At the Labour Party Conference 2024, Defence Secretary John Healey unveiled significant reforms to address the recruitment challenges faced by the British Armed Forces.
Healey spoke of Labour’s commitment to modernising recruitment and improving conditions for service personnel, while reaffirming the Government’s dedication to national security.
“Over the last 10 years, more than a million applied to join the Forces,” Healey said. “Yet 3 in 4 gave up on the process because it takes months and is tied up in red tape.” To combat this, Healey announced three major steps to tackle the recruitment crisis:
- Scrapping 100 outdated policies that currently block people from joining the military.
- Setting new targets for the Forces to reject or make a conditional offer to applicants within 10 days, and to give people a training start date within 30 days.
- Introducing a direct recruitment route for cyber specialists, particularly targeting top gamers and coders. “If you are a top gamer or coder, your country needs you,” Healey said.
In addition to tackling recruitment challenges, Healey also announced plans to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP—marking the highest level since 2010. He underscored Labour’s vision to support both the Armed Forces and veterans, improve military housing, and ensure all personnel are paid at least the national living wage.
At #LabourConference2024, Defence Secretary John Healey announced reforms to tackle Armed Forces recruitment challenges, including scrapping 100 policies, speeding up applications, and creating a new route for cyber specialists. pic.twitter.com/82gCBQNIFZ
— UK Defence Journal (@UKDefJournal) September 23, 2024
“We’ve delivered the largest pay rise for the Armed Forces in over 20 years,” Healey stated. He also stressed the Government’s commitment to Ukraine, pledging continued military support and training for Ukrainian troops through 2025. “We’ve stepped up our support for Ukraine,” Healey said.
“A new defence industrial strategy, a treaty with new export guarantees, and a pledge to spend £3 billion in military support this year, next year, and every year it takes for Ukraine to win.”
Reflecting on Labour’s recent electoral successes in military communities, Healey noted that “Labour is the Party of Defence,” referencing the party’s record wins in areas like Wycombe, Portsmouth, and Aldershot.
In closing, Healey said, “We will always maintain the highest standards and create an Armed Forces that draws the very best of British talent. Better fit to fight. Better reflecting the country they defend.”
Great speech if they follow through, money and recruitment solves all the arm force’s problems.
Can’t believe how bad those rejection rates are. Shoes you kids still want to serve.
Agreed. Looks like Labour are at least talking about doing something right.
But will they actually do anything? Seems they’re talking 2.5% spend in one breath and cuts in the next.
I’m being very specific in what they are ‘talking about doing something right’. Most other areas they seem to be doing everything wrong. That 2.5% spend is so vague it doesn’t mean anything – cuts today but 2.5% ‘when the country can afford it”..
Labour hasn’t really done anything so far. They have ended most of the strikes that were hitting the gdp which is a positive but outside that haven’t really had time to pass any new laws. The winter fuel thing is a mess, for sure wealthy pensioners dont need it but it should have been better implemented for the poorer. The upcoming budget will be telling, followed by the defence review next year.
I fear we will see cuts but let’s not judge until they are actually announced.
Actually Labour has done quite a bit so far.The winter fuel issue? There’s already compensation issues outstanding about the pension age for women going up without adequate warning. Some women ‘lost’ about £50,000 over that – Labour made a big deal over it but since getting into power they haven’t solved it. Instead, feet first WITHOUT assessing the consequences they gave 4 months notice that it would cut the winter fuels payments to a lot of vulnerable people. Have a separate income that takes you a pound or two over and you lose hundreds of pounds. Then you get rumours… Read more »
Just woke up after yet another weekend of ……? This post is completely incoherent. Why don’t you call Frank and have a chat about it?
What’s his number?
Call FRANK 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on 0300 123 6600
what are you talking about?
Don’t ask.
Money and recruitment definitely but on the money bit I’d also add more effective spending of that money. Less dithering for years while specifications keep changing and no more planning for X units of something then cut and cut so that per-unit cost goes up and up e.g. T45 12 becomes 8 becomes 6 let alone Nimrod. We don’t spend our money very efficiently and as well as more money we also need to improve the outputs we get from it.
Good comment Jim. I see a lack of imagination in how the military has gone about recruitment and the idea of ‘national service’ in general. Try new forms of ‘service’ and graduated levels of involvement leading into full commitment.
