Progress update: 2024

The Scottish Government will work with veterans and early service leavers and their representative organisations to help us identify the areas for improvement across both Scottish Government and partner services and will act quickly on the findings.

The Scottish Government maintains its strong collaborative relationship with the veterans sector including public, private and third sector organisations. We provide funding to representative organisations primarily through the Scottish Veterans Fund and the Veterans Scotland Grant which directly supports veterans and their families. The Scottish Veterans Fund for 2023-24 remained at the increased value of £500,000 and prioritised support in the face of the cost of living crisis and for Early Service Leavers. Seventeen projects have been funded for 2023-24 onwards, six of which offer support to veterans impacted by the cost-of-living crisis and two which offer support to Early Service Leavers.

For disabled veterans who may struggle to identify as such, the Scottish Government will consider what further action we can take to re-signpost services to ensure veterans identifying as disabled are aware of wider support such as the UK Government’s Access to Work funding, as well as their employment rights.

The Scottish Government has established the Local Delivery Service which can provide free guidance and information. The Service supports people in the process of applying for Social Security Scotland benefits. This can be in a meeting at home, or at a local venue, in a hospital or prison, via video call or via a telephone appointment. The Scottish Government also funds the Independent Advocacy Service which supports disabled people to get help applying for any Scottish social security benefits. This service will help disabled people be aware of their rights, express themselves and feel understood when applying for Scottish social security benefits. These services are unique to Scotland and provide support and advice to ensure that disabled people can access the financial support they are entitled to. We hold regular discussions with Veterans UK and the Ministry of Defence, who administer veteran specific benefits, to ensure there is consistency in the messaging provided to veterans. Furthermore, as part of our stakeholder communications plan, we ensure that third party organisations, including those that support veterans, understand the overlaps and are in a position to adequately advise and assist veterans during their interactions with Social Security Scotland or the UK Government agencies administering reserved benefits.

The Scottish Government will ensure that Scotland’s Apprenticeship suite of offerings will continue to be promoted to Early Service Leavers, veterans and their families. 

Skills Development Scotland undertakes a variety of work to promote apprenticeships to Early Service Leavers, veterans and their families. Apprenticeships.scot, which contains guidance on apprenticeships and all live vacancies, continues to be promoted within the Armed Forces community and with the Champions networks. The SDS My World of Work site also includes specific information for Service Leavers and employers to help them recognise the meta skills that veterans have but also information pointing them to Apprenticeships.Scot for further guidance. Foundation Apprenticeships continue to be promoted and supported in schools.

The Scottish Government will review its contribution to the Forces Families Jobs website, exploring ways to further promote Scottish Government jobs to Service families.

Scottish Government jobs continue to be posted on the Forces Families Jobs website. In addition, the Scottish Government again had a stand at the CTP careers fair in April where we had the opportunity to engage Service and veteran families to discuss employment opportunities in the Scottish Government. Forces Families Jobs continues to be promoted in our Welcome to Scotland publication.

The Scottish Government will look to expand the Going Forward Into Employment Scheme which aims to offer veterans employment within the Scottish Government after a streamlined recruitment process.

The Scottish Government remains committed to increasing the number of veterans it employs and continues to explore a number of ways to achieve this including through the Going Forward into Employment (GFIE) and Guaranteed Interview scheme, which was introduced this year and gives veterans the best possible chance of securing an interview when applying for Scottish Government jobs, provided they meet the minimum criteria. We are continuing to explore how best to embed the GFIE programme into our core recruitment practices. There are now over 100 self-declared veterans working within the Scottish Government.

The employability and skills landscape will vary across 32 local authorities. We will work across Local Government, including with Armed Forces and Veterans Champions and the relevant employability and skills teams, to identify opportunities to ensure that advice and support is clearly sign-posted and promoted proactively and to ensure that the latest local labour market information and circumstances are understood and capitalised upon.

Through analysis of local labour demands, Local Employability Partnerships (LEPs) will continue to make decisions based on forecasts on local need. This analysis also takes account of user needs to ensure that the principles of No One Left Behind are at the front and centre of the employability decisions made within each local authority (LA). Through engagement with LEPs and Local Authority Armed Forces and Veterans Champions, the local demands and needs can be matched to skills and experience of Service leavers.

More generally, Skills Development Scotland (SDS) leads on much of the work improving skills advice and as noted against other recommendations, SDS Armed Forces Champions meet with local veterans groups to raise awareness of SDS support and, under their memorandum of understanding with the MOD, a joint referral process has been agreed and is in place at operational level for those Early Service Leavers (ESL) who may be entitled to or will benefit from SDS Careers Information, Advice and Guidance services. Additionally, as noted elsewhere, we have increased our engagement with the network of Local Authority Armed Forces and Veterans Champions this year with two Ministerial meetings having taken place and we continue to determine the support and training they may need to deliver their roles, including local authority obligations under the Armed Forces Covenant Duty.

