Agenda item

·         New Covenant Fund (attached)

·         Update on two previous successful bids:

o   Halting the Revolving Door

o   Time to Remember

The Board was updated on the following successful Covenant Fund bids from the 2015/16:

•       Brookwood and Pirbright Children's Centre - extended early intervention and support for service and civilian families with children aged 0-5 years - £17,515

•       The Surrey Care Trust - Learning Together: a programme of adult learning aimed at spouses of servicemen and women and the civilian community in the Deepcut and Pirbright areas - £19,805

•       Officer of the Police and Crime Commissioner - Vulnerable Veterans - Halting the Revolving Door: a project to support ex-service personnel in the criminal justice system and prevent re-offending - £20,000

•       Blackdown Pre-School, Deepcut - IT resources and play equipment- £1,462

•       The Trench Experience - to purchase a multi-purpose exhibition vehicle with items to re-create typical WWI and subsequent conflict experiences - £17,600

•       Surrey Minority Ethnic Forum - Gurkha Veteran's Integration Drive: a project to help integrate the local Gurkha community in the Woking area with the local civilian community through joint learning and social activities at local churches - £19,724

From a national perspective £10million was allocated in 2015/16, a large proportion of which was spent on the criminal justice theme. The South East was successful in securing 14 bids, which amounted to 16% of the funding.  Scotland was the only other area that did better. Surrey and Hants performed the best within the South East.

The new priorities for 2016/17 are set out in the information included in the agenda pack. The bid process will operate very differently from last year and further guidance on each of the priorities will be posted on the MoD website from 4 May https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covenant-fund-guidance-on-how-to-apply

Halting the Revolving Door

Roger Nield (contact@smpl.org.uk) updated the Board on the Halting the Revolving Door project, which received Covenant funding in December 2015 following a successful bid from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner. The six month project is aiming to:

•          Identify the number of ex-service personnel imprisoned or on licence in Surrey.

•          Benchmark the support available to veterans, reserves and their families so that service users can be signposted to the appropriate support for them.

•          Create and train a team of mentors [ G2Gs ] to support ex-service personnel in the criminal justice system.

•          Prevent service personnel and their families from becoming victims.

The programme is progressing well and links have been made to a number of projects and partners including the Transforming Justice programme, ssafa, RBL, 11 Brigade, veterans charities and many others.

Time to Remember

Christine Lee from Farnham Maltings received Covenant Funding for an event to remember the first two minutes silence which was in Farnham in May 1916. The event will be held on Sunday, 1 May 2016 and will comprise:

·         10.30am procession along Castle Street

·         10.50am ceremony, performance & two minute silence

·         11.10am procession to Gostrey Meadow

·         Until 4pm May Day fair on Gostrey Meadow

Christine thanked the Board for their support and let them know that they would all be welcome to attend. The Board wished Christine well for the event and would help promote it through the @SurreyMilitary twitter account.