Awards season isn' t just for Hollywood

SPVA has won a major US Award for the Joint Personnel Administration System

SPVA has won a major award at the prestigious 2011 ‘Human Capital Management in Defence’ (HCMD) awards held in Arlington, Virginia USA. We were the only organisation nominated from outside the USA and went on to win the main award for the implementation of the Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) System for our Armed Forces.

SPVA came top in the ‘Best Implementation of an Enterprise Technology System’ category. This recognises the best program implementation of a human resources IT system aimed at streamlining a specific HR process in order to drive down costs and improve efficiency and productivity.

The award recognises the success of the outsourcing relationship within SPVA between the Ministry of Defence and HP Enterprise Services that started in November 1997, and included the successful introduction of JPA in 2006. JPA has revolutionised Armed Forces’ pay and personnel functions in the UK, bringing together the Royal Navy, Army and RAF onto one system, allowing users to update details themselves and providing one dedicated contact centre for help and support. It has delivered savings to the MOD in excess of £200 million in its first three years of operation.

In addition to SPVA, nominations came from offices and programs from across the US Federal Government, representing the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, the IRS, Dept. of Energy, the National Park Service and the US Postal Service.

This success follows two other impressive awards received last year by SPVA and HP. At the 'Shared Services Outsourcing Network 2010 Industry Awards, in Edinburgh during May, we first won the 'Best Mature Outsourced Services Delivery' award and then went on to beat organisations from across Europe, the Middle-East and Africa to win the highest accolade of the night -the 'Winner of Winners' award.

Veterans Welfare Centres roll out completed

The Welfare Service provides one-to-one support

Our latest  podcast looks at support we provide for veterans at a local level.

The latest podcast provides an update on the five Veterans Welfare Centres launched by SPVA in 2010.

The Veterans Welfare Service provides one-to-one advice and support to veterans across the UK and Ireland.

Alan Mayers, Officer in Charge of the Welfare Service, is interviewed in the latest podcast and provides an overview of how the centres can and do support veterans in the local community.

Alan said:

“The Veterans Welfare Service is here to provide help to all veterans and their families or dependants. From our service you can expect dedicated one-to-one help and advice. Please take a listen to the podcast and find out more about how our Welfare Service is supporting veterans.”

SPVA is committed to providing awareness of initiatives and organisations supporting the Armed Forces Community. Since early 2010, we have released a number of podcasts; this latest release continues our aim of providing information and updates of initiatives and services available for this important community.

The podcast and all our other SPVA social media products are available to access on our Social Media Hub via the Veterans-UK website, and on various social media sites such as iTunes and YouTube (links can be found via our Social Media Hub).

Maintaining the Roll of Honour

The SPVA website holds information on the National Memorial and Roll of Honour

The SPVA website holds information about the Armed Forces Memorial and also houses the Roll of Honour search facility.

Inclusion on the Armed Forces Memorial  and the Roll of Honour is determined by the Armed Forces Memorial Trustees Inclusion criteria.

The Roll of Honour search facility potentially allows you to search for a person who died while they were in Service.  The Roll of Honour contains details of those who died since 01/01/1948 whose circumstances of death meet the AFM Trustees Inclusion criteria. It's normally updated monthly and currently provides information for those who died more than two years ago.

Partial Roll of Honour records: Forename, Surname and Military Decorations are also potentially available for those who died from 01/01/09 to 31/01/09.

Partial Roll of Honour records are normally reviewed 2 years after the date of death, when more information may become available.

The Roll of Honour is straightforward to use, requiring either the surname and forenames, or initials (if known), or the Service number.  When you have found the person you are looking for, there is an option to print an AFM Certificate