Are they bringing recruitment back in-house though? A recruitment agency that doesn’t understand the industry they are recruiting for are worse than useless.
Never mind all that, when are they going to free the sausages?
It does seem bad on the face of it but kinda need proper data behind the rejection rate to understand it, for starters a breakdown by reason, to really judge it.
Changing it so fat couch potatoes with an xbox or wheezy kids who can’t run 50 yards without an inhaler can now join instead of actively sorting out recruitment and retention issues is the cheap and easy option
its also the wrong one -Patheticly laughable tbh.
The point is that it was a rejection even if you were issued with an inhaler when you were 7, but never used it. Surely it’s about whether you can pass a fitness trial by the end of basic training.
Exactly. It almost doesn’t matter how unfit you are when you apply so long as a doctor certifies you can be knocked into shape.
Except it wasn’t, it just took longer getting (and paying for) your GP to confirm that you no longer had asthma. This is exactly what happened when I applied, albeit a few years ago now. Also true of old injuries.
Exactly the same.. failed first medical because of asthma history as a child. GP wrote a letter to recruitment office.. Had to start the process again
And by then had an offer in civvie street for tax free money in the sun
The truth is you were lucky, actually getting any medical professional to essentially reverse a previous diagnosis is very very difficult and many simply would not do it. Generally the most healthcare professionals will do is add a note to your record saying you disagree with a diagnosis. The reason most of them will not is that disease is dynamic, you many have needed inhalers when you were 12…at 18 your not using them..but suddenly you get an exacerbation at 25 and drop dead from asthma or arrest and were resuscitated and needed all care for the rest of your… Read more »
I can’t remember the wording of the letter but I’m assuming this is essentially what happened and it was good enough for the RM (subsequently failed my selection, ho hum!).
A good read Mate. BTW I’m tod there is steady flow of UK health professionals moving over to Aussie and a trickle coming here to NZ. The Aussies really appear to value their front line health professionals.
Yes indeed, Aus and NZ have good well put together health systems, with populations that actually understand they have to take responsibility for their own care and the actually staff their hospitals correctly ( staff nurses work generally around a 1to 4 patients ratio vs a 1 to something like 8 to 12 in UK hospital wards. they also pays far better and has good benefit’s. take a new staff staff nurse UK starts on £29,000 in auz its $78,000 ( or £40,000). an experienced staff nurse can earn £36,500 in UK and $100,000 (or £51,000 in Aus) it’s starts… Read more »
2 weeks ago, my brother had to wait 14 hours to see a consultant at A&E in Auckland for a life threatening situation (twisted bowel) due to no doctors or x-ray staff being available. In general NZ healthcare is terrible compared to the UK NHS.
Honestly I have seen and investigated many cases where people died waited many many days before seeing consultants in NHS hospitals (;four whole days was the worst for a person dying of multi organ failure …infact I have on many occasions written investigation reports where the root cause of serious harm or death was a lack of senior review… 14 years ago the NHS always came above the NZ system.. ( infact in international comparisons is was generally rates the best or second best in the world) ..now the NZ system beats the NHS in outcomes.. Even 4 years ago… Read more »
We often discuss this Jonathan and it’s always a interesting but sadly grim discussion!
My question would be, what can Wes do about it, he’s apparently a man with an NHS plan??
I sadly suspect he will beat his head against a wall, get nowhere, give up and be moved to another cabinet position….
Hi Cameron. Mate, really sorry to hear you had such a bad experience. I have had several trips to North Shore Auckland hospital for several family emergencies (both my parents passed away there at different times) and my wife going in for minor trauma surgery + other issues
IMO, the staff have been really good, but as you point out – long waits. My niece is a junior doctor and reckons they are under resourced on front line staff.
It is very expensive to live in Aus compared to the UK ( depending on were you live in the UK of course )
Hi Simon, yep 7.9% higher, but those salaries for nurses are up to 50% higher so your still a shed load better of as a nurse in AUS than the UK…it’s even better for GPs the average UK GP is on around £79,000 ( but the lowest partner drawings I know of was £45,000) GPs in AUS are on £120,000 a year… But as I said the average UK ward nurse will be looking after 8 patients at anyone time the nurse in Australia will be looking after 4 patients..essentially Australian nurses have half the workload for 50% more cash.… Read more »
Based on what I know from a woman I work with whose son lives in Sidney, I would say it was a bit more then 7.9%. The cost of seeing a dentist was some crazy amount ( however that could also be high in the UK if you cant get an NHS dentist, luckily I still have one)Good point about the work load thought. What is the tax take like out there ?
