Working life & employee rights

Preparation and Planning

The outlined activities and supporting stimuli provide sufficient material to cover at least one lesson. Extension activities could further support learning into two or even three lessons, depending on the time available and student ability. The suggested timings in the Lesson Plan grid are only a guide and you may choose to increase the time allocated to particular activities.
Many of the activities involve multi-media; therefore if you are able, ensure you have access to a laptop and overhead or whiteboard projector to show students the attached PowerPoint Slides.
Ensure that you photocopy enough of the Student Worksheets for the whole class. All Student Worksheets can be used in pairs or independently, depending on your preference.

About the MOD Topic

In recognition of the difficult and unique role which members of the Armed Forces are expected to fulfill, the British Armed Forces provides a variety of different types of support for their Service Personnel. Listed below are some examples of ways in which the Army supports its personnel.

The Army Welfare Support Service:
Much of the support available to Army personnel and their families is given through the Army Welfare Service (AWS), a professional and confidential welfare support service for servicemen and women and their families, wherever they are located.

The Army Welfare Service has three main tasks:
Community Support, Personal Support and HIVE information services. There is an Administration Branch to support these strands, and all play an essential part in providing the best possible professional and confidential welfare support for Army personnel and their families wherever they are located.

Deployment support for families:
While soldiers are away there is a range of family welfare support available. This support is provided to both Regular Army Families and to those of mobilised members of the Territorial Army or the Regular Reserve.

Army life means that soldiers may have to deploy away from their home and family on unaccompanied tours from time to time. This may be for an operational deployment, training or an assignment to a location that does not offer family support facilities such as health care or housing.

Each Unit has a Welfare Officer who should be the first point of contact for any issues regarding deployment. Personnel can also contact their local Army Welfare Service team for support for help. The first point of contact for Army personnel regarding any issues surrounding deployments is their Unit Welfare Officer. The local Army Welfare Service team can also help.

The Army Inquiries and Aftercare Support Cell:
The Army Inquiries and Aftercare Support Cell is tasked with maintaining close and regular contact with bereaved families for as long as they want, including estranged family members. This will involve regular letters from the Support Cell to keep families informed about the Army's investigation into the circumstances of their loved one's death. In addition, visiting officers visit family members and provide a monthly report to the Support Cell on the bereaved families for whom they are responsible. All bereaved families are included, as well as where appropriate families of soldiers who are categorised as being very seriously ill.

The Armed Forces Compensation Scheme:
The Armed Forces Compensation Scheme is designed to ensure that members of Armed Forces injured during active service receive adequate compensation for their injury. Benefits consist of a lump sum payable to the Service person or to dependents where death is due to service. The value of the lump sum awarded to personnel is determined by a tariff which has 15 levels and covers all the injuries and conditions for which an award can be made.

Where death is due to Service, benefits are payable to Surviving adult dependants (widows and partners from a substantial and exclusive relationship) in the form of a Survivor's Guaranteed Income Payment, paid for life (taxable). There is also a bereavement grant of up to £20K.

More information can be found on welfare support provided by the Army at: http://www.army.mod.uk/welfare-support/welfare-support.aspx

The RAF and Royal Navy also provide comprehensive welfare support to all personnel and their families. Details of the support offered can be found on the following websites:
Royal Navy: http://www.rncom.mod.uk/
RAF: http://www.rafcom.mod.uk/

Further Opportunities for Learning

Students could research the specific employee obligations of serving within the Armed Forces and other public services and consider why and how these are implemented.

Ask students to research famous historic individuals, from three generations and compare and contrast their working conditions (a character from a Dickens novel might provide an interesting example of conditions during the Victorian era).

Students could conduct interviews with their chosen individuals for homework before writing an article comparing the two. Students could be asked to write in the style of a specific newspaper or magazine.

Student worksheet answers

Download the teachers notes PDF to access the answers for this lesson.