Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall presenting an
Afghanistan campaign medal to Able Seaman Michelle Ping, winner of 'Best
Reservist' at last year's Sun Military Awards
[Picture: LA(Phot) Simmo Simpson, Crown Copyright/MOD 2012]
The Duchess of Cornwall, Commodore-in-Chief
of the Royal Naval Medical Services, presented Afghanistan medals to more than
200 men and women from all three Services at a parade on Friday at HMS
Excellent in Portsmouth.
By far the greatest number of personnel came from
the Royal Navy, which led the joint medical support for Operation HERRICK 14.
Some of the men and women on parade were receiving
a medal for their first tour of duty, others had already completed several
tours.
The MOD Medals Office is part of the services that the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency provides for the Armed Forces Community. If you want to know more about this work, then take a look at our Veterans Today video below.
If you're an organisation or charity supporting the veterans community, then make sure we have your details to add to our new Charity Hub which is due to be launched at the end of the month.
The Charity Hub will provide information on organisations, charities or
services that support veterans, in either the community or voluntary sector.
Here at SPVA, we're looking at ways people search for information and we're also embracing digital and social media so we can share our information in different ways.
So, for those of you lucky enough to have a Smart Phone, here's a SPVA QR code to scan that will take you directly to our website.
We'd be interested to know if you use QR codes to find information, so post a comment and let us know.
We launched our Facebook page today. The page will complement our existing social media work on Twitter, podcasts and videos, which can be found on our Social Media Hub.
If you use Facebook as a way of finding or sharing information then your help in raising awareness of our Facebook page would be greatly appreciated. Simply visit our page today and click on the share button on the left hand side of the page.
Earlier this week, Broxtowe
Borough in Nottinghamshire showed its support for the local Armed Forces
yesterday by signing up to the Community Covenant Scheme.
The Community Covenant was signed by representatives from
the Broxtowe Borough Partnership, Voluntary Action Broxtowe and the borough's
civilian community.
The first Community Covenant,
a voluntary statement of mutual support between a civilian community and its
local Armed Forces Community, was signed in Oxfordshire in June 2011. It followed the publication
of the Armed Forces Covenant in May 2011 which outlined the moral obligation
between the Nation, the Government and the Armed Forces and aims to improve
support to the Armed Forces Community (which includes serving personnel, their
families and veterans).
The Veterans' Customer Satisfaction Survey is available to complete up until the end of February
The Veteran's Customer Satisfaction Survey was launched online today, 9 January, and if you are part of the veteran's community we urge you to have your say.
SPVA provides pay, pension and support services to both Military Personnel and the Veteran's Community, directly serving around 900,000 members of the Armed Forces Community.
The survey is based around the services provided to veterans, with emphasis on; how they contact us and how we correspond; making a claim; the Veteran's Welfare Service and how information about SPVA is obtained.
Over 3,000 people took part in the 2011 survey and this kind of feedback is extremely useful to establish what is important to the individuals that use our services.
Jon Parkin, Head of SPVA Veterans Services, recording the podcast
As Jon Parkin, Head of SPVA Veterans Services said in his recent podcast interview;
"...the survey is not just here to give us a pat on the back. We want and need to know the bad as well as the good about the services received. The only way we can do this is by getting feedback from our customers."
The survey is entirely anonymous and no-one will be contacted by phone or sent mailings as a result of completing it.
The survey can be accessed here, the survey will close on 29 February 2012.
Late last year, we released our newest video. The five minute film, the latest in the Agency’s ‘Veterans Today’ series, aims to raise awareness of the one-to-one help provided by Veterans Welfare Service, in the home if needed, to anyone who has served in the Armed Forces.
In the film, Presenter Don Goldie investigates the origins of the service nearly a century ago, when its role was to look after the welfare needs of First World War casualties, Service widows and orphans, though to the current day and those affected by operations in Afghanistan. The video explains how the Veterans Welfare Service has retained its core principles, whilst adapting to a much wider role as part of the Government’s commitments under the Armed Forces Covenant. It shows how welfare support is provided automatically to those medically discharged and for those bereaved by service, with an ‘on request’ service to all other members of the veterans community, including dependents and families.
Alison Davies, Manager of the Veterans Welfare Service for the UK and Ireland, explained how important the video is to raising awareness about the service among generations of veterans:
“The Veterans Welfare Service has been providing help and support to the veterans community for almost 100 years and through two World Wars. Our more recent work includes helping those who have served in Afghanistan and Iraq but we are still here for veterans of any age, no matter when or for how long they served. This video will really help us raise awareness of our services and I hope it encourages any veterans who need welfare support to get in touch.”
The Veterans Welfare Service works in partnership with the Armed Forces, Service and ex-Service charities, local authorities and local Veterans Advisory and Pensions Committees to deliver a quality welfare service that promotes independence and dignity via continuous support. Veterans requiring welfare help or assistance can contact the service by calling the Veterans-UK helpline, free, on 0800 169 2277.
Our ‘Veterans Today’ videos are available on the SPVA Social Media Hub that can be accessed via the Veterans-UK website - . They are also available via the SPVA channel on YouTube