Pretty good, 16% lower rate ( starts at about £10,000) 30% higher rate..with no national security…
probably true Simon – but try Auckland. Overpriced property, higher cost of living (food, petrol and higher gst) and lower wages . It is higher than AUS for sure , although Sydney property is pricier.
To be fair Australia is a lot more expensive to live in than the uk
probably true Tim– but try Auckland. Overpriced property, higher cost of living (food, petrol and higher gst) and lower wages . It is higher than AUS for sure , although Sydney property is pricier.
Hi Jonathan -interesting to review those pay rates. My niece is a junior doctor here in NZ, considering doing a few years in OZ. Much better pay, particularly in the outback and mining communities (they are short on staff apparently).Other benefits include travel, free accommodation. They also receive an additional 10% on top of their base salary for their compulsory superannuation fund contribution.
I should add the NZ health services are really good (IMO). My experience with hospital front line staff has been first class. My niece is concerned though they are understaffed and overworked, especially the junior doctors.
to be honest every single service in the world has its benfits and pitfalls, no service is good at everything…I’m pretty pissed with the NHS, but it still scores as the third best system in the world, mainly because it’s so cost effective for delivery vs resources ( its classed first in 10 of the major western systems for administrative efficiency) as well as access ( second for access) but it’s now 8 for care delivery and outcomes ( which is where the lack of staff and funding kill it). This is the problem that the Uk population and political… Read more »
same for me – and tbh I agreed with the decision…I was dissapointed yes but it was I thought a fair judgement.
Having been through the process, the inhaler issue and other medical issues are a pain. It took me a while to get the paperwork straight when I went through a few years ago now. But, the fitness needs to be there before you go, I went in with a high 9 minute 1.5 mile, there were people rolling in around 14 minutes. Those at the slow end had a much harder time getting through average PT sessions, those at the fitter end had a much easier time, making the whole training programme easier. Although the 1.5 miler isn’t a thing… Read more »
Maybe those types of recruits will be better as cyber specialists?
or they could have jobs at the NCA or GCHQ if they are clever enough…which surely you would want them to be given the nature of that job?
Depends. It’s the couch potato/wheezy kids who can’t run 50 yards who are the best ones to be able to operate drones. You just have to make sure that you use them as drone operators and don’t force them to become infantry. Horses for courses – a thoroughbred is no good for pulling a plough or a cart, a shire horse no good at sprinting.
Great comment Rob. Rejecting people who might have special aptitude for spotting patterns (comms and satellite imagery interpretation for example) isn’t very smart. Because some lad or lassie can’t get over an assault course that would kill most of us, shouldn’t be a reason to send them home. ‘An army marches on its stomach’ and ‘For want of a nail the battle was lost’ come to mind.
Yes but, if you can attack a countries ability to fight via cyber attack ( and china will cyber attack the crap out of any nation it thinks it’s going to go to war with) then actually recruiting people who have those skills is not a bad idea.
Also they have stated they are sorting out all the issues and blocks to recruitment and retention. So I would say it’s actually a positive message, results count but I’m not sure how you can bitch about them saying they will remove the blocks to recruitment by speeding up processes..
I want to see the issues around recruitment and retention addressed properly not by a carte blanche realligment of the process to include those previously not considered fit for recruitment.
I would imagine the issue is actually the question of who does offensive cyber. Now defensive cyber you can say that’s a security forces issue, not uniformed services. But offensive cyber changes that, you can undertake mass casualty attacks using offensive cyber, destroy significant parts of a nation’s infrastructure and war-fighting ability. Now I’m not really sure it’s appropriate to be asking a “civilian” to essentially wage war and kill people while saying you’re not good enough to be considered a member of the armed forces. It’s my personal view if you expect someone to take on the weight of… Read more »
Regards the moral issues of civilians attacking other nations. Interestingly, I believe GCHQ have an organisation doing the offensive side. So civilians. Although the military have a JCU at Cheltenham so maybe there is military involvement. The National Cyber Force has been established, I understand, to do offensive Cyber. Details are shrouded in secrecy beyond that it’s centre will be in Salmesbury, and that the MoD, DSTL, SIS and GCHQ all contribute. Defensive Cyber is well established and currently a mish mash of stand alone units from the 3 services, such as the RNs Fleet C4ISR, the RAFs 591 which… Read more »
Im good at FP Shoot em ups!
