What We Do

The Army Families Federation (AFF) is the independent voice of Army families and works hard to improve the quality of life for Army families around the world - on any aspect that is affected by the Army lifestyle. Watch the AFF DVD - click below.

AFF are often pivotal in achieving improvements for Army families such as changes to Government and military policy and changes to the delivery of how things are provided for families. The AFF does not do this by itself; our role is to highlight problems to the chain of command or service providers, and to work with them and other agencies to improve the support they provide to Service families.

AFF also provides a signposting service to help you find the right person to speak to, as well as providing useful information for Army families through its website and magazine, the AFF Families Journal

How do we get things changed?

AFF collects evidence from families about issues that are of concern, and collates this information in a database. We use this data to inform the chain of command what families are concerned about; we also produce a quarterly report called Families Concerns.  Please see the Publications page for the latest report.

AFF collects information by speaking to families either face–to-face when out in the community, on the telephone, via emails, feedback on our website, and through web-forums.

What issues could you tell us about?

Housing, Health & Additional Needs, Education & Childcare, TA & Reserve Forces, Deployments, Money Matters, Employment & Training, Family Life

What are some of our achievements?

Housing is always the largest area of concern for families. Families who are experiencing problems with their service housing contact AFF about issues such as repairs and maintenance, allocation, moving in and moving out. Our Housing Specialist is in constant communication with families, the chain of command, and service providers to improve the delivery of accommodation for Service families.

Recent achievements include:

• Housing upgrade – this key issue now has the attention of the politicians. AFF has consistently highlighted this issue and will continue to press for a properly funded upgrade programme within a reasonable time-frame.
• Delivery of repairs and maintenance – AFF has worked closely with MHS to help improve the delivery of this service; evidence shows that there has been significant improvement.
• Move In – Move Out: AFF highlighted families’ concerns about levels of cleanliness on move-in to Defence Estates and MHS; as a result, MHS has now implemented a training programme for all staff to ensure that houses are cleaned to an acceptable standard.

Families of Foreign & Commonwealth Troops: The difficulties experienced by Foreign & Commonwealth families due to their visa status were raised as a major issue at the AFF International Families Conference 2006. A Foreign & Commonwealth Families Task Force was subsequently set up which has addressed many of the issues. For example, soldiers are now able to apply for naturalisation whilst they are still serving if they wish to do so. AFF continues to lobby to enable the soldier's family to also have the right to apply for naturalisation in their own right - currently they can only do so after their serving spouse has been naturalised for two years.

Injured soldiers and their families: AFF is still tackling this issue, specifically the insufficient support for families of injured soldiers. Our efforts have helped support improvements to the existing system.

Education: AFF was asked to submit evidence for the 2006 House of Commons Defence Committee Report on Educating Service Children and as a result of this report Service children will now be able to be identified in the general school population in UK. From 2008 they will be recorded on the annual school census; AFF has been pressing for this for some time as up until now service children have been ‘invisible’ in the system. In future, schools will have more of an understanding of how mobility affects Service children and the statistics might also help them apply for extra funding if it is deemed necessary.

In Northern Ireland children who have birthdays in July or August have to start school later than they would if they were in GB; AFF has been lobbying for years for a special dispensation to be given to Service children to allow them to start school when they would have done had they remained in GB. This dispensation has now been given by the Department for Education (Northern Ireland) but it is at the discretion of head teachers on a case by case basis.

TA & Regular Reserves: As a result of increased mobilisation (OP TELIC & OP HERICK) AFF highlighted the lack of welfare communication to TA & RR families. AFF actively encourages communication with and between these families, and provides valuable information on the TA & Reserve Forces Specialist page.

Additional Needs: AFF’s Health & Additional Needs Specialist provides valuable information for families with dependants with additional needs, as well as assisting and signposting families on health, education, housing and other related issues.

Why should/could you contact AFF?

If you want something changed – anything to do with your life as an Army family - tell us about it. Your evidence can help us to lobby the Army and the Government for a better life for Army families.

When should you contact AFF?

Whenever you want something changed – or have a question on anything to do with your life as an Army family.

How you can contact AFF?

AFF has representatives worldwide – wherever you are posted to with the Army there will be someone you can contact. Visit the contact us pages of this website.