Press Release - Ministry of Defence: Recruitment and Retention
in the Armed Forces
3 November 2006
There is a shortfall of 5,170 (2.8 per cent) trained Armed
Forces personnel against the Ministry of Defence’s estimated
requirements. Only the Army is within "manning balance", and there
are wider shortages of personnel in specific trade groups.
According to today’s report to Parliament, by head of the
National Audit Office Sir John Bourn, there are particular
challenges to manning levels in 88 specialist ‘pinch points’ –
areas where there are insufficient trained personnel. These pinch
points include doctors, nurses, engineers and bomb disposal
experts.
The Department has achieved 98 per cent of its recruitment
targets overall since 2000-2001. In 2005-06 it achieved 96 per cent
of its target overall, including for over half of the pinch point
trades surveyed by the National Audit Office. The Department has
introduced a range of measures to improve recruitment.
The National Audit Office has also reported that the numbers of
those leaving the Forces early have increased slightly in the last
two years and that last year 9,200 personnel left early, although
the Department considers that overall the long-term trend remains
stable given historical levels of outflow. Of those surveyed by the
National Audit Office who had recently left the Armed Forces, many
had done so because of the impact of service on family life (49 per
cent), while others reported the impact of too many deployments (28
per cent), the quality of the equipment (32 per cent), and a
feeling of not being valued (33 per cent) as being important
factors in their decision to leave. 9 per cent also said they had
left because they had not been deployed enough.
Current levels of operational activity puts additional pressures
on serving personnel in terms of hours worked, how often they are
deployed and time spent away from families. We found that the
Department’s guidelines on separated service were being exceeded by
a significant number of personnel in the Army, where 14.5 per cent
of the trained strength as at January 2006 had exceeded the
guidelines at some point in the last 30 months.
The Ministry of Defence has introduced a number of financial
retention incentives schemes and a range of other measures to
improve manning in pinch point areas, aimed at retaining its most
experienced personnel and alleviating some of the pressures in
other groups.
On the basis of the limited evidence available, the National
Audit Office concludes that retention measures appear to represent
better value for money than recruitment, although both recruitment
and retention are clearly important in maintaining the right
profile of experience in the Armed Forces. The National Audit
Office believes savings of £24 million could be made if planned
retention levels were met. The report also estimates that it costs
£74 million to retain 2,500 trained personnel against £189 million
to recruit and provide initial training in basic military skills
for the same number of new people.
Sir John Bourn, head of the
National Audit Office, said today:
"The Ministry of Defence is
working hard to tackle the issues in recruitment and retention to
ensure there are sufficient levels of personnel in the Armed
Forces. But, given current levels of operational deployment,
workloads on Service men and women in some areas are
heavy."
"Armed Forces personnel told us that the key reasons
they were leaving early included the pressures on their family
life. It is therefore vital that, in addition to the financial
incentives offered, the Ministry of Defence maintains its focus on
longer term measures."
Notes for Editors
- Press notices and reports are available from the date of
publication on the NAO website, which is at www.nao.org.uk. Hard
copies can be obtained from The Stationery Office on 0845 702
3474.
- The Comptroller and Auditor General, Sir John Bourn, is the
head of the National Audit Office which employs some 850 staff. He
and the NAO are totally independent of Government. He certifies the
accounts of all Government departments and a wide range of other
public sector bodies; and he has statutory authority to report to
Parliament on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which
departments and other bodies have used their resources.
- "Manning Balance" is the prevailing trained strength
requirement within a tolerance band of plus one per cent and minus
two per cent to reflect routine structural and organisational
changes within the Services.
Press Notice 57/06
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