Forces Children's Trust

As a charity we are devoted to working together to help children in need whose father or mother has died, or has sustained life-changing injuries, whilst serving as a member of the British Armed Forces or Civilian Forces (i.e. Police, Fire and Ambulance Services). The FCT, by reason of its aims and size, has the flexibility and ability to make decisions and offer help as needed, with minimum fuss and consequent time-loss.

We offer

- Child bereavement counselling
- Group holidays and expeditions
- Social events
- Educational visits
- Educational support

For further information CLICK HERE

Future 4 Heroes, Taking Control Of Tomorrow

Future for Heroes is a charity organisation serving the British armed forces. Formed in 2008, the charity was originally called Remount, using the strap line ‘the future for heroes’.

It was recognised that some armed forces personnel leaving the military needed help in making the physical and emotional adjustments necessary to successfully reintegrate into civilian life. Many who struggle to make the adjustment can end up living rough or in prison. Others can look to dependency for the answers.

F4H provides free residential courses where individuals are encouraged to reflect and learn from their past, realise their current circumstances and begin to plan for their future.

The object of the charity is to develop the ability of both serving and retired members of the armed forces, as well as their spouses/partners, to manage the dramatic change in cultures when resuming civilian life. The individuals, from across all ranks of the 3 services, are better able to identify and meet their post-military needs and so can participate fully in society.

For further information CLICK HERE

Veterans With Dogs - Dogs For Military Veterans With Invisible Injuries

Veterans With Dogs' assistance dog programme is the first of its' kind in the UK.

Veterans with Dogs is helping Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and other mental health conditions, cope better with their symptoms and enabling them to lead more independent lives.

We do this because we care about our Veterans. There are those with physical injuries, and those with injuries less easy to see. We understand the real need to provide specially trained dogs to help mitigate the debilitating effects of mental health difficulties.

Seeing how veterans and their families suffer is a heart-breaking experience, and only strengthens our resolve to do 'something' to help. And that is exactly what we are doing.

The 'PALS' (Partner Animal Life Skills) Programme to train and provide assistance dogs for mental health is just one adjunct to treatment that is having a profound effect on helping Veterans to increase their quality of life and regain independence.

For further information, visit the website or Facebook Page

How To Help A Child Having An Asthma Attack

www.asthma.org.uk

Baby CPR Advice From St John Ambulance

Do you know your puffs and pumps?

Nursery Rhymes Inc. & St John Ambulance have got you covered with a short video that shows how to give a baby CPR in a reassuring, unforgettable way.

To view this video online, CLICK HERE

To access useful First Aid tips for parents CLICK HERE.

UK Visa Application & English Language Requirement

                                    

Applying for a UK visa? Click Here for the list of Approved Tests and Test providers.

For further information about English Language Requirements, please Click Here.

Forces Families Jobs (FFJ)

On this platform families will be able to search and apply for jobs solely from employers that have signed the Armed Forces Covenant. This will give the families some reassurance that the employer will have an understanding of Service life. The site will also offer free, or discounted training for Service families. With over 200 employers already signed up for FFJ, this project that will aid spousal employment.

https://www.forcesfamiliesjobs.co.uk/

Minor Child Medical Consent Form

There may be times when you are unable to bring your child to the PCMF or hospital for an appointment or in an emergency due to unforeseen circumstances. This includes those instance when both parents are away from home for whatever reasons and need to rely on a family member or friend. 

We at the PCMF understand these circumstances; however we must have a written authorisation letter allowing this person to accompany your child(ren). The person bringing your child will need to present a photo identification at the time.

This authorisation gives the person permission to bring your child(ren) in, speak to the doctor on your behalf, give authorisation for treatment, vaccinations, medications, other procedures and make general health decisions.

Please see the below attachment for template consent form and further guidance for parents. One form to be completed for each child. 

The form can be obtained from the HIVE Offices, SSO Office and the PCMF. Alternatively, you can download the form here.

RBL - Housing Support Guides

Housing Support Guides

Using examples of best practice alongside the Legion’s experience and expertise, the Legion have written support guides to help eliminate housing difficulties that the Armed Forces community may face.

This helpful guidance focuses on how local authorities and housing providers can improve their services to bring homelessness among the Armed Forces community down to zero.

As housing law is different across the nations, there are three guides, click below to access the guide you require:

ENGLAND

WALES

SCOTLAND

These guides will:
Highlight common problems faced by the Armed Forces community
Outline the existing responsibilities of the Government and housing authorities
Provide a toolkit of practical advice on how to improve services
Show good practice from across the UK as a source of inspiration
Act as a quick reference resource for frontline professionals providing housing and homelessness services. 

For more information CLICK HERE.

Cotswold Military Discount

How To Maintain A Good Credit Record When You Are In The Military

Are you a good or a poor credit risk? You may not know until you submit an application for a loan or credit. Here are some top tips on how to maintain a healthy credit score, regardless of your location.

The result can sometimes be surprising. Moving around with the military doesn’t always help your credit score, although significant effort has been made in recent years to improve awareness within the financial industry of the circumstances of military personnel.

How does a credit rating score work?

