New Director takes over resettlement

Commodore Annette Picton is now nearly halfway through her first year as Director Resettlement, having wanted the job since seeing it at first hand as the Military Assistant to the Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff (Personnel/Reserves) in the mid-1990s. 'It looked an interesting and rewarding job to do,' she remarks, 'and my main focus in the first six months has been to visit resettlement centres, to find out what happens at the point of resettlement delivery.'

She sees the job as 'a mixture of policy and output. It's my responsibility to provide as good a resettlement service as possible to eligible Service leavers in partnership with Right Management. They are contracted to deliver briefings, counselling, training and job finding, and we work with them to ensure the process runs as smoothly as possible.

'This contract is not just a static document - it's something we can work on and improve within the partnership. A strong element is this flexibility to give the best possible service within the obvious limitations of finance and other resources.'

Joining the WRNS in 1973 and becoming a secretarial officer, she served in shore establishments, with a tour at the Embassy in Paris. Staff tours and a spell in recruiting were followed by the Naval Staff Course, Hong Kong, the MoD, HMS Dryad and then the MoD again - involved in redundancy programmes under Options for Change.

When the WRNS integrated with the RN in 1993 she made the transition from Chief Officer to Commander, and became Captain in 1996. Six months as an Admiralty Interview Board President led to a job in Second Sea Lord's Portsmouth HQ managing non-financial conditions of service, and she then became Deputy Director Military Personnel at the Defence Secondary Care Agency - ensuring that military medical staff were available to support operations. Most of her varied career has focused on people, and this can only help in her new job.

She will not be drawn on future developments or milestones - yet. 'When one is new in a job in a new area, it isn't clever to rush into change for change's sake. This is an ongoing process and there's always room for streamlining or improvement, and there is still work on the Review of Resettlement to complete. But we're providing a really good service and I can't see any need for major change. This is actually an excellent package for the Service leaver.'

No one with any experience of its civilian equivalent, or lack of it, would disagree.