Checklist for this page

Army Family Life
Storybook Soldiers
Queen and Country
New Service Motor Insurance Policy
Veterans Aid
The Army Children Archive (TACA)
Is your SFA being surveyed?
Notification of operational casualties to the media
Spotlight on Army housing
ArmyNet - The Website for Soldiers and Their Families

Army Family Life

Corporal David Moorehead and his family describe Army family life in this lovely DVD created by Sgt Will Craig.

Storybook Soldiers -

Storybook Soldiers is a scheme which provides a link between parents who are away on operations and their children. Soldiers are recorded reading a bedtime story for their children to listen to. For more information visit www.storybooksoldiers.co.uk

Queen and Country

This powerful piece of art highlights the social and political importance of artists. In addition to enjoying the work, visitors will be invited to take part in the fulfilment of Steve McQueen’s vision by adding their name to The Art Fund's online petition. The ultimate goal of the project is to persuade Royal Mail to issue real stamps in commemoration of individual service personnel who have died in the current conflict in Iraq. For details visit the website.

New Service Motor Insurance Policy

The Chief Environment & Safety Officer (Army) has instigated a new insurance policy to benefit Service drivers.

The Army remains concerned about the high number of major injuries and fatalities to Army personnel due to RTAs. In 2005 and 2006 there were 44 and 45 off-duty RTA fatalities respectively amongst the Armed Forces. Service Motor Insurance (SMI) has been developed to both encourage better off-duty driving whilst more cheaply meeting the needs of soldiers and Army civilians. Substantial discounts for motor insurance are available with the cover provided meeting soldiers’ unique lifestyle.

Veterans Aid

VETERANS AID is a small 75 year-old charity run by ex-Servicemen for ex-Servicemen. They are based near Victoria Station in London, have a 57-room hostel in Stepney, and an extensive net-work of contacts and partners able to provide support and accommodation across the country. Veterans Aid responds to the diverse challenges of homelessness; giving a bed to any street homeless ex-serviceman or woman calling on the charity.

The Army Children Archive (TACA)

The Army Children Archive (TACA), which was launched online on 1 October 2007, was established by Clare Gibson, a writer and researcher, history graduate and one-time army child, to collect, record and preserve details of the unique aspects of growing up as the child of a soldier serving in the British Army, whether that growing up was done during the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth or twenty-first century.

Although it is still in its infancy, it is hoped that TACA will eventually provide a useful source for social, military and family historians, and particularly that it will interest former and current army children, who, on the one hand, may find that it ignites some sparks of recognition that in turn trigger a string of memories, and, on the other, may enjoy the sense of having a rich history all of their own.

Is your SFA being surveyed?

Modern Housing Solutions (MHS) has tasked Faithful and Gould to carry out condition surveys on all SFA in GB over the next 12 months. These surveys will give the housing providers a much better understanding of the state of our housing and will enable future funding to be better utilised when improving our homes. It is essential that the surveys are completed on all SFA . Therefore, if you are sent an appointment date for one of these surveys, could you make every effort to arrange for access to your property for the survey - which should take less than an hour to complete.

Notification of operational casualties to the media

There have been incidents recently (e.g. Royal Welsh in early July 07) where the media have released news of a fatality on operations including Unit details before the next of kin (NOK) have been told. This causes great distress amongst the families within the unit who all worry that their soldier is involved.

Many of us would like to have a guarantee from the media that release of information on fatalities will not happen until after the NOK have been contacted. Detailed below is the MOD notification process, an explanation of where the early release of information is coming from, and discussion of how we could change some of the present poor practice by the media.

The MOD does not release any casualty detail until after the NOK has been informed but they are often approached by the media asking for confirmation that there has been an incident. Therefore the MOD is reactive - it only takes action if contacted by the media.

Reactive Response

1. Confirm that an incident and fatality has taken place but take a defensive line – the MOD cannot hide or lie about incidents
2. Contact Joint Casualty and Compassionate Cell (JCCC) that there is media interest
3. Wait for confirmation from JCCC that the family has been informed and find out if they have requested 24 hours before releasing the name. When a family are told of a fatality they are offered up to 24 hours grace before the name is released.