I can code in Java, HTTPs, C++ and can do some interesting things to break into supposedly secure WiFi networks (Its not that difficult which is scary!) …I should apply as a Direct Entry Cyber Tech!
All Swahili to me I’m afraid. 😆
If you were in the UK maybe Joint Cyber Unit ( Reserve ) would be interested in you, with your background!
I think I will stick where i am …Tax free and sun is so much better than taxed till the pips squeak and the poor weather!
I’ve never really wanted to live anywhere else tbh -until this year. Now redundant (well feels sort of like forced early retirement tbh) & now having all day to do what I want…I’m sick to bloody death of the rain.
Seriously considering buggering off somewhere nice.. not too hot …but at least a few contiguous weeks of sun during summer would be nice!
Defensive cyber can be either. At a local level, it includes protecting the battlefield against attack. Physical equivalent would be a tank – and saying it’s gun is offensive and so military, but it’s armour is defensive and therefore nothing to do with the uniformed services. I agree that strategic defensive cyber against civilian targets is security rather than military, but defensive cyber against both tactical and strategic targets should should have an appropriate level of uniformed services involvement.
I believe the USMC are now running a fat camp for prospective recruitments….
Pity I’m not a yank, and am far too bloody old now ….
😂😂😂
TBH… I don’t think that’s a bad idea.
If you can get someone who is unfit and overweight into shape to attend training and get a career out of them? Why not do it?
And you in the end save a person from early death and costing the society a fortune..personally I’m up for sending everyone to an exercise class as part of their access to healthcare.. I be honest you only need to look back at why public health was invented, it was war..all the key drivers for public health and health care happened after majors wars.. boer war…after the British army wheezed its way across South Africa, it was realised that 40-60% of young men were not fit for medical service and that those that got through were hardly prime. There was… Read more »
Exactly. Few every serve in the special forces where physical and above all mental toughness are essential. Most are needed to maintain the kit and service equipment.
The main issue was the huge % of recruits leaving before any kind of selection got going just because it took so long. Solve that problem and you have plenty of fit enthusiastic people to put through the system. Quality will improve. I’ll bet what was going on was resource choke points around ‘cost of various bottlenecks’ hitting budgets. Amazing the way the NHS mentality permeates. Thing is the ‘costs’ are not real as the establishment and trainers are all there full time as are the base staff. The cost of a bit of food, uniform and basic training is… Read more »
Unfortunately, managing your establishment as a cost control has become endemic, slowing and blocking recruitment is unfortunately endemic in the public sector and with private sector organisations that have government contracts. As a way to manage overspend and over performance against funded capacity it works in the short term, but is profoundly destabilising in the long term. I cannot tell you the number of times where providers have told me “ they cannot recruit to positions and have done their best, when I know for a fact they have not even bothered putting out adverts for months.
The inability to understand the difference between cost and value!
Or how failing to spend now will cost Nx more later…
Bean counters looking at a ledger as opposed to professionals planning for the future.
Sad but true, in year accounting is the bane of government.
I hope we see the policy enacted very soon.
It would help if Captcha or whoever it was removed from the recruitment process
Well said. Biggest mistake was “privatising” recruitment.
Surprising that it was the army that was selected for contractorised recruitmentt all those years ago. Should have been the smallest service as a trial run.
Interesting that the RAF and RN never had to suffer the likes of Capita.
Graham, I suspect someone may have been looking for a “top job” as their career was coming to an end.
You certainly occasionally see “defence” companies suddenly getting additional “military” press and lo and behold, a former “Red tab”, is suddenly working for said company.
Crapita
I failed the eye sight test as an officer, was then let in as a rating, and two years later passed OSB and was commissioned! A general waste of time and money for both sides. The above inflation pay rise is good, but the government and Treasury have emphasised that the MOD will be given no extra money to pay for it! So effectively the MOD is now being forced to make immediate cuts to non-pay spending due to a decision by a third party that it had almost no control over. Hence the reports that exercises are being cancelled… Read more »
Pay rise, from within existing money, not new money. What pays for it?
