Samaritans Veterans app

The Samaritans Veterans app​ provides UK military Service Leavers and Veterans with emotional health and wellbeing information, guidance and resources. Samaritans Veterans is designed to give you the tools to identify and navigate the emotional health challenges that can be experienced when transitioning out of the military and in your life beyond the Forces.

When life is difficult, Samaritans are here – day or night, 365 days a year. You can call us free on 116 123 (within the UK or Ireland) or email us at jo@samaritans.org. Whoever you are and whatever you’re facing, we won’t judge you or tell you what to do. We’re here to listen so you don’t have to face it alone. www.samaritans.org.​

Defence creates an information sheet for Family Courts about Service life

Defence has updated and shared information with Family Courts to help demonstrate that Service and family life is compatible.

The Army Families Federation informed Defence of anecdotal feedback from some families of potential misunderstandings about the nature of Service life when going through the Family Court system.

As a result of this feedback, Defence worked with stakeholders across the Family Court systems to produce an information sheet for Family Court workers.

The information sheet aims to increase understanding about the working and living arrangements of Service personnel, and how their families are impacted. The document also shows the support available for Armed Forces families to build and maintain a stable life at home.

Mental Health First Aid England

As part of MHFA England®’s mission to train one in ten people in mental health knowledge, awareness, and skills, we are supporting several key awareness moments throughout Autumn 2023.

These also give you an opportunity to either get involved, share on your social media, or learn more.

10 September - World Suicide Prevention Day

10 October - World Mental Health Day

October - UK Black History Month

28 November - #techtimeouttuesday

Please Click HERE to visit the Mental Health First Aid website, where you will find more resources to help your overall mental health.

Brunei: BFB Education Learning Centre - Introductory Nepali Language & Culture Course 28th Aug - 1st Sept, 0830 - 1700 @ Garrison Education Centre - POSTPONED

BFB Education Learning Centre - Introductory Nepali Language & Culture Course 28th Aug - 1st Sept – is now postponed until further Notice.

If you are interested, please send an email to Sgt Rakesh Kumar Thapa

Rakeshkumar.Thapa104@mod.gov.uk

Please register your name by Friday, 11th August 2023.

Independent Doctoral Thesis Research Invitation for Veterans

 

'How to Buy Your Own Home' Free Webinars - Sundays 2 Jul to 27 Aug

International HIVE (iHIVE) - Launch of New Blog

The brand new iHIVE Blog has been launched today!

This platform hosts worldwide location information, including Overseas Location Guides, to enable Service personnel and their families find out more about a potential or current overseas assignment.

Our iHIVE HIVE Information Support Officer can also answer any questions that you may have, including regarding supportability for any specific in-country family requirements.

For more information please visit: https://internationalhive.blogspot.com/​

Army Social Fitness Campaign

Please click images to enlarge.

Scan the QR code for further information and support. Alternatively, please CLICK HERE to visit the website.

Tom Harrison House Liverpool - Female Veterans Project

National Careers Service - help with your exam results

Whether you got the grades you expected or not, there are lots of options available to you.

Find out how you can get the jump on your next steps with the National Careers Service

Togetherall - setting yourself up for success

Sometimes we can all feel stuck, whether in work, relationships or just everyday life itself. However, there are things we can do to understand these feelings to become more productive and motivated.

With Togetherall, you can try journallling, setting goals or taking a course to keep yourself on track and feeling good.

Togetherall is FREE to UK Military, Veterans and family members 16+ join at Togetherall

Please click the link to watch Togetherall's information video or click the image above:​​​Setting yourself up for success animation

NHS MMR Vaccine

Parents and carers of children are being reminded of the importance of routine vaccinations, with hundreds of thousands of texts, emails and letters being sent from this week encouraging families to book their child in for an MMR vaccine.

The NHS is contacting parents and carers of around 740,000 children aged between one and six who have not yet had one or both doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, encouraging them to make an appointment with their child's GP practice.

