Note of meeting held in Committee Room 2, South Lanarkshire Council Offices, Almada Street, Hamilton on 8 May 2019.

Chair

Councillor Mark Horsham

Members present

• Councillor Davie Cullen, Veterans Champion, North Lanarkshire Council
• Archie Aitken, Lead Officer for Veterans Issues, North Lanarkshire Council
• Gordon Bow, Lead Officer for Veterans Issues, South Lanarkshire Council
• David McAllister, SSAFA, the Armed Forces Charity
• Shaun Cauvin, Veterans Scotland
• Les Obre, South Lanarkshire Council
• Charles Limond, Police Scotland
• Lynne Wyllie, Administration Assistant, South Lanarkshire Council
• Craig Cunningham, Veterans Champion, NHS Lanarkshire
• June Weir, Skills Development Scotland
• Ian Forsyth, Royal British Legion
• Major Iain Ross, 6 SCOTS
• Scott Muir, SACRO
• Kenny Cumming and Bob Reid, Defence Medical Welfare Service (DMWS)
• Audrey Cuthbertson, Armed Services Advice Project (ASAP)

Apologies

• Catherine Johnstone, North Lanarkshire Council

Chair’s opening remarks

The Chair welcomed everyone and congratulated the Unforgotten Forces Group on their achievement at winning the Soldiering on Award in the “Working Together” category at the recent Awards Ceremony.
Outcome(s):  Position noted.

Note of previous meeting

The minutes of the meeting of the Firm Base held on 30 January 2019 were submitted for approval as a correct record.
Outcome(s):  Minutes approved

Terms of reference - update

Gordon Bow, Administration Manager, South Lanarkshire Council gave an update on the Terms of Reference.  It was noted that at Item 2, 2nd bullet list “and their families” had been added as agreed at the last meeting.  No further amendments had been raised.

Outcome(s): Terms of Reference noted.

Education Pilot - Presentation

Les Obre, Depute Headteacher, Duncanrig High School gave a presentation on "The Armed Forces Children Pilot".  The presentation provided details of the:

      Multi-Phase Operation - Introduction

      ♦       requirement to raise profile of Armed forces children
      ♦       lack of knowledge and understanding of these pupils and their particular needs
      ♦       range of specific needs
      ♦       necessity for schools to adequately support these pupils to meet their needs
      ♦       Getting it Right for Every Child

      Phase 1 – Duncanrig Secondary School

      ♦       transition document to identify pupils needs
      ♦       section included to identify Armed Forces children
      ♦       briefing to Duncanrig Pupil Support staff

      Phase 2 – East Kilbride

      ♦       each school to be contacted by Area Head
      ♦       data collected from primary schools regarding Armed Forces children in P7
      ♦       briefing to Pupil Support teams

      Phase 3 – South Lanarkshire

      ♦       all South Lanarkshire schools contacted
      ♦       each high school obtains data from associated primary schools
      ♦       briefing of Pupil Support teams

Outcome(s):  Presentation noted.

Veteran’s Hub in Lanarkshire - Update

Scott Muir updated the Group on the Veterans Hub, Kings Church, Motherwell. The Hub has now over 50+ visitors. He confirmed that they have managed to secure a building in Craigneuk (the old Routes to Work building) which North Lanarkshire Council are currently upgrading. Hopefully the new Hub will open at the end of June 2019.

Scott confirmed they have managed to secure two years of funding for the Hub and depending on the success of the new Hub might receive more funding. Archie Aitken, North Lanarkshire Council confirmed that he will look into the lease agreement covering the building and will report back to the Group.

The Chair confirmed that he had been very impressed after visiting the Hub and wished them well with their important project.

Outcome(s): Position noted.

Development of a Lanarkshire Veterans’ Information Booklet and Website

Gordon Bow, Administration Manager, South Lanarkshire Council updated the Group on the creation of a Firm Base website/booklet.  It was confirmed that the North Lanarkshire Council’s COMMS team were working on the handbook and it would be finalised soon.

The Chair suggested that if North Lanarkshire Council took ownership of the booklet, South Lanarkshire Council could progress the Lanarkshire Firm Base website.

The Chair advised that it might be worthwhile setting up a social media account ie a Facebook page.  This would need to be managed by an administrator and only partners would have access to post on this

Outcome(s): Update to be given to the Firm Base at next meeting on the development of the website and the booklet.

Date of Next Meeting

The next meeting will be held on Wednesday 25 September 2019 at 2pm within North Lanarkshire Council.

Outcome(s): Position noted.

Any Other Competent Business – Defence Medical Welfare Service (DMWS)

Bob Reid, Defence Medical Welfare Service (DMWS) updated the Group on the Defence Medical Welfare Services (DMWS).

Defence Medical Welfare Service (DMWS)

He provided background on the organisation and provided an overview on the work of the service and the need to look at how services could be extended to those aged under 65.  He referred to funding and how a gap had been identified which had been met via a solution raised by Craig Cunningham, NHS.

Kenny stated that they were based in Wishaw General Hospital and covered all hospitals in Lanarkshire working closely with physiotherapists etc.  He confirmed that there was huge potential in Lanarkshire and open to all ages.  Desperate need for veterans under 65 to be supported.

Royal British Legion

Ian Forsyth suggested that Poppy Scotland could come and provide an update at next meeting.

Health for Heroes

This was a project whereby individuals could be helped through using exercise.  The Chair advised that his vision was that Veterans 1 point could be the Gatekeeper of the project and could make referrals to the Council/Leisure Trust.  It was intended to take this forward on a pilot basis through the Councils and their Leisure Trusts.

Councillor Horsham advised that he intended to meet with Leisure Services and Veterans 1st Point to progress how this would work in practice.

Veteran’s Scotland

Shaun provided an update on:-

• the work of the Cross-party Group on Employment
• the Armed Forces Conference which had taken place in Newcastle
• the Armed Forces Community Grant Funding including the opportunity for groups to access between £30,000 and £100,000

SACRO

Scott referred to the support given to prisoners who were veterans including trained counsellors who could try and get to the underlying reasons for veterans committing crime

Outcome(s):

(1)     Position noted; and

(2)     That Poppy Scotland be invited along to the next meeting.