Qualifying as a Solicitor: Brian Evans and Emma Harrison #2 #2 #2.

[00:00:13 – 00:00:51] Adam: Hello and welcome to the Legal Lounge, where we now release new episodes every Monday. If you haven’t heard previous shows, there’s plenty of content for you if you’re going through a divorce, want to know more about claiming for injuries or you’re training to be a lawyer. You can listen to these shows on your favourite podcast app and get more information by visiting lblaw.co.uk forward slash knowledge. In this podcast, Solicitor Alexander Spanner talks to Sean McCarthy, who is the Shropshire Council Armed Forces Lead. Sean explains what the Armed Forces… Horses Covenant is all about, who it supports and how organisations can sign up. The 22nd of June marks the start of Armed Forces Week and Sean explains what Shropshire Council is planning for 2026.


[00:00:51 – 00:01:03] Amanda: Hi there. So I’m joined today by Sean McCarthy, who is the Armed Forces Covenant lead from Shropshire Council. Sean, could you explain to us briefly what the Armed Forces Covenant is and what your role as the AFC lead involves?


[00:01:03 – 00:01:33] Jon: So yeah, hi everyone. The Armed Forces Covenant is the government’s national strapline for removing any disadvantage that serving personnel, both past, present and family members face as a consequence of their service. For example, you know, anyone accessing. healthcare that moves around from area to area we would try and slot them into a reasonable position on the waiting list had they’ve been on a waiting list down south and they’ve moved to Shropshire and stuff so yeah so really just about removing those barriers and supporting our armed forces personnel.


[00:01:32 – 00:02:29] Gio: And it’s a fantastic organization as well, so obviously really grateful to have you down here, Sean, telling us about it today. The other thing we’ve written down for obviously is because this week we have the Armed Forces Week, so that’s taking place obviously from Monday the 22nd. 2nd of June until Sunday the 28th of June. So Armed Forces Week is a national campaign obviously to build public understanding and support for the Armed Forces community. There are events taking place around the country all week. There’s a couple of specific days. There is the Reservist Day which is on Wednesday 24th of June and Armed Forces Day itself is obviously Saturday the 27th of June. The thing about Armed Forces Week obviously is that it’s designed to show support not only for recurrent military serving personnel who need Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force. the Air Force, but also to highlight the work done by the wider Armed Forces community, including reservists, veterans, cadets, cadet adult volunteers and military families as well. So, Sean then, you are obviously involved in a lot of the organization in relation to what Shropshire is doing for Armed Forces Week. Would you like to tell us a bit about what you’ve got planned?


[00:02:28 – 00:04:10] Jon: We’ve celebrated Armed Forces Day probably for the last 10-12 years. It’s something that we as a council feel it’s an important thing to do. So for this Armed Forces This week we are having a Armed Forces flag raising event outside the Guildhall, the council’s main headquarters on the 22nd of June. So that’s basically to show our commitment as a council to the Armed Forces community. And as you say, that community includes serving personnel, veterans, family members, cadets, cadet adult volunteers, etc. So the whole spectrum of the Armed Forces community is what we want to highlight and go through having the Armed Forces. forces flying outside our council building for the whole week. That’s a real visible presence for us as an authority. In terms of what we do more broadly for Armed Forces Week, yes, we recognise the reserves that work within the authority and the dedication and the commitment that they make to supporting our regular armed forces and the wider commitment they make to defence. Further to that, on the 27th of June, we will be having… Having our Armed Forces Day on Sunday at Shrewsbury Castle 11 till 3 the event will be opened by the Bellini Band and Bugles throughout the day lots of events and activities for people to get involved with lots of people to talk to from obviously ourselves Shropshire Council service charities and a plethora of other organisations who who demonstrate and show their support for the Armed Forces community we’ve also got The Shropshire Brass Ensemble coming along, we have a number of vintage military vehicles, the Shropshire Cadets, the Air Force Cadets, lots of stuff for people to get involved with.


[00:04:09 – 00:05:35] Gio: You know, in particular, obviously the Armed Forces Day on the Saturday sounds like a fantastic day and obviously we encourage people to go down and show their support, which sounds great. You are obviously involved with Shropshire Council and there’s a few other things obviously going on within the county generally as well. Your neighbours, I guess, at Telford and Reekon Council, they are also planning. They’re planning on doing their service plan for Armed Forces Week, which is a series of events in Telford to mark Armed Forces Week and an opportunity to bring people together to honour and celebrate those who serve and have served. And the salute their service programme involves walks, talks and community events across Telford and Rieke Borough between the 22nd of June and the 3rd of July. The other thing we wanted to mention as well in terms of letting people know about it is that the Shropshire Community, Leisure Trust and Halo and Team Leisure. Asia, a lot of the leisure centre resources are across the county. They are going to be offering free leisure centre access to all serving military personnel and veterans on Armed Forces Day. There are a number of facilities online across the county who are going to be providing it. So if you want to check with those facilities first, then please obviously do so. But again, it’s just a really good opportunity to go out there and be active and again provide some support for the local community. So Sean, you obviously involved very heavily in the Armed Forces Governance and the work. work kind of done within the Shropshire area. Would you like to tell us a bit more about kind of the outreach program? Obviously Shropshire is a very rural area. We do have a lot of service personnel within Shropshire. How does the outreach plan help in terms of getting access to those people, whether they be serving or formerly serving personnel?


