Service Personnel (Resettlement) (Hansard, 24 October 1978)

§ Dr. Gilbert

It is not possible to say precisely how many of the 40,000 or so men and women who leave the Services each year take advantage of resettlement advice in one form or another, but it 781W is certainly a very large percentage. A wide variety of personnel, both uniformed and MOD civilians, are in some way concerned in providing resettlement advice either on a full or part-time basis. One of the difficulties in providing accurate statistics of those involved in the resettlement process within the Armed Services stems from the fact that resettlement is just one of the responsibilities of the Service Directors of Education and an individual officer's involvement in resettlement can vary from full-time to none at all. In addition to the "educators" special responsibility for resettlement, many other officers and senior ranks in Service units and establishments are nominated as resettlement "officers" and here again involvement can vary between, for example, full-time duties on a large RAF station to perhaps one day a month in the case of a small Army unit. However, it has been possible to obtain some broad figures of those involved which I believe will indicate the extent of the effort devoted to resettlement advice.

In the Royal Navy and Royal Marines one serving officer and eight retired officers are employed full-time on resettlement. In addition, each RN ship and shore establishment, some 200 in all, has a resettlement information officer. In the larger ships and establishments the RIO is normally an instructor officer and resettlement may occupy as much as 50 per cent. of his time. Elsewhere the RIO may be of any specialisation and 5 per cent. of his time would be a fair estimate.

In the Army resettlement interviews are provided for all ranks in the form of resettlement panels and resettlement boards. These interviews are mandatory for all soldiers completing engagements of six years or more. Panels are designed to give resettlement advice to officers and warrant officers and each comprises a Senior Resettlement Advice Officer (SRAO) who is a lieutenant-colonel in the Royal Army Educational Corps. There are six SRAOs, four based in the United Kingdom and two in BAOR, who are appointed on a full-time basis. Resettlement boards are designed for NCOs and soldiers and fall into two main categories: careers advice boards, which take place about 18 months before discharge and give general advice, and final resettlement boards, which are aimed specifically at employment finding and pre- 782W release training. These take place about six months before discharge. Boards are chaired by an RAEC officer, usually a major. Altogether there are some 14 full-time and 19 part-time resettlement board chairmen. In addition, all units over 25 in strength are required to appoint a regimental officer as unit resettlement officer. This officer is responsible for organising, administering and publicising the resettlement scheme within the unit and for developing close links with local RAEC Resettlement Officers.

Each of the 120 or so RAF stations at home and abroad has a station education officer, normally a squadron leader, plus a small staff—including other education officers on large stations. In addition, each command—Strike Command, RAF Support Command and RAF Germany—has a command education officer who is normally a Wing Commander. Overall there are some 130 education officers who are supported by a further 85 RAF personnel, mainly NCOs, and 65 civilians. As in the other Services, resettlement is just one of the duties of these staff and it is not possible to assess with any degree of accuracy the amount of time spent on this alone. Like the Army and Navy the RAF also has a small team of full-time resettlement advisers.