One in ten children are not currently up to date with their MMR vaccinations – despite general practices continuing to offer routine immunisations.

Measles, mumps and rubella are highly infectious illnesses that can easily spread between unvaccinated people. Complications from these diseases can be potentially life changing.


Children need two doses of the safe and effective MMR vaccine, with the first dose given around the child's first birthday, and the second dose given at around three years and four months old. Both doses are needed to ensure full and lasting protection against measles, mumps and rubella.

The NHS has also sent out over 1.5 million invitations to parents of two to three years olds to get their flu vaccination ahead of winter. Where possible, children can receive their MMR catch up vaccine at the same time as their flu vaccine.

Parents and carers can find out more about the different vaccines their child should have and when by visiting www.nhs.uk and searching for 'NHS vaccinations and when to have them'.

Armed Forces Pay Award - Non-UK National Personnel

Dept for Work and Pensions weekly update

Information regarding the move from Tax Credits to Universal Credits (UC) is now available online.

Employers that have signed up to the Disability Confident scheme

This document lists the employers that have signed up to the Disability Confident scheme, and their status (committed, employer or leader) to end of July 2023.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is reminding bereaved parents to check their eligibility for financial support. In February 2023 the government extended eligibility for Bereavement Support Payment and Widowed Parent’s Allowance to cohabiting parents with dependent children. The benefits are designed to help with the financial impact of losing a partner.

Previously these benefits were only available to eligible bereaved parents who were married or in a civil partnership, but the law was changed to make it fairer to children.

When DWP extended eligibility in February 2023, it opened a 12-month window for cohabiting parents to backdate their claims. This means parents whose partner died before 9 February 2023 have until 8 February 2024 to claim. After this, it will not be possible to claim Widowed Parent’s Allowance and parents will not get their full entitlement to a backdated payment of Bereavement Support Payment.

Service Leavers' Guide - July 2023 Edition

T​he updated version of the Service Leavers' Guide has now been published on gov.uk. 

Please see link: ​Service leavers' guide - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

HM Forces Veterans' ID Card

The Ministry of Defence and Office for Veterans' Affairs are​​ building an application process to support the HM Armed Forces Veteran Card rollout later this year. They want to hear your views on this.

If you are a veteran who served in HM Armed Forces, please complete the below survey to help the team:

https://ow.ly/PCt350PqHHf

Armed Forces Covenant - Duty Toolkit

The Armed Forces Covenant website now hosts a Duty Toolkit, with reference documents, guides, resources and training material to help explain the legal Duty aspect of the Armed Forces Covenant. Please visit: Armed Forces Covenant Duty toolkit - Armed Forces Covenant​ for further information.

Little Troopers Gazette

Our Little Troopers Gazette is a newspaper written by military children for military children and we'd love your little troopers to write something for us over the holidays.

We are looking for articles for the next edition and we have templates for children 5yrs+ to write something; be it a book review, about their sport, where they live, their school, military life....there's many to choose from in our Press Pack area.

Full details can be found HERE​

Brunei: Strays G15 & H15 Block - a reminder of the stray policy in BFB

A REMINDER to all in BFB.

The number one rule is to not feed stray animals unless want to adopt them. Adopting means  getting the stray animals neutered and with vaccinations etc so when leaving Brunei and deciding to leave the animal behind, it remains as one stray (not an additional litter of kittens/puppies).

All BFB personnel should understand that by feeding stray animals they are encouraging them to be dependent on food/shelter, therefore the stray animals will linger around the area. Generally, when you remove the food source, stray animals will move on to other places in search of food. However, cats are hunters so it is also imperative that the swiftlets’ nests are removed as well by contacting DIO(B) Helpdesk.

There is no short-term or immediate solution to stray animals. All personnel must be constantly reminded of the implications and responsibilities that comes with feeding stray animals, not just to ‘feel good’.