What about the RFA Mr Healey?
2.5% Repeat of usual “one day” if Starmer ever gets round to it, or any new certainties?
Otherwise, on the reforms, crack on.
How about reintroducing ACOs and AFCOs with real military people in them?
The pay rise to be absorbed in-year with no new money has always been the case. its not just this year, not just this Government. MoD will ask for an uplift for the next year to catch up, but always run a year in arrears until they get the new money or at least ask for it.
Ok, thanks for that detail.
the cost was said to £1.1billion , I did see an news item on my phone that said it might come from the treasury. didn’t bookmark it so cant go
back to it
Counter point:
If we have headcount limits, how many pids will be taken up by ACO’s.
To be honest, I’ve no idea! How many were there, and how many Pids per office?
We can find personnel for an Experimentation Battalion, and for Demo/Opfor Coys, so maybe a “Careers Company” of vets or FTRS no longer deploying?
Just a thought?
Neither do I, just food for thought.
In many case’s. The old careers offices were often manned with people who were medically down graded for whatever reason. Or if you had submitted your 12 month notice period, you could request to be drafted to your local office for resettlement resons. It wasn’t guaranteed though. And you had to be able speak positively about the services for obvious reasons.
Thanks mate.
So no actual permanent AFCO umbrella organisation one would be posted to?
Wish Farouk was still around, it was a role I recall him saying he did for a time.
Recruitment Group run from Upavon deals with them hand in glove with Capita and the Outreach Teams you’d normally in an ideal world have 2-3 Army, 2 Navy, 2 RAF and 3-4 Civvies in each AFCO. In reality some only have 1 SNCO and 1 civvie and rolling member of the nearest Outreach Team brought in. The Outreach Teams are meant to be self sufficient sections or essentially a mini troop but numbers again vary in reality in each region.
Recruitment Group run from Upavon deals with them hand in glove with Capita and the Outreach Teams you’d normally in an ideal world have 2-3 Army, 2 Navy, 2 RAF and 3-4 Civvies in each AFCO. In reality some only have 1 SNCO and 1 civvie and rolling member of the nearest Outreach Team brought in. The Outreach Teams are meant to be self sufficient sections or essentially a mini troop but numbers again vary in reality in each region. You can go to recruitment group for 2 years as a mainstream posting. It’s not a case were they just… Read more »
Thanks for this.
To be fair Dern, my mates who did stints in recruitment offices (two mates) were at the end of their terms.
The old ‘rapid promotion’ to boost the pension and a couple of years flying a desk in a recruitment office to finish off the 21 years.
I’ve always asumed that was the case in general, back in the day before the nincompoops in charge privatised it and royally fu#ked it up!
The pension boost has been limited now by career avenging pension
But back in the day the Army had a much higher headcount cap, so having people serving out the end of term in a recruitment office, instead of say as a Company Sergeant Major, was an option.
I would think there are still enough folks finishing their time who could be really usefully employed manning a recruitment office.
Bringing serious experience to the job, they need to bring recruitment back in house.
Depends on how many Careers centres there are, 100 centres with 2 members of staff from the forces (which is not that much) is already an artillery battery worth of headcount taken.
And from a purely mercenary point of view: end of career blokes are really expensive. You’re going to man these pids with guys who are taking in a WO’s wage?
Surely it depends on what benefits they would bring ?…It sounds like Capita have made a completely fuck up of it so it may be worth doing that to address those issues.
Long term the additional recruitment would more than off set the numbers taken out to achieve it.
I was greeted by my son who serves that the good news about a decent pay rise with ‘yes but they have put the cost of accommodation up along with one or two other costs so we are no better off’. I have recently been informed that exercises and training have been cancelled for this financial year.
I assume we have told Putin and other nasty people they will have to wait before they cause any more trouble until the new financial year.
Meanwhile the invasion continues across the Channel and our PM has got a new suit.
He’s really being a bit silly, accommodation is at most (ie for the highest priced) 120£ per month after the increase. That’s about 20£ more, or 240 per anum. The pay increase was an extra grand plus 6%. He’s certainly better off than he was.
