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29
Sept 2024
Supportive and inclusive or a culture of violence: What's the real story behind Harrogate Army Foundation College?
Drug use, bullying and even an attempted suicide all took place at Harrogate Army Foundation College (AFC), a whistleblower has alleged.
The whistleblower, who wants to be known as Lach to protect his identity, wished to share his experience as a former recruit of the college. It is the only basic junior training site in the British Army for recruits under the age of 18.
This week, Ofsted published a glowing report on the welfare provisions at the college, which paints a very different picture to Lach's testimony. So, what is life behind the gates of the Penny Pot Lane site really like?
Child Rights International Network (CRIN), which works to share testimonies of former recruits at the college, has supported Lach to tell his story.
‘People were against each other, not together’
Lach said everyone is in the same boat when they first move to the college; people are nervous and share in the anxiety of moving away from home at a young age.
He added:
If you come out of school without GCSEs, you can see the army is still going to be paying you £1,300 a month – that looks really good.
Everyone is homesick but you're all there for the same reason and you’re getting to know new people.
This was like the settling in period when everybody was friends with everybody. Then you get to your first payday, and you feel absolutely amazed to see that much money coming in.
But Lach said cracks quickly began to show after cliques formed among the recruits, which led to both verbal and physical fights.
It all started to change when people started making their own groups and things got more argumentative. And because you're all living on the same corridor, if one group upsets another group, that's when it gets a bit physical.
Mostly it was the groups that enjoyed being there that started to give a hard time to the ones who didn’t, like the people that needed support from home and were always ringing their family. They weren't getting involved at night with the lads like I was.
Lach said those that didn’t adapt to life at the college, and didn’t want to learn, were greeted with violence:
For example, we were in a lesson one time and two of the junior soldiers followed this lad out to the bathroom and kicked him in the stomach. That happened quite a lot.
On my last or second-last night, I got in an altercation myself and I came out of it with a lot of blood all over my nose and a cut on my eye.
People were against each other when we were meant to be together, Lach said, adding that was when he began to feel alone.
Lach told CRIN staff “didn’t do much” if they found out about the fights, but added some harboured a “f*** it, fight it out” mentality.
He added:
That mentality – close the doors and fight – shouldn’t happen at Harrogate where everyone’s young. But that’s what we’d do – we’d shut the doors and box it out.
The experience of being in that kind of environment started to push me over the edge. It didn’t feel like a community anymore.
I started to look at the army as a place where young males wanted to be better than each other. I didn’t want to be in that situation.
But Ofsted's report suggests a totally different culture at the college, as inspectors found senior officers ensure recruits live in an environment that "promotes inclusivity".
The Stray Ferret has blocked out any identifying features in the image.
The above images are stills from a video taken by Lach. He forwarded the video to CRIN, which shared it with the Stray Ferret.
The video appears to show a recruit hitting another recruit with a belt.
This cannot be verified, but the charity is taking the video seriously.
But this would also contradict Ofsted's findings, which said college staff are determined that bullying and discrimination should not be tolerated, and place a "very high priority on the care and welfare of recruits".
Alleged attempted suicide
Lach alleges the college is no stranger to bullying and felt some of the recruits who struggled were not getting the support they required.
He cited one occasion when a recruit allegedly tried to take their own life. Lach claims:
The worst moment was when someone tried to commit suicide on exercise.
[It was] a recruit who was getting bullied, he got name-called a lot. I didn’t see it myself but it wasn’t just rumours – the lieutenant commanding our section told us what happened.
Then later, one of the education staff filled out more of the details.
Lach questioned how the recruit’s mental state could have reached such a low point without college staff noticing, adding the incident disturbed the teenagers deeply.
It kind of upset us all. I thought, 'what if this happens to one of my mates'?
That's not what I expected army training to be like. How didn't any of the training team see any disturbance in him? What went wrong for it to get this bad? It should have been prevented.
You’d expect it to be reported. I don’t know if it was, but we didn’t hear anything more about it. You’d expect to see it in mainstream media or something.
The Ofsted inspectors found recruits have access to a wide range of suitable welfare support, which does not correlate with Lach's testimony.
The report adds recruits are "well aware" of the support available to them and how to access this when necessary, and says senior officers actively help recruits to deal with both personal and training-related issues.
Drug use claim
Lach also alleged recruits managed to sneak drugs and vapes into the college.
He claims to have witnessed a 16-year-old recruit “sniffing cocaine” in a room at the college. Lach said:
We’d sneak things in, like vapes, in our boxers. Some of the recruits – not me – would do drugs in the room. One of them had a bag of coke one time and they were doing lines in the corner. I was like, ‘what are you doing? You’ve just brought in a whole bag of coke and you’re 16 and in the army?’
I thought, ‘what if he gets drug tested the next day?'
Lach eventually left the college before completing his course - and he has no plans to ever return:
I remember getting on the train and I thought, 'I never want to come back to this place again'.
But I was happy before the army, and I’m happy again now after it.
Personally, I don't think you should be able to join the army at 16 – I’d say that about myself as well. The age should be 18.
Raising the military age is exactly what CRIN has been campaigning for.
Army and Ofsted's response
The Stray Ferret put Lach’s allegations to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Ofsted.
We asked the MoD about the college's welfare provisions, and questioned what it does to help the recruits struggling mentally.
The Stray Ferret questioned why the alleged suicide attempt was not shared beyond the college; whether it accepts claims of bullying and what it does to tackle such behaviour, and whether it tolerates violence.
We also asked the college what measures are taken to foster a safe and positive environment for female recruits, as well as how the college polices teenagers allegedly possessing and consuming Class A drugs on site.
An army spokesperson said:
We take any allegations of mistreatment extremely seriously and have robust procedures in place to address any unacceptable behaviour, ensuring a safe and supportive environment for all our students and staff.
The Army Foundation College transforms civilians to soldiers, working hard to ensure every junior soldier enjoys a promising start to their military career in a safe and welcoming environment.
The most recent Ofsted report on welfare and duty of care in Armed Forces highlighted that high standards of care, welfare, and safeguarding are deeply embedded in Harrogate’s training programmes.
A Freedom of Information Request response from North Yorkshire Police last year revealed nine allegations of rape, two allegations of sexual assault and two allegations of voyeurism were reported at Harrogate AFC between July 2022 and August 2023.
The Stray Ferret put this - and Lach's allegations – to Ofsted and asked how inspectors judged the welfare of female recruits and the welfare provisions in light of the findings.
We also asked why the reported sex offences were not acknowledged in the report.
A spokesperson said Ofsted had "nothing further to add". They cited the report, which highlights the college's approach to supporting recruits' welfare, as well as how bullying and discrimination is managed.
The two accounts of life at Harrogate Army Foundation College are worlds apart, and raise question for the MOD and for Ofsted. The charity will continue to support recruits like Lach and campaign against young people under 18 years old entering the military.
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