The UK offers veterans more health, housing and employability support

Significant progress has been made in a range of veterans’ support and services, including in healthcare, housing and employment, since the launch of the Veterans’ Strategy Action Plan six months ago, new data shows.

More than 100 NHS England Trusts have now gained ‘Veteran Aware’ status, providing the highest standard of care to veterans and their families, the UK government confirmed on Wednesday, August 31.

As well as healthcare, progress has also been made in other areas, such as employment, well-being support, and digital verification. These include:

• Opening bids for the Veterans’ Health Innovation Fund, which will develop innovative projects to enhance bespoke treatment for injured veterans’ healthcare.
• Rolling out the Great Place to Work for Veterans guaranteed progression scheme across all central government departments, making it easier than ever before for veterans to join the Civil Service
• Completing the first tranche of the Advance into Justice programme, which helps veterans become prison officers – with job offers received in May
• Distributing £5 million of funding through the Afghanistan Veterans Fund to charities, so they can better support veterans of recent conflicts. This includes funding to upgrade the Veterans Gateway website and for Samaritans to develop a new veterans peer support hub
• Investing £1m in new funding for a new digital service for veterans which will enable them to quickly and easily verify their veteran status online.

As part of the employability support package for veterans, the Department for Education has launched an updated website for veterans interested in applying for the Troops to Teach scheme.

Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Johnny Mercer said: “We want to make sure that regardless of location, our veterans can access incredible employment opportunities and the support they may need.”

“Schemes such as Advance into Justice and Troops to Teach allow veterans to bring their fantastic transferable skills into other areas.”

Johnny added: “Great progress has been made on our provision for veterans but there is more to do to realise our mission to make the UK the best place in the world to be a veteran.”

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