Armed Forces Overarching Personnel Strategy
Foreword by the Secretary of State for Defence, The Rt. Hon Geoffrey Hoon MP
People are the single most important aspect of our operational capability. They make the difference, time after time, and in place after place -both at home and across the world.
Our Service men and women have been immensely busy since the first Armed Forces Overarching Personnel Strategy document was published in February 2000. In addition to continuing commitments in Northern Ireland, the South Atlantic, the Gulf, the Balkans and Sierra Leone, we have conducted operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere in support of the campaign against international terrorism.
Closer to home, the Armed Forces have played a key role in helping to bring under control the outbreak of foot and mouth disease, tackling flood damage, and providing basic emergency fire and rescue cover. Our Service personnel will continue to play an important role in supporting the civil authority at home and in supporting operations overseas.
We in turn need to ensure that the considerable demands we place on our Service personnel are manageable and that in their personal and family lives and in their terms and conditions of employment, they are fairly and appropriately supported. The Armed Forces Overarching Personnel Strategy’s ‘whole life’ approach from encouraging the young to join to supporting and remembering former Service personnel has a significant part to play in this and in delivering our commitment, outlined in the 1998 Strategic Defence Review, to place people at the centre of the Ministry of Defence’s plans.
The first Armed Forces Overarching Personnel Strategy document established the broad principles of our approach to Service personnel policy. This new AFOPS "Main Document" sets out a clearer longer term vision of the way in which we expect our forces to look in 5-10 years' time, considers the way in which our approach to our Service personnel and their families will need to evolve, and how we will deliver our revised policies.
HTML VERSION
PDF VERSION
You will require Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the following document. If you do not have the Acrobat Reader, it can be downloaded without charge from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html.
Armed Forces Overarching Personnel Strategy (1.5MB, ADOBE PDF )
Last Updated: 25 Sep 03