Your credit score measures you as a financial risk. A poor credit score can make it difficult to borrow money. This can affect your application for credit cards, motor finance, a mortgage and other services such as mobile phone contracts.

How is your credit risk measured?
All lenders want different things and have their own ways of scoring but are likely to take into account the following:
Occupation
Address history
Length of employment
Annual Income
Previous and existing creditors and your credit payment history
County Court Judgments

What is likely to make you a poor credit risk?
Excessive debt with no spare income to support more credit
Too many credit searches within a rolling two-year period
Poor credit history such as missed or late payments
Not having any credit history can be detrimental to your credit score
Frequent house moves, in particular postings abroad where BFPO addresses aren’t always recognised by lenders’ systems

How to help your application for credit when on the move
State you are a member of the Armed Forces when applying for credit
Provide a full postal address including postcode. If it is a BFPO address, include the unit you’re attached to. A letter from your Commanding Officer is also useful
Register to vote in the UK, which will put you on the Electoral Register. This needs updating every time you move in the UK
Serving overseas for long periods of time can make building up a good credit history difficult. Keep a record of financial transactions overseas to hand, such as credit cards and bank statements. This will help to show that you can handle your money wisely
Manage your debts and pay your bills on time
Check your credit report before you apply for any credit. You can obtain a copy from credit reference agencies such as Equifax,Experian and Callcredit. If you find any discrepancies, you can challenge them with the credit bureau
Keep the balance on your credit cards as low as possible
Make joint applications for credit such as motor finance. This will help both you and your partner build up evidence of good credit management for the future.

How to improve a poor credit rating
There is no quick fix. A reputation for being a bad credit risk can take time to improve, but there are steps you can take to help the process along.
Make sure you pay your bills on time. Set up a reminder to prompt you when a payment is due or set up a direct debit and make sure there will be enough money in your account to pay the direct debit
Stop using your credit cards to avoid adding to your debts
Only take on new credit accounts if you have no other option. If you need to borrow more, look to extend your existing credit provisions rather than applying elsewhere
If you have any spare money, look to reduce your overall debt by forming a payment plan. Start with the cards and loans that charge the highest interest and work your way down
If you’re struggling to make ends meet talk to the credit company or seek advice from a credit counselling service to help you get back on track with your finances.

If you feel that you’ve been treated unfairly when seeking credit due to your military lifestyle, you can appeal to the Financial Ombudsman.

For more information on how to apply for credit you can check out Money Force. To learn more about how to manage your money, go to the Money Advice Service website. Information extracted from RAF Families Federation News. Please click the link for full details.

CTP Resettlement Guides

These Resettlement Guides include useful reference documents, articles for further reading and comprehensive listings of links to external sites relevant to each topic. Topics include:

-Benefits
-CV writing
-Emigration
-Pensions
-LinkedIn

...and many more.

Some guides also include checklists to highlight the key points. Save the checklists to myPlan and use them as reminders of actions to be taken as you progress through your resettlement.

The CTP Editorial team add new content regularly to provide you with pertinent information on all areas of resettlement.

Click here to view the guides online

Family Lives - Advice On Teenagers And Risky Behaviour

To access the full document, please CLICK HERE

Healthy Sleeping Tips For Children

Getting kids back into the school night bedtime routine can be difficult. A relaxing bedtime routine is one important way to help your child get a good night's sleep.

For tips on healthy sleep please click HERE

Preventing Drowning SSAFA Health Visitors Information

Please note that  it is parents responsibility to watch their children at all times when they are playing in water, at swimming pools, beach and especially splash pools at home.

-Health Visitors Team

Leaving The Services? The Five Aspects Of Transition You Need To Prepare For

Leaving the Armed Forces impacts both the family and Service leaver. The sooner you can think about your life on civvy street (housing, finances, employment, education, physical health and mental wellbeing) the better, and preferably plan early before leaving the Armed Forces. 

Click here to find out what Veterans' Gateway can help.

The five aspects of transition you need to prepare for 

Housing 

As part of their commitments to the Armed Forces Covenant, Local Authorities will all have appointed ‘Armed Forces Champions’ who act as a point of contact for serving and ex-Service personnel and their families looking for information and advice on housing.

Find your local authority

The Joint Service Housing Advice Office (JSHAO) helps service leavers assess their civilian housing options and provide guides and materials covering all aspects of housing after leaving service. If you are thinking about buying, consider doing this well in advance of leaving.

Finances

The Forces Pension Society roadshows provide financial advice at events held at military bases. MoneyForce provides money advice to help you better manage their money. Citizens Advice is a great source of information on all things money no matter if you’re part of the Armed Forces community or not.

Employment

Lifeworks for Families, Recruit for Spouses and RFEA Families Programme are spousal employment services that provide advice and support to spouses who are looking to gain employment. The Families Federation will launch a new spousal employment platform called Forces Families Jobs in late 2019. 

Education

Contact your local authority for school places – engage with them early and they’ll explain the process to you. The Children’s Education Advisory Service (CEAS) can help while you are still serving and offer a range of help and advice, including for special educational needs. Service leavers have a range of courses and personal development options as part of the resettlement process. You should discuss your options with station education staff. 