“The invasion across the channel” good grief bigotry is dramatic sometimes.
and were else would you get accommodation for £120 a month
Yes… although the accommodation is generally worth about that much lol
Sorry, I’ll keep treating people with empathy and respect, and calling out people like you who seem keen on drowning people who are just looking for a better life.
Bearing in mind the below inflation pay rises of the last few years and the big rise in his household bills he is actually worse off now than he was 4 years ago. As for your other comment, when in less than two years the number of people who arrive in small boats out number those in a British Army division I call it what it is. If the best you can do is throw a cheap insult to someone you don’t even know that is just a bit childish. Unfortunately the facts are our soft liberal policies are encouraging… Read more »
I’m bearing those in mind, I bring home an army pay check, and I still stand by what I said, the cost increases in the service are not offsetting the pay rise. And the childish one was the dehumanising comment that is trying to other people fleeing to our country and making them acceptable targets for harrasment and assault. You have a problem with the rate of imigration? Fine. But the rhetoric you are using is not only rooted in racism but gives ammunition to the “defund the RNLI” crowd and the people who want to let immigrants drown. It’s… Read more »
Im afraid I don’t agree with you regarding the pay rise. That other public sector pay workers have agreed multi year increases is because 6% isn’t enough to offset what has been going on for many years. That retention is a major problem and has been for a while suggests that one year with an above inflation pay rise won’t deal with that challenge. The number of migrants crossing the channel is not acceptable and whilst some are certainly from horrible regimes it is not the U.K. responsibility to take such numbers on top of Ukrainians, Afghans and Hong Kong… Read more »
Agree. I share your views. Careful with the term “mass immigration” I got pulled up for that one a few weeks back and agreed to downgrade to the term “immigration levels are too high”
It is a ticking timebomb that will have consequences in later years. Adding to an ageing population does not help matters either.
Unfortunately we have progressed in the U.K. so much so that the use of certainly harsh but descriptive language is used as an excuse not to address serious issues by people who seem happy with the status quo. This plays into the hands of the extreme globalists and the genuine far right. Neither view represents the vast majority. I was fortunate to be educated at a time in a down at heel state sector school that still encouraged tough debate and disagreement without the need to somehow prove that your opponent is morally and intellectually inferior because they might have… Read more »
Yes but almost all that migration was to fill jobs that the British pubic were either not qualified to do or do not wish to do for the money and conditions offered. 265,000 NHS staff are migrants, with almost 100,000 migrants a year coming to work in the NHS..and we still have around 125,000 vacancies unfilled… intotal the government gave out 350,000 health and social care visas, so around 250,000 came to work in social care, and there are around a total 375,000 immigrants working in social care..of but there are still 150,000 vacancies. so unless we can find around… Read more »
You were up late last night! The stats don’t quite back up your narrative. 379,000 students including 100,000 dependents arrived last year. We had 1.4m people unemployed in the same year. I am not against migration but the numbers are wildly out of control. Businesses that thrive on increasing demand are happy with it as it also provides a dampening effect on wage growth. Our economy seems to be developing into a giant ponzi scheme. It is genuine GDP per capita growth for your average person that really matters. You are totally correct about it takes time to recruit and… Read more »
I’m not saying it’s a good thing, the numbers I gave are about right, but they are generalised as there are no definitive statistics and they change a lot…remember the NHS and social care are made of many many 10,000s of employers ( there are 40-50 thousand organisations in the nhs system before social care)…so the numbers difficult but the ones I used are from issued visa ( 350,000 health and social care visas in one year) as well as vacancies estimated…but in the round we have 350,000 visa a year issued at present ..and of the 2.8 ish million… Read more »
BTW a really great response. I have worked regularly across defence, healthcare, education, emergency services and local authorities in my 35+ years career in construction and project management and the one thing they all have in common is the high proportion of senior managers with an oversized bureaucratic empire to match. The previous Government actually did increase staff numbers in the NHS but productivity has actually gone down. The incoming Government has provided a pay rise but with no commitment from healthcare unions to improve efficiency. We can do more with what we currently spend but some powerful vested interests… Read more »
Maybe the pay rises given out may encourage UK citizens to apply for those jobs. Maybe going back to the ‘old fashioned’ idea of not charging Nurses 9k a year for courses may encourage young people to consider a job in the Health Service. Maybe reigning back on using immigration to fill jobs will allow UK citizens the opportunity to get the experience required to apply for the jobs that they havent got the experience for. I appreciate you work/have worked in the Health Service and have far more applicable experience than I however.. Using the negative government policies instigated… Read more »
edit to Jonathan sorry I should have read some of your further replies first and replied to those …but hopefuly you get my drift.
