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Press release: Further action needed to improve welfare and care for armed forces recruits and trainees

Most Armed Forces’ recruits and trainees feel safe and well-supported in training but a number of areas for improvement remain in the overall quality of welfare and duty of care, according to a report published today by Ofsted, the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills.

The report, The quality of welfare and duty of care for recruits and trainees in the Armed Forces, recognises progress over the past five years and acknowledges the integral part which welfare and duty of care now play within training. However, while there has been satisfactory progress, the Armed Forces need to address a number of issues relating to the recruitment of, and the training done by, new recruits.

Inspectors found training establishments inspected offer an effective and extensive range of welfare and care provision, available to recruits and trainees, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Inspectors looked at the provision of initial training as a recruit (phase 1) and then as a trainee, undertaking specialist training in a particular trade (phase 2). The report found training establishments’ chains of command and on-site welfare agencies to generally have a very good knowledge of the personal and training issues of individual recruits. Comprehensive pastoral, leisure and welfare options are also provided by external organisations such as the WRVS.

Christine Gilbert, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, said: 'Parents and carers want to know the Armed Forces’ arrangements for the welfare and care of their young people are what they ought to be. While there has been progress, Ofsted’s first report into the quality of welfare and the duty of care of recruits and trainees identifies a number of actions that are necessary to make further real and lasting improvements.'

Ofsted was commissioned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to produce an independent annual report on the quality of welfare and duty of care which recruits and trainees experience during training. This is the third report by an external inspectorate, and the first by Ofsted. In 2008/09, Ofsted inspectors visited 12 training establishments, 12 recruitment centres and five selection centres.

The report found training staff strongly committed to providing fair and challenging training programmes for recruits while selection procedures and training for instructors are also much improved. However, many instructors in the Army’s training centres face an exceptionally high workload, particularly during the first six weeks of initial training. Past improvements in welfare and duty of care are not always sustained following changes of command.

Recruitment and selection practice across the Armed Forces needs to be improved. Some Army recruiting teams focus on filling vacancies in specific trades, failing to take sufficient account of the individual abilities of recruits. This approach also leads to the entry of too many recruits into the Army who are physically unsuited, psychologically immature and ill-prepared for service, and who subsequently leave. An inconsistency of recruitment advice particularly affects overseas recruits who, irrespective of aptitude, may find themselves steered into lower skilled trades. Key aspects of the recruitment practice of overseas recruits require urgent review.

The report found the literacy, numeracy and language needs of recruits to be unsatisfactorily supported during phase 1 training. While more assessment is taking place to identify learning needs, a lack of staffing and resources means there is insufficient support for all those who need it, and often only available for those most in need.

Although not legally required to do so, the armed forces undertake Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks on instructors working with recruits. While the Royal Navy and RAF CRB checks of relevant staff are frequently sound, the Army’s progress is too slow and needs urgent attention.

The report makes a number of recommendations to ensure full confidence in the duty of care arrangements. The Armed Forces need to ensure that:

• Improvements are sustained following each handover of command to ensure continuity and consistency of good practice in welfare and duty of care at each training establishment.

• The Army’s backlog of CRB checks for relevant staff is urgently cleared and safeguarding responsibilities clarified.

• Recruitment practices enable the right people to apply for appropriate roles and arrangements for recruiting overseas recruits undergo review.

• Sufficient resources are made available to enable all recruits to gain essential literacy and numeracy skills at the most appropriate time.

• The workloads and working hours of all instructors and personnel involved in the initial training of recruits are managed effectively.

• A culture of self-assessment and continuous improvement is embedded at establishment and training headquarters level.

Notes For Editors

1. The report, The quality of welfare and duty of care for recruits and trainees in the Armed Forces, is available at www.ofsted.gov.uk/publications/080194.

2. The report offers a thematic summary against three broad criteria (effectiveness of welfare and duty of care, capacity to improve, and self-assessment). It also includes a brief synopsis of each institution visited by the inspectors

Inspectors looked at an applicant’s journey from Armed Forces Careers Offices (AFCOs) and acquaint courses (recruitment and selection) through to initial training as a recruit (phase 1) and then as a trainee (phase 2), undertaking specialist training in a particular trade. Entrants to the services are generally aged 16 - 24.

3. The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) regulates and inspects registered childcare and children's social care, including adoption and fostering agencies, residential schools, family centres and homes for children. It also inspects all state maintained schools, non-association independent schools, pupil referral units, further education, initial teacher education, and publicly funded adult skills and employment-based training, the Children and Family Courts Advisory Service (Cafcass), and the overall level of services for children in local authority areas.

4. Media can contact the Ofsted Press Office through 020 7421 6899 or via Ofsted's enquiry line 08456 404040 between 8.30am - 6.30pm Monday - Friday. Out of these hours, during evenings and weekends, the duty press officer can be reached on 07919 057359.

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