Armed Forces: Carers

(asked on 14th April 2023) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the policy paper entitled UK Armed Forces Families Strategy: one year on, published on 13 April 2023, when he plans to publish the carers statement.


Answered by
Andrew Murrison Portrait
Andrew Murrison
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
This question was answered on 20th April 2023

The Early Learning and Childcare Fund (ELCF) has been replaced by a specific funding stream of the Armed Forces Families Fund which amalgamated the ELCF and the Education Support Fund. The Fund is administered on behalf of Defence by the Armed Forces Covenant Trust and the childcare funding stream accepted applications up until Monday 5 December 2022 for financial year 2022-23. The launch of the scheme for this financial year is likely to take place in the early autumn 2023


The Early Years Practitioner Network is in its early phase of existence but has a growing membership. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) provides coordination resource through a dedicated early learning and childcare officer. The MOD Local Authority Partnership for Early Years has been established and meets on a termly basis (three times per year). An assessment of the specific issues faced with obtaining childcare during periods of deployment will be considered in due course, following the completion of associated review activity.

Work on the carers statement began with a stock take of existing Defence policy to identify the support that was already in place to support carers. This is being complimented with work to look at the lived experience of those carers within Defence and has included gathering evidence from families impacted through working very closely with the networks of existing carers champions within Defence and with such organisations as the Forces Additional Needs and Disability Forum. Defence are members of “employers for carers” which as part of the Carers UK organisation provides guidance and support for staff who may have carers within their workforce, and we have been actively promoting this throughout our workforce and have already seen a positive increase in engagement with this resource. Defence will continue to work toward a statement of intent regarding carers and aim to publish this following consultation with our stakeholders during the summer of 2023.

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