Indeed, but as noted with healthcare this will take major investment in the workforce over about 2 decades and we will probably need increased immigration flows into the nhs for a few years ( to manage demand and free up experienced staff to train the increase in trainees), but then after a decade we could look to drop the numbers significantly…but I think politicians need to be honest and tell the public that we have essentially parasited off second and third world health systems,have around 30% of our NHS workforce as migrants and will need a national action plan lasting… Read more »
Thats standard with government departments, none of them get the in year money for the rise that year.. they also do one last little bit of a funny wheeze..although your annual pay rise occurres on the first day of the tax year, they don’t pay it out until after the pay review bodies have all sent in there recommendations and it’s all agreed..that mean you tend to get your pay rise backdated in around Oct time..what this means is anyone who leaves between April and Oct does not get their pay rise..if you change employer ( so change hospital etc)… Read more »
The thinking behind closing the “shops” was partly security, aka Provo attack. It is a good idea but given the amount of imported and home grown with zombie knives? Would need some serious security in place.
Good point. They’re pretty much sitting ducks.
That’s a profoundly sad, but valid point.
what about the RFA?
Thank goodness. 3/4 being rejected or giving up is ridiculous.
Choosing to join the forces shouldn’t be a long process.
Basics, why this hasn’t been addressed for years is sheer incompetence, a recruitment process that deters recruitment is not fit for purpose. The glacial time lag is the big reason why people find something else, really basic problem to solve.
“We’ve delivered the largest pay rise for the Armed Forces in over 20 years,”
Actually no you didn’t as this was funded from within the MoD budget – it wasn’t new money.
Political spin!
Get rid of Capita and recruit using ex servicemen to do the same job. Capita have underperformed in most of their contracts for years.
Not sure that ex-Service is the way to go… a lot of them are ex-service for a reason.
This isn’t me, by the way, someone else has my username.
Please could you change? I’m on here a lot and it might get confusing.
Well well mate. Good job you pointed that out, assumes earlier poster was you.
So are you sailorboy or sailorboy ?
I’m “the” SailorBoy, the one with 1.3k posts.
This is why the other one needs to change, maybe even just the capitals, it gets very confusing.
Ha ha we have a SailorBoy v1.300 (original) and a SailorBoy v0.003 ( the fake).
I’ve noticed the other is Sailorboy rather than SailorBoy, so the B isn’t capitalised for the other one.
They don’t post often, so I doubt it will be an issue again.
Am I the only person noticing that of the millions of fighting age males who’ve landed on these shores, none seem the least bit interested in defending this new county that they now call home? Whenever you see recruits they’re mostly indigenous whites from poorer working class areas of Britain, especially the North. Lets see some statistics. People lie but numbers don’t unless cooked. That seems to be the biggest indicator that something is going wrong.
Do you seriously believe that “millions of fighting age males” have landed on our shores?
You need to take a much closer look at our Armed Force’s. They come from all backgrounds, all four corners of the nation, and many religions and nationalities are represented.
Hear hear Robert.
Our Armed Forces are one of the best legacies of the Empire, with people serving in them from all over the globe, not just from around the nation.
Dont forget the Commonwealth. Lots of lads and lasses join from Commonwealth countries although the 5 Eyes security restrictions apply so they can only join certain branches.
Must admit I’m not a fan of labour but here’s some sound policies to fix some of the recruitment issues.
I appreciate the sentiment of setting targets here, it definitely sends the right message out that radical change is needed in this process. It sets an aspiration we need to shorten recruitment time, so it’s the right idea. However, I worry about the consequences of not meeting these targets and whether missing them by a few days really matters, RAG targets and all that! My main concern is, unless we increase recruitment staff and streamline the processes they and applicants need to follow I worry we’ll end up with recruitment staff just making rash decisions about applicants, just because they… Read more »
Top gamer? I don’t want to brag but i have a 6.41 K/D in Battlefield 2042, where do i sign up
And I’ve invaded India as Poland in Empire Total War
Does that make me officer material?
