Page 18 - Mind, Body and Spirit No. 105 2021/22

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Selection Centres, swimming employment standards, Challenge 2 PES and arduous training course physical requirements (SCBC, PCBC, Specialist Weapons School Courses, Ranger capability etc).
Whilst the above will influence and shape physical requirements to help reduce Musculo-Skeletal Injuries (MSkI), there is still much to do to develop wider aspects of health, performance and wellbeing. Under Optimising Physical Performance (OPP) governance, the collective strands of PES, THOR, physical and psychological research and development opportunities will seek to exploit and maximise soldier capability.
Ind Trg Policy. Another busy policy desk, as a short overview I provide the following as a summary of Maj Chandra Pun’s business. A Head of Establishment (HoE) training solution continues to be developed with Regional Command.
A Cultural Awareness (CA) Training Needs Analysis (TNA) has just begun, an important aspect to support Future Soldier when the Army will be deployed across the globe, more of the time. Working closely with Defence schools/branches, the new Ranger and Security Force Assistance Brigade capabilities the TNA will establish the Army’s CA training and educational requirement to support global deployment.
Establishing a strategy and training governance framework for the Army’s language requirement, continues to be a hard nut to crack. With so many soldiers currently and in the future being deployed globally, the language requirement is very broad, but we continue to seek improvements.
TDT. As well as the PD and Ind Trg Policy desks, SO1 Ind Trg has the role and responsibility for the TDT within Pers Pol(A). Whilst TDT manages the DSAT governance for all pan-Army generic Soldier and Officer Basic Training (BT), Career Training and Education, Ind Trg and Pre-employment Training, the team has also been given wider Pers Pol(A) branch courses to look after. As mentioned above WO2 Chris Williams has joined the team and working on a Pers Services requirement to develop training and education around Substance Misuse (SM), a critical necessity to improve behaviour change and unnecessary discharges from
SM. With the whole Army stopping for a #TEAMWORK Day on 8 Feb 22 to establish culture and behaviour understanding and improvements, much of the resulting follow-on work now fall to TDT to integrate into pan Army generic courses.
Wider, TDT have been fully immersed with the BT Adaptation Programme (BTAP) which is a total review of Soldier and Officer BT, a requirement from the Integrated Review (IR). Suffice to say the TDT are a busy team with a growing portfolio but they have quality in depth and continue to deliver.
AT & Sport policy. Maj Sean Semple now the Old Sweat of the team has continued to make huge improvements within his AT, Sport and Comparable Activities policy lanes. From experience, this is a complex policy desk, with very demanding Op Groups and the additional complication that it pivots around Joint Service policy agreement. Not wishing to steal Sean’s notes but suffice to say he has been extremely busy and a great support to me this year, as an overview he has continued to shape, manage and improve his three core policies, manage the xDLoD for Sickle Cell Trait (SCT) Policy, progress SI recommendations and implement as core business. Also, with the Defence Safety Authority and the Army Safety Centre he has improved sport safety governance and managed the resumption of AT and Sport post COVID, this has been a hugely busy period for him. I will leave it to Sean’s following narrative to fill in the details.
The Army People Plan. Also, this year under a new Director of Personnel, Maj Gen Paul Griffiths, we have contributed to the development of the Army People Plan. The plan’s framework has six Lines of Effort (LoE) that complement the Army Strategy and synchronised with the epoch-based approach of the Army Command Plan to deliver the Future Soldier. Most of Prof Dev’s business are interwoven within the Developing Talent and the Health, Performance and Wellbeing LoE. As a holistic approach the plan will support and develop our personnel now and in the future.
In summary, I reflect on another busy year with a common theme within Army HQ and wider, which is, change and more change with shrinking resources, therefore I’m thankful for a positive and supportive Prof Dev Team.
Role & physical requirement analysis of SCBC Trench Clearance at ITB Brecon
As I thumbed through a previous MBS prior to writing these notes, I viewed the fantastic and exciting activities which our RAPTCIs are involved in, and I considered how to make sitting behind a desk for 12 months sound exciting, I’m not even sure
if that’s possible!! This year has been one of transition on several fronts, with the main emphasis in my role placed on returning to participating in Adventurous Training (AT) and Sport, following the relaxation of Government Restrictions post-COVID. Not only were
AT & SPORT POLICY DESK
Maj (MAA) Sean Semple RAPTC