The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has responded to concerns raised by Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour – Slough) regarding retention rates across the UK’s armed forces, with a series of initiatives aimed at improving workforce stability in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA), Royal Air Force (RAF), Royal Navy (RN), and British Army.

According to a response from Al Carns, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Minister for Veterans), these efforts are part of a Defence-wide initiative under the newly established Recruitment and Retention Board. The government is committed to addressing the recruitment and retention challenges that the forces are currently facing.

“The Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) are highly valued, specialist personnel. We are committed to listening to their concerns and keeping a continued dialogue to address the issues they have raised,” said Carns in his response to Dhesi’s question about improving retention in the RFA. Recruitment and retention remain top priorities for the RFA, with work already underway to address pay disputes and improve terms and conditions.

Carns also highlighted that the MOD is focusing on shortening recruitment timelines and introducing modernised allowances and pay to remain competitive.

MoD prioritises recruitment and retention with new approach

The RAF is also implementing a range of initiatives to improve retention, including increased funding for welfare projects and investments in infrastructure to improve accommodation. “Retention initiatives include the establishment of working groups to improve the lived experience of our people, increased funding for welfare projects, investment in infrastructure to improve accommodation, and increased opportunities for through-career education and promotion,” Carns stated.

He added that these initiatives are aimed at ensuring personnel feel valued and are provided with the leadership and resources they need to thrive in their roles. A key focus of these initiatives is to improve career satisfaction, which is seen as integral to retaining skilled personnel in the long term.

The Royal Navy has also established a high-level Retention Steering Group to better address retention challenges. “The RN has established a high-level Retention Steering Group to coordinate all retention activity, analyse outflow data and ensure that quicker action is taken to counter outflow trends,” Carns explained. T

he Navy is focusing on improving career management during the early years of service, particularly addressing retention peaks at three and six years of service. Furthermore, enhancing health and wellbeing support for deployed personnel and providing greater stability for the workforce are key areas of focus.

The British Army’s approach to retention includes a comprehensive strategy that covers financial and policy initiatives aimed at improving workforce retention throughout the employee lifecycle. “Retention is one of the Army’s top priorities, supported by Defence. A retention strategy has been launched to address barriers to retention through a holistic set of financial and policy initiatives spanning the entire employee lifecycle,” said Carns.

The strategy is supported by an annual retention fund and is monitored by the Army Personnel Campaign Board.


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George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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Brom
Brom
1 day ago

Better pay, proper accommodation and support for families.

There, solved it for you

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli
1 day ago
Reply to  Brom

I’d add, by having more mass, kit and people are worked less as the workload is spread around.
But that would mean HMG increasing mass, and they seem allergic to that concept.
What happened to the old harmony guidelines about the max length of time deployed in a given period?

Python15
Python15
1 day ago

This is the problem I see daily. The guys are treated more like robots than humans and of course you always hear ” You’re paid 24 hrs a day” being extolled. The blokes are knackered and I must say there wasn’t the same amount of boolshit paperwork and regulations (D&I?) that I saw when I was in

Dern
Dern
23 hours ago
Reply to  Python15

Funny how D&I is always listed as bullshit when the VAST majority of D&I is just “Don’t be a cunt.”

I guess when you think about it, it makes sense the why the kind of people who complain about it complain about it.

Robert Blay
Robert Blay
1 day ago
Reply to  Brom

Its a little more complex than that. When I served in the RN I never heard anyone say they are leaving because of the pay.

Gunbuster
Gunbuster
15 hours ago
Reply to  Robert Blay

yep 100%

We were not paid a going rate for what was delivered but delivered anyway. The delivery was the issue. Long days and nights without recognition, extra jobs, (normally other peoples because they had quit and there was no replacement) which increased workload, stress and the feeling of nobody cares just get the job done no matter the mental cost.

Robert Blay
Robert Blay
5 hours ago
Reply to  Gunbuster

A lot of lads just got fed up of the 4 hours driving up the line on a Friday afternoon/Sunday evening too. The short shore time periods didn’t help either. They introduced the core working week which did help traveler’s more when a vessel was alongside for an extended period.

Robert Blay
Robert Blay
1 day ago
Reply to  Brom

And certainly at main operating bases accommodation standards are pretty good. SLAM blocks. Double bed, en suite bathroom/shower, plenty of storage, Internet access, kitchen area. Married quarters are a different story. Smaller camps and training units is usually where you will find the poorer end of accommodation.

Dern
Dern
23 hours ago
Reply to  Robert Blay

SLAM’s generally okay for someone in their teens or early 20’s, but once you’re above that age? It really isn’t.

Graham Moore
Graham Moore
19 hours ago
Reply to  Dern

What sort of accommodation would suit that demographic of the over ‘early 20s’?

Dern
Dern
19 hours ago
Reply to  Graham Moore

SLAM’s and even the Sergeant’s mess is basically a recreation of University Dorms of sorts. It was generally instituted with the idea that people would get into marriages after about the age of 25 and then move into Pads. That worked in the more traditional conservative life style the army likes to imagine is universal still (I also used to have thoughts about the Army’s accommodation policy rushing squaddies into badly thought out, unhealthy relationships because they where heavily incentivized to get married to get a pad). But I know so many squads (late 20’s or 30’s) now that, either… Read more »

Robert Blay
Robert Blay
5 hours ago
Reply to  Dern

At RAF Cottesmore they did trial a scheme where a single lad could rent a surplus married quarter as long as they didn’t throw parties every weekend and upset the neighbours. I’m not sure how long it lasted though.

Robert Blay
Robert Blay
5 hours ago
Reply to  Dern

But what else should they provide? I guess more of an apartment style room would have been good, but I comes down to cost.