Proactive response

1. Once confirmation that NOK have been contacted the casualty/fatality is announced on the MOD website and to the Press Association
2. This will be outline detail of where, when and which Unit but not the name
3. Permanent Joint Head Quarters (PJHQ) write the eulogy for the soldier to be released with the name

Final

1. The name is released when the family give permission, up to 24 hours after notification.
   

There are still a large number of embedded journalists with the Army in Iraq and Afghanistan. They can, and do send information back to the UK, including information on fatalities. The media have been good at not releasing the name of casualties before NOK have been informed, but still release the name of the soldier’s unit.

Some families learn quickly about fatalities from operational theatre – a soldier will call home on a mobile and say ‘don’t worry it’s not me’. This then spreads around, sometimes even to the press before NOK know.

What we can do

If you read or see release of information about a casualty that does not say that it is released by the MOD or that the NOK have been told then either ask the paper or TV station where their information comes from or ask AFF to do this. We will have to tackle this on a case by case basis to explain the impact and change practice. AFF would be grateful for all feedback so that we can monitor which media outlets have been contacted and responses received.

Spotlight on Army housing

The Army Families Federation is keen to highlight this issue and would like the Government to commit to a properly funded upgrade programme to ensure that Service accommodation is brought up to a decent standard.

AFF has been working tirelessly to try and improve the standard of accommodation for Army families. On average, housing issues make up 25% of all the contacts AFF receives from Army families; 40% of these are about repairs and maintenance. At the AFF International Conference held in London in June 2006 the morning debate was entirely given over to housing issues - download a transcript of the morning debate or download the Q and A report.

Senior Army personnel are now speaking out about this issue, for the latest news click on the following links:

• Army living conditions: 'Even prisoners are better off' by Gen Sir Michael Rose - Daily Mail (5 Jan 07)
• Backlash grows over troops' squalid living conditions - Daily Mail (5 Jan 07)
• AG condemns Forces housing - BBC report dated 4 Jan 07
• Gen Sir Mike Jackson calls some Army housing 'frankly ashaming.' - BBC report dated 7 Dec 06
• Forces Housing must be improved - BBC report dated 4 Jan 07
• Our poor bloody infantry: Daily Mail (2 Oct 06)
  

• Who is responsible for military homes? - BBC report (5 Jan 07)
• Growing army of soldiers' wives go to war over their squalid homes - Times (5 Jan 07)
• Under Fire - The Sun (8 Dec 06)
  

What can Army families do to help? If you would like to help, contact the AFF to let us know what you think about this issue at housing@aff.org.uk

ArmyNet - The Website for Soldiers and Their Families

ArmyNet is a restricted access website designed exclusively for soldiers and their families, and is a one-stop shop for Army information, including such things as background and welfare information on operations such as Op Telic. The site is accessible to soldiers and their families from any Internet-enabled PC worldwide.

ArmyNet is run in a similar way to the high street banks’ online secure banking services: each user applies for an account and is then given a unique user ID and password. Once inside the website, users can access information based on their user profile – from their Army pay statement, operational welfare instructions, and downloadable Army forms, to the latest media and soap action! All serving soldiers can register and then choose to sponsor a guest or family member.

Every user is given a unique armymail.mod.uk email account for the duration of their Army career and mail can be automatically forwarded to the user’s normal email account – such as Hotmail. This means that important information can reach registered ArmyNet users even when they are on leave, or away from home. Every Armymail account is protected from viruses, so that computers in operational areas can be used safely even when commercial email services are removed.

Soldiers can access ArmyNet by logging on to www.armynet.mod.uk and registering as a user. Family members (spouses, partners or other dependants) can also become registered users of ArmyNet once they have been sponsored by their soldier. If a family member accesses the ArmyNet home page and asks to register, an email will be sent to her/his soldier and once the soldier agrees, they will receive a user ID.

To register with ArmyNet:

Type in www.armynet.mod.uk
If you receive a Security Alert message click YES to proceed
To apply for an ArmyNet account follow the instructions for ‘sign-up’
Provide the requested information, which will include your National Insurance number
If the database does not contain your details, contact your RAO to confirm they are correct and correspond to those on the Army Pay Database; or contact admin@armymail.mod.uk
Once registered, use the log-in screen to access ArmyNet