisations like About Turn CIC, for which Pete works and which was the brainchild of Tony Wright. It is a social enterprise that aims to improve the lives of ex-service personnel and their families through the development and delivery of holistic practices. It also co-ordinates Forces for Good Projects in the North East of England which offer support and guidance to ex-service personnel experiencing difficulties in adjusting to a new life as a civilian, dealing with issues like homelessness and housing problems, substance misuse problems as well as mental health and/or post-traumatic stress disorder.
It also gives them a chance to meet like-minded people and just as importantly helps them navigate and access the multitude of organisations and services available to them.
Tony said: “In the US there is transitional assistance for 18 months before you leave, looking at how your skills are transferable. When you leave here it’s, ‘Oh you’re going. Bye. See you’.” There seems a disparate group of organisations in the UK catering for the needs of veterans.
They range from the Royal British Legion, the United Kingdom’s leading charity providing financial, social and emotional support to those who have served or who are currently serving in the British armed forces, and their dependents, to operations like About Turn.
They might well look enviously across the across the Atlantic where the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a government-run military veteran benefit system with Cabinet-level status.
It is the United States government’s second-largest department, after the United States Department of Defense. With a total 2009 budget of about $87.6bn, VA employs nearly 280,000 people at hundreds of medical facilities, clinics and benefits offices.
Benefits provided include disability compensation, pension, education, home loans, life insurance, vocational rehabilitation, survivors’ benefits, medical benefits and burial benefits.
Not surprisingly, Tony says the US is light years ahead of Britain when its comes to catering for ex-service personnel.
As a result he is planning a six-week trip there on a fact-finding trip taking to see how veterans are assimilated back into the community.
He joined the Royal Marines aged 18 but left three years later after being injured in training. “I hadn’t planned to go back to civilian life so soon. I’d signed up for nine years. I struggled.”
He did a variety of voluntary work before qualifying as a social worker in 1996. “Wherever I went I kept bumping into ex-service personnel who had done worse than me.”
Noticing a lack of provision for them, he said: “I decided I needed to do something about it.”
While serving in Kuwait during the first Gulf War Pete contracted a form of streptococci which led to his medical discharge from the service while he was also diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Pete, now like Tony a qualified social worker, began work three months ago at About Turn. The idea is for it to be a service Tony would have liked when he left the Army in 1981. They have groups in Newcastle, Sunderland and Northumberland dealing with people aged 22 to 90.
People find their way to Pete and Tony via recommendations from the probation service, police, word-of- mouth and posters in police cells.
It was in 2009 that research by the probation union Napo suggested that 6% of prisoners or those on parole or probation were ex-servicemen. A spot survey by The Big Issue which is sold by homeless people found that an astonishing 36% of their sellers were ex-forces.
Bringing them back into the fold takes time. As well as the forums, activities are organised including fly fishing, allotment keeping, football tournaments and horse riding.
And those who benefit become mentors themselves. “One guy who is now a mentor told us he first stopped off at our group on his way to commit suicide by throwing himself off a bridge,” said Pete.
It is fair to say Tony, 51, and Pete, 47, have found their vocation in life – helping people to find their own way. Pete said: “There are people who lapse and we really take it personally. We care so much about what we do.”
Tony added: “I can think of no other job I’d want to have. It gives such personal satisfaction that we are providing a service for needs that no one else is meeting.”
To contact About Turn CIC and Forces For Good, phone 0191 294 3539. Or call Tony direct on 0773 837 3590 and Peter on 0788 979 5877.
Source http://www.sundaysun.co.uk/
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