Dern
Dern
21 minutes ago
Reply to  Robert Blay

There are options, but as I said, they’re going to require a major mindset change by the forces and considerable investment. Unfortunately the Armed forces in general have boxed themselves in, seeing things like accommodation as things that need to be ‘accommodated’ rather than things that, at a high standard, would be a recruitment and retention bonus.

Dern
Dern
3 minutes ago
Reply to  Robert Blay

The armed forces have unfortunately boxed themselves in by imagining that everyone is going to get married and move into a pad with their wives and have kids, and have compounded the issue with super garrisons. As I said in my reply to Graham, it requires a systemic rethink, which the armed forces are incapable of.

Rob Young
Rob Young
1 day ago
Reply to  Brom

And making it quicker to get in once you apply!

Graham Moore
Graham Moore
19 hours ago
Reply to  Brom

The pay issue is difficult. The AFPRB has existed for many decades and annually assesses service jobs against civilian ones, and makes recommendation for the pay award and revised costs for accomodation etc. There is also consideration of the drawbacks of service life and that is reflected in the pay award (used to be called the X Factor).

Are you saying that pay comparability should be scrapped…and the services just awarded a random and very high pay award every year?

Gunbuster
Gunbuster
15 hours ago
Reply to  Graham Moore

The comparability went years ago.
When I started as a 16 yr old baby tiff in HMS Fisgard the old and bold godlike Chief Tiffs pay (Then that title and responsibility became Charge Chiefs and latterly WO2s) and responsibilities was compared and calculated against that of an intercity train driver, London to Edinburgh.

That isn’t the case now. Responsibilities remain comparable but the renumeration for it has dropped away with regards to pay, leave, working week, hours worked, time away from home etc.

Barry Larking
Barry Larking
1 day ago

End fake sincerity and to show real appreciation.

Geoff Roach
Geoff Roach
1 day ago

“improving workforce stability”…in the RFA. Umh, pay rise?

Geoff Roach
Geoff Roach
1 day ago

The MOD could helo with using short words. Every press release is gobblygook.

Geoff Roach
Geoff Roach
1 day ago
Reply to  Geoff Roach

…but not by helo. Try again…help

Alan
Alan
1 day ago

Too little too late. Stick it where the sun don’t shine. After 23yrs service, the 24th couldn’t come soon enough for me. I’m done with getting shit on from great heights by what seems like all of the time and from all directions, why all the other face timing gobblers get all the reward. Anyone asking me for my advice in the future on whether they should join the forces, will be getting told a firm no f**king way, don’t do it. Go get yourself an apprenticeship, make something of your life. You then if course have the usual can(s)… Read more »

Last edited 1 day ago by Alan
John
John
1 day ago
Reply to  Alan

But you get an apprenticeship when you join the forces. Nearly every role offers an apprenticeship. No reason you couldn’t just join, complete your apprenticeship then leave.

Alan
Alan
18 hours ago
Reply to  John

There is that John yes, but only within selected trades, in the Army anyway .

Gunbuster
Gunbuster
14 hours ago
Reply to  John

When I joined as a baby tiff and apprenticeship went like this. 12m HMS Fisgard- Class room work (Tech college type stuff maths and physics) workshops fitting and turning, electronics making circuits and equipment, naval general training 12m HMS Collingwood more tech training in T school but aimed at your general specialisation be which for me was Weapon Engineering Electronics 12m at sea on an FF/DD as an apprentice doing on job training and work experience 18m back in Collingwood doing deep specialist training which in my case was Ordnance Control Engineering. So, more workshops, welding, soldering, milling, fitting and… Read more »

Dern
Dern
23 hours ago
Reply to  Alan

Seems good enough to have kept you on for a full career though.

Alan
Alan
18 hours ago
Reply to  Dern

If you’ve ever served Dern, you’d know for a dam fact that when you reach a certain point in your career, you’d be stupid to leave before completing either half or in my case a full career.

Last edited 18 hours ago by Alan
Gunbuster
Gunbuster
14 hours ago
Reply to  Alan

I made nearly 34 years minus a couple of months. I was lucky enough to get 3 foreign jobs along with UK shore jobs(Hong Kong, Naples Italy and KSA) I had 8 sea drafts and left as a WO1 at the top of my professional tree. I lived on a UK patch once (it was shit). I owned my own house and my missus basically brought up the kids on her own whilst I was a sea and I was at sea a lot. The foreign jobs where compensation for the experience and the additional pay and then the pension… Read more »

Dern
Dern
1 minute ago
Reply to  Alan

You claim to have had a miserable time, yet didn’t sign off at any point… plenty of opportunity to do so before your 24 or even 12 year point.

Robert Blay
Robert Blay
5 hours ago
Reply to  Alan

And yet you stayed for 24 years anyway. Can’t have been that bad.

John Evans
John Evans
1 day ago

When you get a new senior NCO its expected that they are going to be a bit zealous in the first few weeks but when we got our new RSM he was still behaving like a lunatic after a year. I and a lot of other lads in my platoon were quite happy running on open contracts and seven of us gave notice after three months of his tenure and left. Across the Battalion he had a similar effect. Add that to crap accomodation, RP’s bullying for the sake of their own amusement and the fact that the pay is… Read more »

Andrew D
Andrew D
22 hours ago

Navy struggling to man ship’s even though so few,are we going to have so few troops our Army can’t man Tanks again so few , an RAF with aircraft SQNs disappearing .The government must put this has priority rather than worry about the Environment ,🙄 finding plenty of money for that amongst other things etc .Sorry for rant guys.