Record breaking fifty employers receive coveted Ministry of Defence Award
Fifty employers from the West Midlands region received their Ministry of Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) Silver Awards from West Midland Reserve Forces & Cadets Association (West Midland RFCA).
The ERS was launched in 2014 to recognise employer support for the wider principles of the Armed Forces Covenant. The scheme encompasses bronze, silver and gold awards for the employers that pledge, demonstrate or advocate support to Defence and the Armed Forces community. This includes the Reserves, Service leavers, Armed Forces veterans, the wounded, injured and sick, Cadets, military spouses or partners and their families.
The winning organisations are spread across all of the regions counties and come from a wide range of sectors across industry, in addition to education providers, NHS Trusts, charities, local authorities.
The 2021 winners from Herefordshire are 3 Counties Defence and Security Limited, HS Infra Ltd, Leominster Town Council, Octaga Security Services Ltd, Royal National College for the Blind, Sutton House Limited, The Cart Shed Charity and Wye Valley NHS Trust.
Steve Hutchinson, Founder and Director at HS Infra Ltd, commented about their award, “We are immensely proud to receive the Silver Award and as a Veteran owned company, we take immense pride in offering our continued support to our Armed Forces community. As an employer of reservists, cadet training staff and ex-members of the Armed Forces, we want to show the regard and respect all of us at HS Infra have for service personnel, their families and the responsibilities they shoulder. Today is a public declaration of our support and I am glad that we have had the opportunity to do so.”
Our West Midland RFCA’s Regional Employer Engagement Directors, Cat Suckling and Philip Sinclair, voiced their appreciation to this year’s winners, “We are particularly pleased and delighted to be able to welcome the West Midlands based Employer Recognition Scheme Silver Award winners for 2021 into the West Midland Silver alumni. As Regional Employer Engagement Directors, we seek to work very closely with our employers, and have made the journey with them, so it is a huge pleasure to see that their commitment and effort has been rewarded with this recognition.
Our class of 2021, the largest cohort yet, all display a strong commitment to show their support, and demonstrate it by employing members of the Armed Forces community within their workforce or by being powerful advocates for the Armed Forces Covenant and the Armed Forces community that it supports amongst their own networks. We have the full range of the Armed Forces Community represented amongst those employers that have achieved the Silver Award recognition this year, Reservists, veterans, including those that have been wounded, injured or become ill as a result of their service, spouses of serving members of the Armed Forces, and Cadet Force Adult Volunteers, which is fantastic! We now look forward to strengthening our links to them further, by supporting their journey towards Gold Award recognition. Congratulations, and thank you, your support is much appreciated.”
The lunch time event was held in Aspects at the iconic National Memorial Arboretum, a fitting place for such awards to be presented, and Michael Collie, who you might recognise from BBC Midlands Today, kept the event running smoothly as the Master of Ceremonies. Guests were welcomed to the event by Watchman, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, which is a military mascot for the now disbanded Staffordshire Regiment, but continues his duties as part of the Staffordshire Regimental Association.
As well as highlighting the outstanding support of the employers the event also showcased the local Reserve units with members of the Royal Naval Reserve, Army Reserve and Royal Auxiliary Air Force all in attendance. We were lucky to have stands from 202 (Midland) Field Hospital, 605 (County of Warwick) Squadron, signals detachment from 37 Signal Regiment, a Crane Attached Lorry Mounted (CALM) military vehicle variant from 159 Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps and a light field gun from 214 (Worcester) Battery Royal Artillery, all popular attractions with visiting school groups!
Brigadier Graeme Fraser MBE ADC RM, Naval Regional Commander Wales and Western England was welcomed as the guest speaker and to present all of the awards on stage. We were also pleased to welcome Colonel Damian McKeown MBE, Assistant Head Employer Engagement for Defence People for Reserve Forces and Cadets and Colonel Chris J Ledsham TD VR, Deputy Commander Reserves 11th Signal & West Midlands Brigade as our senior Military representatives.
To conclude the event it was seen as fitting, in the lead up to Remembrance Day, to hold an act of remembrance at the Armed Forces Memorial, which was led by Father Ian Stephenson from 11 Signals and West Midlands Brigade.
If you’re interested in finding out more about the Employer Recognition Scheme please contact Philip Sinclair on wm-reed2@rfca.mod.uk
NEWS | Record breaking fifty employers receive coveted Ministry of Defence Award