3 out of 4 being rejected…sounds like we have a public health crisis…bad food and a bad approach to personal responsibility for fitness and welling being is killing us.. it reminds me of my lectures when I was a wee 20 year old many many many decades ago on why the heath system and public health was created.I will give you one guess…The NHS,School dinners, Health visitors…all came out of one thing and that was war.. honest you only need to look back at why public health was invented, it was war..all the key drivers for public health and health… Read more »
I hope I am not misconstrued, but all the advertising I have seen is aimed at the wrong demographic if one uses the known composition of population and historic patterns of service to our military in all branches.
Getting the young wizards on board is over due.
In brief and not having read the fine detail, I don’t believe Labour activists will have changed from an anti-defence outlook.
Largest pay rise- Yep…But…
Didn’t mention that it was coming out of the existing budget with no extra money to fund it. At least , unlike the train drivers, doctors and everyone else who got an unfunded black hole pay rise the Armed Forces cannot be accused of freezing granny to death on this one!
I joined the RN on 2 Jan 1981. I left at the end of 2014 so perhaps I am a little out of date on the current situation but through my job I interact with MOD and RN staff and other nations Armed forces staff on a daily basis (Bar Fridays which is a sacrosanct Brunch Day!) so i still understand where the RN is with regards to the issues it faces. Oh, and it’s not the only one. The USN also has big issues with recruiting and training. Anyway, back to Jan 81 The first of the three intakes… Read more »
Where are all these cyber divisions and drone divisions magically going to appear from when people still in fight tooth and nail to get a monitor or laptop. Also Capita are given hard targets on niche trades so when “Youth A” who wanted to be a drone pilot then finds out he/she is going to be a chef,loggie or signaller instead you’d have more faith than me in convincing them otherwise. More “hope and change” b*ll*cks straight out of 1997 that’ll amass to nothing. Starting to come to the conclusion none of the main parties are fit to lead this… Read more »
Good to hear that they’re looking at taking it seriously. The ideas about reviewing the refusal policies is good.
However, the real task will be getting the response times down; identifying why it’s taking so long (potentially farming it out to 3rd parties who don’t resource properly with the aim of maximising profit?), and actually taking the required actions to change that (up to and including rescinding contracts and bringing functions in-house / re-cutting the contracts with greater bite) are not necessarily going to be easy to implement.
We can all tell Healy how to fix the recruitment issue. Get rid of SERCO. Get the regiments back into their local recruiting offices. Let those with direct experience of life in the forces tell their stories to potential recruits. Do what they do in the US, fully fund everyone who wants to join the services through University in exchange for a minimum 6 year contract.
With this reform, joining HM Armed forces would give individuals a meaningful career path and show that they value intelligence and offer real growth prospects.
We can all tell Healy how to fix the recruitment issue. Get rid of SERCO. Get the regiments back into their local recruiting offices. Let those with direct experience of life in the forces tell their stories to potential recruits. Do what they do in the US, fully fund everyone who wants to join the services through university in exchange for a minimum 6 year contract. With this reform, joining HM Armed Forces would give individuals a meaningful career path and show that intelligence and training offers real growth prospects. Offer those who do not have a degree, the chance… Read more »
We can all tell Healy how to fix the recruitment issue. Get rid of SERCO. Get the regiments back into their local recruiting offices. Let those with direct experience of life in the forces tell their stories to potential recruits. Do what they do in the US, fully fund everyone who wants to join the services through university in exchange for a minimum 6 year contract. With this reform, joining HM Armed Forces would give individuals a meaningful career path and show that intelligence and training offers real growth prospects. Offer those who do not have a degree, the… Read more »
We can all tell Healey how to fix the recruitment issue. Get rid of SERCO. Get the regiments back into their local recruiting offices. Let those with direct experience of life in the forces tell their stories to potential recruits. Do what they do in the US, fully fund everyone who wants to join the services through university in exchange for a minimum 6 year contract. With this reform, joining HM Armed Forces would give individuals a meaningful career path and show that intelligence and training offers real growth prospects. Offer those who do not have a degree, the… Read more »