SDS has undertaken active engagement with the Royal Navy (RN) and will be presenting to a UK-wide group of RN officers in late July about SDS, My World of Work (MyWoW) and the Military Skills Discovery Tool. SDS Champions continue to engage with the Armed Forces community in their local areas and with particular areas of work (local employer engagement for example). An example of this is the Lanarkshire Armed Forces Covenant Group. SDS Champions have met with local Veteran groups - Larkhall Volunteer Centre and Veterans Hub in North Lanarkshire to raise awareness of the support that SDS can give to veterans and their families and offer the presence of a Careers Adviser. Champions also attend the Firm Base meetings and have delivered a presentation to Councillors in South Lanarkshire.

SDS also works with third sector partners to build capacity. SDS Champions organised meetings with SAMH with regards to their EmployAble programme and Forces Children Scotland to discuss their Mindful Connections project.

We will continue to work with local authorities to identify opportunities to ensure that advice and support is clearly sign-posted and promoted proactively and to ensure that the latest local labour market information and circumstances are understood and capitalised upon.

Following the initial release of data from Scotland’s Census on the numbers and locations of veterans in Scotland, the Veterans Minister wrote to all local authority Armed Forces and Veterans Champions to highlight the percentage of veterans in their areas and identified the Census data as an opportunity to consider how best to support veterans and their families at a local level. The Minister offered all Champions the opportunity to meet with him to discuss the data, with employment (including advice and guidance) likely to be a topic of such a meeting.

Deliver the NHS Armed Forces Talent Programme.

The NHS Scotland Armed Forces Talent Programme has been developed to inspire the Armed Forces Community (AFC) to consider NHS Scotland as a potential career destination. This includes veterans and their families. It will enable access to information on the range of employment opportunities and the pathways to joining the health and social care workforce.

The AFTP provides a value-adding centralised resource by offering advice, guidance, support and action to our target audiences - the AFC and NHS Scotland community – to increase the number of those from the AFC gaining employment with NHS Scotland. The AFTP has progressed a number of projects including development of the webpages on the NHS Careers website with the addition of an online registration process for members of the community to access information and support (currently at 236 members) and the running of online and in person information sessions. It continues to establish an NHS Scotland wide ambassador programme (currently at 65 members) to guide those interested in the NHS with real life experience. The programme continues to implement enhanced relationships with a broad range of key partner organisations and has refreshed and expanded support and development activity for Health Boards.

Work continues to map key workforce needs and existing pathways to the available skills, experience and aspirations of the AFC in both clinical and non-clinical roles alike; identifying mechanisms to develop and implement new pathways where needed, including scoping of alignment with those within the AFC with existing health related qualification and registration. Looking ahead, the AFTP will continue to explore more avenues to provide opportunities for all of our AFC, which includes: Funding of a Royal College of Nursing Cadet scheme; placement activity for AFC members into appropriately identified posts; and continued work to engage and build on the material that our AFC finds of most value. 

The Scottish Government will use all the levers we have at government and stakeholder level, including working collaboratively across the devolved administrations, to press the UK Government for an extension of support to spouses and partners.

As per our update in 2022, we discussed the extension of support to spouses/partners with the MOD last year and there was no indication of an intention to change from the current rules that spouses and partners could take up Enhanced Learning Credit (ELC) eligibility in the event of the death of the individual as a result of time in Service, or if they are unable to take up the offer as a result of a health problem or disability, also acquired in service or as a result of it. No One Left Behind continues to provide tailored individual wrap-around support which some Service leavers may need. This can be holistic support as well as employability services support. Support to spouses/partners of veterans is provided under No One Left Behind including wrap-around support for those unable to take up support offers due to health or disability.

For spouses and partners aged 25 and over, the Scottish Government will seek to build on existing services such as the Women Returners Programme which aims to support women who have had a career break back into work. The programme has a particular focus on supporting women that experience additional barriers to employment including female veterans and spouses/partners of veterans. Successful projects commenced in January 2021 and include RFEA - The Forces Employment Charity’s Female veteran/spouse employment within Scotland project, and Muckle Media’s Women into Communications project which aims to support women and partners from the Armed Forces into PR and communication jobs.

Our Women Returners funding has, from 2021-2023, supported over 2,100 women with their route back to work helping us fulfil our 2018-19 Programme for Government commitment by the end of the 2022-23 financial year. The programme is only one measure that provides employability support to women who will continue to have access to wider provision through devolved employability services such as no one Left Behind and Fair Start Scotland.

Many early service leavers and those struggling in the more competitive labour market will be young people. They are eligible for support through the Young Person’s Guarantee. The ambition of the Young Person’s Guarantee is that, within two years, every person aged between 16 and 24 will have the opportunity to study; take up an apprenticeship, job or work experience; or participate in a formal volunteering or enterprise opportunity.

