Life in Britain’s Armed Forces can mean frequent geographical moves around the UK – and even overseas – for not just serving personnel but also their partners and families. What are the main challenges faced by those on the modern-day home front?
WORDS: PAUL F COCKBURN
When your husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend/partner — phew, shall we just say ‘significant other’ from now on? — is a member of Britain’s Armed Forces, you don’t need us to tell you how your life can be frequently turned upside down in the name of military necessity: sometimes short-notice moves around the UK (and even overseas), periodic disruptions to family and career plus quite possibly long periods of time spent apart. Not forgetting all the emotional strains that come when your loved one is away on active service.
We can tell you one thing, though; you’re certainly not alone, and there’s both help and support out there t help you get through it all. . While the challenges you face will be, to some degree, unique to your own particular circumstances, the fact is that there are plenty of people like you who find their lives influenced by their partner’s employer to a degree not usually experienced on civvy street.
It’s only fairly recently that Britain’s Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defence have made real efforts to recognise and accommodate the needs of the partners and families of those who Serve – and this has been pushed along by the concerted campaigning of those very partners and families – a sometimes overlooked camaraderie between Service personnel’s ‘significant others’ which is just as valid and important to the military community as that found in the Forces themselves.
THE CHALLENGES
Partners of Services personnel can face a real challenge when it comes to maintaining their own careers, especially if they had been established beforehand. An obvious result of new postings – particularly if they’re with relatively short notice – is that you will almost certainly find your CV dotted with frequent gaps, simply because it’s not always possible — particularly at short notice — to find to find a new job – any job – in the new location. It doesn’t help that many military bases are located in quite rural areas where work can be more difficult to find – and that’s just in the UK! If you’re following your partner overseas — for example, to Germany or Cyprus — you can face additional challenges in the job hunt if you don’t speak at least some German, Greek or Turkish.
Although there are no absolute guarantees, it is said that your chances of finding work are significantly improved if you’re either a healthcare or teaching professional. But if you’re not, and you’re determined to travel with your partner to their new posting, then — especially if it’s overseas — you’re likely to have to move into another line of work and, quite possibly, accept that you’re going to earn less as a result.
Parents are naturally concerned about their children’s education, but Services personnel face particular issues; regular moves every couple of years can have negative consequences and lead to both educational and administrative difficulties, particularly when it’s during arguably their most important, early primary years. Some Services personnel, especially if they’re moving overseas for a period, choose to send their sons or daughters to boarding school. It’s not necessarily ideal, but at least it’s possible to maintain a continuity of schooling and avoid your children always finding themselves ‘the new kid’ in class.
ALL TOGETHER NOW
Taking those main concerns in reverse order, all Service personnel – irrespective of rank or location – are entitled to receive professional advice on all aspects of their children’s education, be it in the UK or overseas. This is provided by the MoD-funded Children’s Education Advisory Service (CEAS). Whether you’re looking for a local state or a specialist boarding school, or advice when dealing with schools and local education authorities, CEAS’s full time advisors can respond via telephone, email or in person.
When it comes to finding work, it’s not uncommon for some partners to consider self-employment, especially part-time franchises which can be fitted around other family commitments. (For more information on this, check out our feature on family-friendly franchises on page XX.) Alternatively, finding a local job — along with appropriate childcare if you have children — remains the biggest bugbear for , especially in BFG. In general, check with your local HIVE, which should be able to provide all the information you need on the area, and other locations (real world and online) current where vacancies are listed. There is also a network of approximately 50 Jobcentre Plus Armed Forces Champions across the UK whose job is to help ensure the partners and families of serving personnel receive the correct advice and support relating to employment and work-related benefits such as Jobseeker’s Allowance. The Service Families Employment Scheme, meantime, is a new portal run through the Royal British Legion’s Civvy Street website (no relation to this magazine) which allows you to search for jobs within leading employer organisations, located in and around MoD locations.
