The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
107.
The NAO
reported that the new scheme was “generous and less
bureaucratic,
and has
been generally welcomed by the Reservists”.
108.
The NAO
published a report on the MOD’s use of the Reserve Forces
in
March 2006.78
The NAO
highlighted the finding from its survey of Reservists,
that
41 percent
of those intending to leave within one year agreed that inadequate
support
(relating
to welfare and administration) played a part in their decision to
leave. The NAO
reported
that, while the most used form of support was the unit’s welfare
representative,
some units
had no full-time welfare representative to support deployed
Reservists and
their
families.
109.
The NAO
recommended that the MOD should focus its attention and resources
on
those
welfare services which were most used by Reservists and their
families, especially
those
provided by local Reserve units. In particular, it
should:
•
ensure that
information supplied to Reservists’ families was written in
plain
English;
•
ensure that
all TA regiments had adequate, dedicated welfare support, and
that
similar
measures were available for Royal Naval Reservists and Royal
Auxiliary
Air Force
Personnel; and
•
improve the
welfare support available to the families of deployed
Volunteer
Reservists
who lived far away from the Reserve unit with which they trained
and
those
Regular Reservists who had no unit.
110.
The NAO also
highlighted the lack of medical support for Reservists after
their
demobilisation,
and recommended that the MOD should:
•
undertake
to provide medical treatment to all Reservists injured on
operations
to enable
them to rejoin their civilian lives and careers as quickly as
possible;
and
•
institute
procedures for the diagnosis and treatment, through Defence
Medical
Services
(DMS), of Reservists who develop mental health problems after
the
demobilisation
process had been completed, as a result of an
operational
deployment.
111.
In November
2006, the MOD established the Reserves Mental Health
Programme
(RMHP), to
provide enhanced mental health care for current and former
Reservists
who had
been demobilised since 1 January 2003 following deployment on an
overseas
operation.
The RMHP is described in Section 16.2.
78
National
Audit Office, Ministry of
Defence: Reserve Forces, 31 March
2006.
22