The Directorate Children & Young People (DCYP) has recently undergone a restructure, dividing its responsibilities across two separate organisations to better serve the needs of you and your service children.
The functions of DCYP have been split into a policy organisation, known as Armed Forces Families and Safeguarding (AFFS) and Defence Children Services (DCS). Rest assured, educational support to families will continue as normal, and the delivery of all services will be unaffected.
Who does what?
The AFFS team, led by newly appointed head Peter Davis, will lead on the development of all defence-level education and children and young people policy. They’ll be responsible for engaging with devolved administrations, the Department for Education and local authorities, as well as taking the lead on safeguarding issues and childcare support policy, including the free wraparound childcare for service youngsters.
DCS will look after MOD Schools and nurseries overseas as well as Queen Victoria School in Scotland.
The team includes specialist support staff, including educational psychologists, as well as the Children’s Education Advisory Service (CEAS), which will continue to provide the more general support to you and your family.
Director DCYP Mike Cooper says: “This separation into two new organisations allows our skilled staff to continue to do what they do best to support service children but will also allow risks to be better managed.
“This will help the centre of the MOD to focus on creating the appropriate policy framework which can then be delivered both by Defence Children Services and non-MOD schools to ensure we’re meeting the educational needs of all our service children.”
The new teams will be up and running by 31 August, ready for the start of the new school year.