We provide a voice for the RAF Community on the issues you experience and the concerns you have. We do this with evidence, from the issues you raise with us, in the form of our own reports and responding to third party reports.

This page captures how our reports and submissions influence key recommendations in important reports, designed to improve a range of areas for service families. You can see our more recent reports, submissions and summaries below, along with the final reports from bodies like the Defence Select Committee, and Government Departments.

Annual Armed Forces Covenant Reports

Every year the three Families Federations are given the opportunity to comment on the Annual Armed Forces Covenant Report. This is our opportunity to highlight the successes as well as the areas we have collectively identified for improvement.  The areas that we comment on are childcare, accommodation, health, education and spousal employment.

How the RAF Families Federation helps you

(Click image to open)

Military Coworking Network Evaluation report

The Military Coworking Network (MCN) was set up by a military spouse to ensure that military spouses and their partners have a space (physical and virtual) to create independent, professional lives alongside military life. This is a Pilot scheme funded by the Armed Forces Covenant Trust Fund. To date, the MCN has nine coworking hubs, as well as thriving online network.

The RAFFF, on behalf of all three Families Federations manages the MCN. As part of the management of the Pilot project, the RAFFF (with the help of the MCN Delivery Team) has facilitated an independent evaluation of the first 4 Hubs that were set up.

Children’s Commisioner Independent Family review

The RAF Families Federation team met with the Children’s Commissioner’s team to highlight the unique challenges that service life can bring to the children in our families. The report forms part of the Independent Family Review commissioned by government. It is great to see the evidence that families share with us being used in key reports that influence policy change.

Submissions

The RAF Families Federation (RAFFF) submit responses to Government proposals and requests for evidence on behalf of the RAF community. For each submission made we ask for your direct input and we combine this with any relevant reported issues as evidence in our response. Recent requests for evidence below:

  • House of Commons Select Committee

    • 16th October 2023 – Further to our 2021 submission the Defence Select Committee asked for a review of the findings and our comments on the progress, since the Women in the Armed Forces Report. The RAF Families Federation continues to advocate for improvements for women in the Armed Forces.
    • 13th September 2023 – Director, Maria, gave oral evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee Sub-Committee inquiry into Service Accommodation, advocating for improved accommodation for service personnel and their families – watch it here. We also provided further written evidence to the inquiry, which has now been published with the other written submissions
    • 9th May 2023 – Director, Maria, provided evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee sharing the evidence that the RAF Community shared with us about Cost of Living, Accommodation, Children with Special Educational Needs, Dentistry, Wrap around childcare and Broadband provision for Single Living Accommodation watch it here > 

  • Special Educational Needs and Disabilities – We provided feedback on your behalf for the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Review (consultation closed)

    The RAFFF sought input from our RAF Families to ensure we were representing the views of the RAF Community. We were able to coordinate an extensive review of the different references and the lived experiences of our personnel to put together a comprehensive summary of how the unique experiences of RAF Families would be benefitted from the improvements we suggested. The final report, following our recommendations can be found here: Independent analysis of the consultation responses to the SEND review: right support, right place, right time (gov.uk)

  • Office for Tax Simplification – Review of hybrid and distance working (consultation closed)

    The RAFFF canvassed the RAF Units for input from families affected by overseas and Hybrid working, this enabled us to collate the views of those directly affected by the changes, to offer suggestions as to how the military community would benefit from a review to some of the rules, our submission can be found here.  The final recommendations following our submission can be found here: OTS report on hybrid and distance working (gov.uk)

  • Education Select Committee – Support for childcare and the early years – UK Parliament

    The Education Select Committee asked for comments on the provision of childcare and the early years in a call for evidence.  The RAFFF coordinated a response across the RAF Community through a snapshot survey conducted in January 2023 and evidence provided to us in the 2021 Childcare Survey. View our submission here.

  • Scottish Government call for evidence of Further and Higher Education financial support
    The challenge with funding for HE and FE in Scotland is something that we had previously been made of aware, so were really pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to this call for evidence. We canvassed our RAF Community and received a number of really informative examples of the impact of the funding on RAF personnel, you can see our response here. The consultation analysis has now been published and can be accessed here.

  • Scottish Parliament consultation addressing child poverty through parental employment.

    At the RAFFF we recognise more and more it is important for families to be able to have dual incomes.  This call for evidence enabled us to use some of the information that we had received from our previous childcare survey as well as from a recent Spousal Employment Community Forum as we were able to highlight the importance of available and affordable childcare to enable both parents to work. Our submission is available here: RAFFF response to Scottish Parliament on child poverty

How we can help

We exist to help with any issues you face, as part of Service life. If there is an issue or concern you need support with, let us know.