Harman and Ainsworth: new support for service families

19th November 2009

New measures, building on the government’s welfare package for service families, will be announced today by Harriet Harman, Minister for Women and Equality, and Bob Ainsworth, Secretary of State for Defence.

Both will welcome families to a reception for service families at Downing Street, thanking them for their contribution.

The measures include an Employment and Skills Taskforce, Armed Forces Champions for Jobcentre Plus, and a further review of childcare and school place allocation for service families.

These measures add to the progress made by the cross-government 2008 Service Personnel Command Paper. This was published specifically to ensure that families, whether based in the UK or abroad, were no longer disadvantaged in obtaining jobs, or accessing public services such as childcare, education, healthcare, and work.  The report on progress within the first year will be published shortly.

Harriet Harman, Minister for Women and Equality said:

“The families of our service personnel have always held things together at home, and their task has become even more demanding with the forces fighting away in Afghanistan.  Service wives must have the chance to get training, work and childcare.  But, as I have seen first hand from my visits to military bases,  that is hard if they have to move regularly and are located on a base miles away from parents and in-laws.

“Our new initiatives will make sure that service families have the same access to childcare and school places as the civilian population; that employers recognise that moving from place to place is a part of service life, not a lack of commitment to jobs; and thatwe look at transport for remote bases so families can access training, work and childcare.”

Bob Ainsworth, Secretary of State for Defence, said:

"The demands that service in the Armed Forces place on our people is unique.  They are required to follow orders whatever the danger, and to deploy wherever and whenever they are needed. The impact of this is considerable, particularly on their families. Last year we introduced 40 measures to ensure that our forces and their families were not disadvantaged in accessing public services.  Today’s announcement builds on this.   I am determined that the government will honour its responsibility towards our Armed Forces. We need to make sure that military life does not make it harder to access jobs, healthcare, school places, childcare and social housing.”

Harriet Harman, Defence Ministers and colleagues from across Government, including the Department of Work and Pensions, Communities and Local Government, the Department for Children, Schools and Families, Department for Transport and the Treasury, have worked to produce the measures announced today.

The package of measures is:

• The establishment of an Employment and Skills Taskforce, chaired by Yvette Cooper, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, to support service families’ access to the same employment, further education and training opportunities as the civilian community.
• An Armed Forces Champion for each Jobcentre Plus district who will act as first point of contact for service families and keep up to date with local activities to support service families
• A further Government review of how well local authority plans on childcare reflect the needs of service families, and what good practice examples and problems there are around transport, and consider if additional guidance is necessary
• Government will review the guidance given to local authorities on school allocations policy to ensure it reflects the needs of service families

The Government will publish a report on this work early next year, focussing on practical steps which improve the lives of Service family members.

MEDIA ENQUIRIES

Please contact the Government Equalities Office press office on 0207 276 0459.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

• The first Annual Report on progress with the Command Paper, produced by the External Reference Group which monitors the Government’s work, is also being released on 19 November.
• The Government published the Service Personnel Command Paper in July 2008, which set out more than 40 measures to improve the lives of the Armed Forces community.
• The Government Equalities Office is responsible for the Government’s overall strategy, legislation, and priorities on equality issues. The Office also has direct responsibility for policy on gender equality, sexual orientation, and for integrating work on race. The Prime Minister announced the establishment of the Government Equalities Office (GEO) in July 2007 and it became a Department in its own right in October 2007.  It works to Ministers Harriet Harman, Maria Eagle, Vera Baird and Michael Foster.