Updated: Added details announcement about a new charging system for Service Family Accommodation (SFA),
Announcement
MOD announced information about the introduction of a new charging system for Service Family Accommodation (SFA), a key element of the New Employment Model Programme, on 24 October 2014.
The details of the new Combined Accommodation Assessment System system are available here.
What is the New Employment Model?
The New Employment Model (NEM) is the widest ranging review of the terms and conditions of service for service personnel in over 40 years. It covers 4 broad areas of policy:
terms of service
accommodation
training and education
pay and allowances
Some aspects of the current package are extremely strong and need to be protected, such as, welfare provision and the high standards of training and education offered by all 3 services. However, to keep pace with the way in which service people live their lives in the 21st century, the services need to recruit for the future and the package as a whole needs to be updated. In particular, the impact of service life on families and on the careers of spouses and civil partners are consistently the ‘top two’ causes of dissatisfaction in the Armed Forces Continuous Attitude Survey (AFCAS).
Although not part of the NEM, the Future Armed Forces Pension Scheme is linked to its development.
The component parts of the NEM are being designed so that they meet the following benefits:
attractiveness: addressing the personal, social and domestic impacts of service both now and beyond 2020 so that personnel of the right quality continue to be recruited and retained in the services
agility: enabling the services to respond more quickly to changing requirements and ensure that uniformed manpower can be deployed to the optimum
affordability: the NEM is not a cost cutting exercise, but it is about delivering better value for money within the same level of resources
The first NEM component, the Forces Help to Buy scheme, which provides an interest free loan to help personnel buy their own home, went live on 1 April 2014. Implementation of other NEM components is expected from April 2015 onwards. Full implementation will stretch into 2020 and beyond.
The NEM consultation results
On 21 July 2014, the New Employment Model (NEM) published the results of their consultation with service personnel and their families.
What was the aim of the consultation and how was this achieved?
The consultation was launched in June 2013 and ended in February 2014. It had 2 aims:
a. two-way communication with service personnel on the principles of NEM. This was achieved through a programme of presentations delivered to service personnel augmented with an online questionnaire to enable them to give their views on the NEM proposals.
b. to gain specific pieces of information to help us design effective policy. So, for our online questionnaire we chose the questions to allow service personnel to give their views on the most important principles of NEM. We also used focus groups, interviews and a survey, which were designed by professional researchers to provide the specific pieces of information we needed to design the NEM.
Who took part in the consultation?
There was an overwhelming response to the consultation from service personnel with:
14,000 personnel attending briefings with Q&A sessions
12,000 people accessing the on-line questionnaire
over 800 service personnel and families taking part in focus groups and interviews
the targeted survey, issued to 16,000 pre-selected personnel made up of a representative sample of officers and other ranks across the 3 services, generating nearly 8,000 responses
What is being published here?
The following 2 consultation reports have been published on this website and can be found here:
NEM consultation phase 1 questionnaire feedback; a report providing a detailed summary of the responses to the online questionnaire
New Employment Model survey of service personnel; a statistical report on the survey
What are the next steps?
The results of the consultation continue to be used to make key policy decisions on the NEM components. It is planned that NEM will update service personnel on progress of policy design in autumn 2014.
Aims of the NEM
The NEM will implement changes which aim to:
deliver an offer to regular service personnel that supports domestic stability by reducing the frequency of moves, and supports partners’ employment
deliver a package that fits with what service personnel want and the lifestyles they wish to lead, by means of career structures and management and by making it easier to transfer between regular and reserve service
through life training and education will be reviewed to ensure that they offer service personnel the best opportunities for career development
be designed to support a whole force approach to manning, updating, and more closely align regular and reserve terms and conditions of service
help people who want to buy a home through education on the options available and the opportunity for an interest-free loan
continue to provide discounted accommodation for those who require it, but also offer a scheme to help service personnel who want to buy their own home
keep pay rank based but address weaknesses in the current model making the system easier to understand and administer for all:
align additional pay and commitment incentives to achieve the right balance between recruitment and retention
simplify allowances where possible and appropriate. Service personnel will continue to be compensated for expenses incurred in the course of their duty and to provide a degree of lifestyle choice.
Contact details
Pers Trg-CDP-Strat Comms
6th Floor, Zone B
Main Building
Whitehall
London
SW1A 2HB
Email: perstrg-nem-mailbox@mod.uk
Related information
Future Armed Forces Pension Scheme
Future Reserves 2020 Study (FR20) Final Report
Defence Reform: an independent report into the structure and management of the Ministry of Defence
Working for MOD