Over a 15 month period between January 2008 and March 2009 Ofsted looked into the quality of welfare and duty of care provided to the UK's recruits and trainees during their military training. The inspection - you know, the sort of thing that sends members of the NUT into a tizzy or blind panic - found the overall effectiveness of the welfare and duty of care provision for recruits and trainees to be satisfactory.
"Inspectors found a strong commitment from the majority of training personnel to provide recruits and trainees with a fair and challenging programme, while also taking due account of individual circumstances that might affect the health, well-being or progress of the individual. Most recruits reported that they felt safe and well-supported, and in the majority of establishments inspected, the welfare and duty of care arrangements were good and integral to the training process."
The military did come in for some criticism, particularly that the pace of improvement could be accelerated, and singles out the Army as needing to do more: "The Army has made improvements across the board, but is making uncertain progress in particular aspects, such as selfassessment, which is the cornerstone of improvement and development.... establishments [should] develop their proficiency in the use of self-assessment as a route towards real and lasting quality improvement." This all sounds a bit New-Labour-speak to me, so no problem there then as this mumbo-jumbo will soon be scraped into the dustbin of history.
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