Physical health and mental wellbeing

Anyone under the care of Defence Medical Services will need to find and register with a new doctor and dentist. The NHS can help you access services. Unit welfare staff can advise on access to mindfulness and mental health support services. The British Army provides an ‘emotional pathway’ guide exploring some of the ups and downs that can be experienced after leaving the Armed Forces. This is valid for all services. Veterans’ Gateway provides a range of information about mental wellbeing and physical health.

Keeping A Check On Your Mental Health

Click image to enlarge

There are a number of mental health related literature available at the PCMF (Medical Centre) reception area that you can pick up.

PCMF Contact : Civ 3224893 or 3224101 ext 3222 / 3226 , Mil Ext 3222 / 3226

PCMF Opening hours : 

Primary Care Medical Centre Facility

Sick parade for service personnel: Mon – Fri 0730

Doctors Clinics:  0830-1230 and 1330 – 1600 

Minor Surg:  Tue 1330 – 1600 

SPN Clinics: Mon – Fri 0830 – 1600 

Nurses Clinic: 0800 – 1630 

Drop-in baby clinic: Tue 0900 - 1100

Physiotherapy: Mon, Tue & Thu 0800 – 1700 

                         Wed 0800 – 1230 hrs 

                          Fri 0800 -1330 

Dispensary: 0800 – 1000, 1045 – 1230, 1400 – 1650

                           Closed Wed afternoon for staff training

Understanding The Barriers - Foreign & Commonwealth Families

CLICK HERE to access the full document

The Law On Leaving Your Child On Their Own

The law doesn’t say an age when you can leave a child on their own, but it’s an offence to leave a child alone if it places them at risk.

Parents can be prosecuted if they leave a child unsupervised ‘in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to health’.

For more information please click HERE

Are You Moving Back To The UK Or Canada? - Do You Have Your Service Community Guide?

Method Publishing produce Service Community Guides to aid in your relocation to your next Service Area. Whether it be MOD Lyneham, Canada, Edinburgh, Shropshire Method Publishing have a huge array of Service Guides.

Each Guide contains a comprehensive list of Garrison, Welfare, Health, Accommodation, Education and Local Area information, published in co-operation with the relevant Garrison or Station Headquarters.

For the full list of Service Community Guide please click here

Lifeworks Free Online Learning Platform For Military Spouses

Are you a military spouse?Are you thinking about getting back into work?

Are you applying for jobs but not getting anywhere?

Lifeworks can help with their FREE online learning platform for Military spouses... the first of the video tutorials "How to write a winning CV in 7 easy steps" is ready for you to use.

The LifeWorks Families course is fully funded, which means it’s FREE at point of delivery and so will cost you nothing!

WHAT SUPPORT CAN I GET?

All support is given by one of our highly experienced employability coaches who will be able to help with any aspect of your job search and move into work. Some things they typically give support on are:

· CV writing· Interviews· Covering letters· Confidence building· Recognising your skills

We can also offer a helpful 1-2-1 session with a fully qualified Vocational Assessor who can take you through a range of psychometric profiling tools that will help you identify new career paths or even enhance your current position.

HOW DO I REGISTER FOR REMOTE SUPPORT OR A COURSE?

Head over to our website www.wearelifeworks.org.uk

Find And Compare Schools In England

Need to find schooling options for your child/children?

Please click on the link Find School to find the nearest school from your home

Defence People Mental Health & Wellbeing Strategy 2017 - 2022

The vision of the ‘Defence people health and wellbeing strategy:

All defence people to enjoy a state of positive physical and mental health and wellbeing, feeling connected with, and supported by, the military and wider community, enabling them to contribute to the delivery of defence outputs, including operational capability, as part of the whole force.

To read the full version CLICK HERE

Huggable Heroes

For further information CLICK HERE

Poppy Pods - Free Breaks For Service Families

This project has been made possible with the help of the Armed Forces Community Covenant, the Royal British Legion Brockenhurst Branch and Hampshire County Council.

Ex military and current serving military can join the scheme and use the facility for free at weekends (max 2 nights) and school holidays (max 4 nights).

·         School holiday dates are based on Hampshire School holidays only

·         Arrival time 4pm, departure time 10am

·         Bring up to 3 immediate family members (i.e spouse and children, if you have a larger family contact the centre by email: poppypods@hants.gov.uk)

For further information CLICK HERE

For membership information CLICK HERE

Pupil Passport - Students School Transition Sheet

Pupil passport contains easy short questions for your children to answer with you to help during transitional periods to a new school. 

To access the full version CLICK HERE

Financial Top Tips For Service Personnel

Service personnel and their families can experience difficulty in accessing commercial products and services due to their mobility and time spent outside the UK. This guidance provides service personnel and their families with top tips on getting a fair deal when they need to access financial services.

For the full guide CLICK HERE

Gambling - A Serious Risk To Military Personnel

Click image to enlarge or CLICK HERE to read the full article

Home Start

Home-Start provides confidential independent family support

A service for all families including those within the Armed Forces because childhood can’t wait…

www.home-start.org.uk 

To Read the latest edition of the magazine for Home start supporters 'Family Matters' Click HERE