[00:05:34 – 00:06:35] Jon: Yeah, so our outreach programme has been about from sort of 2018 and over that time it’s evolved and You know, we continually change, adapt, flex in terms of what that often looks like. But fundamentally, it’s there to support the armed forces personnel in whatever way they want to be supported. As a council, we’re quite focused in terms of, you know, our outreach support, but also more broadly how we can do that as a council. So the council as a whole touches on many parts which the serving person, the veteran, the family member may need access to at whatever point in time. about health care housing education welfare benefits etc stuff so the outreach is is what we do from i suppose the front facing element to that but there’s lots of work that sits behind you know what shropshire council does to support its armed forces community so yeah so i mean as i said we we are really supportive and right from our senior leaders senior politicians to our staff we are really committed to um to supporting that community


[00:06:34 – 00:06:52] Gio: Brilliant. Absolutely. And obviously alongside the work that you do in the outreach show. There are a number of fantastic organizations in the local area as well who provide support for service personnel and veterans. Are there any in particular that you want to touch on or advise on how people can access those organizations?


[00:06:52 – 00:08:13] Jon: Yeah, so there are many organizations that we work with to enable us to do the work that we do. We couldn’t do that without the support of our service charity colleagues, private public sector organizations that do that and stuff. The charities that you would probably expect us to work with, the Royal British Legion, SAFA, Walk with the Wounded, Help for Heroes, Combat Stress, etc. So, you know, that’s just to name a few. There are many others that I could mention, you know, organizations like yourselves, Lanyan Bagler, that offer, you know, a specific, you know, service to the armed forces community, but also the many armed forces covenant signatories of which there are over 300 covenant signatories in Shropshire alone. in all offer their own unique and bespoke pledge to support the armed forces community so a good example is the work we do with Shrewsbury Town Football Club and their and their foundation to provide the remembrance match day so they give a number of tickets to serving personnel and veterans you know in recognition for for their service around remembrance but then we also do a more broader armed forces military match day which again the football club give tickets so serving personnel That veterans family members can come along to that it’s also a way that we can showcase what our military footprint looks like as well in terms of getting some of the units to come along with personnel vehicles so people can actually see some of our military personnel so


[00:08:12 – 00:08:20] Gio: So, Sean, if an organization wanted to sign up to the government, become involved in supporting the armed forces community locally, how would they go about that?


[00:08:20 – 00:08:59] Jon: they can contact myself and then we can talk them through through the process of signing the armed forces Forces Covenant, what that means. We always try and encourage organisations to come up with their own bespoke pledges. There are some very specific pledges that they can sign up to that most organisations do in terms of being a supportive employer for the armed forces, supporting the employment of veteran service spaces, etc and stuff. But to bring that document to life, it’s really important that that organisation buys into what that is and the way to do that is to make those pledges that you make through your your individual covenant as bespoke as you possibly can to that organization and stuff so yeah anyone who’s interested get in contact with me and we can start you through that process


[00:08:58 – 00:09:22] Gio: Absolutely. And here at Daniel Boud, we are signatories at the bronze level of the covenant. And it’s something obviously we take very seriously and something that we want to continue to support going forward. Sean, firstly, obviously, thank you very much for coming to speak to us today. Really appreciate it. There is loads of great stuff going on for Armed Forces Week and obviously wish you all the best with everything. with everything how it goes. Just as a reminder then, so do you want to cover the highlights of what the week are and what we’re doing in Shropshire?


[00:09:21 – 00:09:55] Jon: Yeah, so we have our Armed Forces flag raising event on the 22nd of June at nine o’clock outside the council offices in Frankwell. The 27th of June is our Armed Forces Family Sunday at Shrewsbury Castle, 11 till 3. I will also say that there are many other Armed Forces related. Did that activities going on during that week through our town and parish councils who do some fabulous work to support the Armed Forces community that live within their areas, but also many businesses and organisations who will be showing their support throughout the week as well.


[00:09:54 – 00:10:02] Gio: Absolutely. And if you can get out and support, then fantastic. And otherwise, yeah, we wish everyone all the best and hope it’s really, really great week for everyone involved.


[00:10:01 – 00:10:03] Jon: Thank you.


[00:10:02 – 00:10:04] Gio: Thank you.


[00:10:03 – 00:10:21] Adam: Thank you to Alexander and to our special guest Sean. If you have a legal issue you’d like me to put to our team to cover in an upcoming episode, please let me know by visiting lblaw.co.uk forward slash knowledge where you can search for all our podcasts. That’s lblaw.co.uk forward slash knowledge.


[00:10:21 – 00:10:25] Amanda: That was The Legal Lounge from Lanyon Bowdler Solicitors.