An invaluable resource, though, are likely to be your neighbours; the partners of other serving personnel, who you can contactable through the HIVE, the appropriate Service Families Federation, and online forums such as ‘Rear Party’ (a spin-off from the Army Rumour Service website) or the SWAGs (Soldiers’ Wives and Girl Friends) forum which is part of the e-Bluey website. Getting together with other women and men who also have partners in the Armed Forces can be the most authoritative and supportive source of advice and information you can find — they won’t just ‘get’ what you’re going through (in a way few civilians, even close family, can), there’s also a very good chance that they will genuinely care!
MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR TIME
There is, of course, one final move that you and your ‘significant other’ will make — the move back onto civvy street. It’s easy to forget that all military personnel are at some point in the resettlement process, even if they’re only at the earliest stage of a military career that might last for decades. While the Armed Forces now place considerable resources into providing a degree of resettlement support to those leaving its ranks — through the Career Transition Partnership and charitable organisations such as Regular Forces Employment Association and the Officers‘ Association — what about you?
You may have absolutely no problem choosing to leave or put your own career ‘on hold‘ for the duration of your partner’s military service, but what about afterwards? Whether you’re considering the possibility of being able to pick up your career ‘from where you left off’ or are simply looking to also move off in a new direction once your partner has his or her discharge papers, then it’s worth thinking about education. Why? Education is intrinsically a good investment, full stop; but, it certainly will pay in the long-term to keep yourself up to speed on how things are developing in your chosen profession or occupation.
Yes, learning can cost money; yes, learning can take time, but it needn’t be either a hard or an expensive slog in the classroom — there are plenty of opportunities to learn by doing and to gain vocational qualifications. Of course, as with employment, the possibility that you might need to move from one geographical location to another (often at relatively short notice) can make it just as difficult to complete a traditional further or higher education course, especially if you’re physically attending college or university. However, there are plenty of inexpensive options: Army Education Centres can provide relatively short ‘basic’ courses in a range of skills; the Open University’s OpenLearn website gives you free access to Open University course materials which you can study independently at your own pace or with others. Even the oldest and most venerable of the UK’s educational institutions now offer a range of flexible, ‘distance learning’ options for study which you can fit around your life and commitments, just like the thousands of Services personnel who study for qualifications every year.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Of course, not everyone will depend on the military community to the same degree; it’s said that of the Royal Navy families eligible for SFA (Services Family Accommodation), less than one third (30%) take up the offer, with the majority preferring to put their roots down and integrate with local communities which may well be miles away from traditional naval areas — and just to simply ‘put up’ with long periods of separation. Other people will ‘settle down’ in order to invest in property, even if for years they may have to rent it out while on duty elsewhere.
Even if that’s the boat you’re in, however, the move from military to civilian life will be different from any that have gone before in your partner’s military career — quite possibly, simply down to its permanency! Unless your ‘significant other’ chooses a civilian career that involves an equal amount of travel and time away from home, you will quite possibly face the different challenges of not being in a place for just a few years; having the time and opportunity to settle in a civilian community may well be a significant element in your family’s resettlement.
Everyday life can be full of ups and downs; being part of the military community doesn’t necessarily complicate matters, but can give rise to additional concerns, particularly during operational deployments. The important thing to remember, however, is that help and support is out there.
MORE:
Army Families Federation:
01980 615525 (Mil: [9] 4344 5525), us@aff.org.uk, www.aff.org.uk
Navy Families Federation:
023 9265 4374, www.nff.org.uk
RAF Families Federation:
01780 781 650, www.raf-ff.org.uk
Children’s Education Advisory Service
01980 618 244, enquiries@ceas.detsa.co.uk
SSAFA Forces Help
0845 1300 975, www.ssafa.org.uk
e-Bluey.com
www.ebluey.com
Rear Party
www.rearparty.co.uk
British Franchise Association
01235 820 470, www.thebfa.org
Open University Open Learn
http://openlearn.open.ac.uk
DirectGov (for information on free courses)
www.direct.gov.uk
Learn Direct
www.learndirect.co.uk
Service Families Employment