Under Skills Development Scotland’s (SDS) memorandum of understanding with the MOD, a joint referral process has been agreed and is in place at operational level for those Early Service Leavers (ESL) who may be entitled to or will benefit from SDS Careers Information, Advice and Guidance services.

The new SDS ESL coordinator is in post and SDS and the Career Transition Partnership will continue to work together to ensure referrals are smooth and effective.

As with Recommendations One and Five, the Scottish Government will use all the levers we have at government and stakeholder level, including working collaboratively across the devolved administrations, to press the UK for a review of Enhanced Learning Credit Administration Service (ELCAS) learning support packages.

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) and the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework Partnership (SCQFP) are continuing to engage with the MOD on its review of ELCAS and the most recent meeting took place in June 2023. However, the work has stalled somewhat within the MOD because of personnel changes. We have asked for and await the details of a new point of contact.

The publication of the Withers Review of the skills landscape and the recently published Purpose and Principles of Post-school Education, Research and Skills are likely to have significant implications for delivery of post-school education and skills, and should result in clearer pathways to learning for veterans as part of the broader working age population. Ministers will respond to the Withers report later in the year.

Ongoing work to better align the work of further and higher education funded through the Scottish Funding Council and Skills Development Scotland’s skills offer will also support this recommendation.

As above.

In the longer term, a simplification of ‘the offer’ through the skills agencies, local government and Scottish contracted support will be achieved through the roll out of No One Left Behind which seeks to reduce the number of individual programmes at a national level, with appropriate provision to meet the needs of individuals aligned to local/regional labour markets available at a local level.

As above.

The Scottish Government will continue to discuss ELCAS and any future Transition model with stakeholders, most notably the UK Government, to help ensure the service is fit for purpose.

Administration of, and any changes to, the ELCAS offering and Transition from the Armed Forces is reserved to the UK Government. The Scottish Government does not have the remit to change these. However, the Scottish Government will continue to engage in any discussions on ELCAS and Transition, including with partners and stakeholders such as SCQF and SDS, primarily through the relevant Employability group.

We will begin a programme of reform on funding for learners and apprenticeships.

A series of independent reviews on education, skills and qualifications in Scotland have shown that there is complexity within the system that leads to inefficiency and a lack of clarity on the return for public investment. As a first step in a broad and long-term programme of reform, the Minister for Higher and Further Education and Minister for Veterans launched a consultation on funding for learners in the Scottish Parliament on 25 June 2024. A 12-week consultation will seek input on bringing learner support funding together in one place, and to bringing the funding for provision, including apprenticeship provision, into one place. The aim is for our education and skills system to work as a single system which is easy to navigate, taking collective responsibility to better support and improve the provision for people moving towards and within the labour market. 

Alongside this, we are taking forward reform of apprenticeships with an aim to: reduce the complexity of the existing apprenticeship system; make it more transparent; and maximise the value of investment to learners and the economy. Work is underway to develop an evidence base for the work to improve the apprenticeship models for Foundation, Modern and Graduate Apprenticeships. We expect this work to take until the end of the year. We will then work with stakeholders and learners to build on the strengths and make improvements to the models over the next few years.

We will continue to support and administer the Armed Forces and Veterans Community Group (AFVCG), which is linked to the SCQFP Veterans Steering Group and which continue to work together on key areas such as ELCAS.

The AFVCG continues to work closely with MOD and CTP to improve the ELCAS offering with some progress being made in terms of understanding institutional and user (e.g. Service personnel) issues and needs.

A clear resolution to this would be the inclusion of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) alongside the work to align military skills and qualifications to the Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF). We will continue to ask the UK Government for this change.

SCQFP continues to liaise with the MOD in supporting their long-term plan for the Defence Awarding Organisation (DAO). This is to further enhance its role in terms of bringing more learning programmes which are delivered to the Armed Forces under their responsibility and eventually onto the SCQF as well as the RQF.

The Scottish Government provided additional funding in 2022-23 for the continued development of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework Partnership’s (SCQFP) military skills discovery tool which was formally launched in spring 2023 with stakeholders from across the veterans community in attendance. The tool was further developed to include over 40 new job roles ensuring a wider range across all three Services. The SCQFP is also training personnel from organisations supporting veterans and those in the Armed Forces in understanding the tool so they can better support those individuals in identifying their skills. SCQFP and Skills Development Scotland are also working on a joint plan to promote and use the tool more widely.

This year the Scottish Government launched a campaign working with the business community to help employers understand the benefits that veterans bring to the workforce. The campaign promoted and discussed the benefits of employing veterans, and helped businesses to understand how they can bring veterans into their organisation. The approach used interventions to reach employers across Scotland, with a particular focus on reaching the small and medium enterprise sector. Additionally, a new website, www.recruitveterans.scot, was launched to provide employers with information on the benefits of recruiting veterans, tips on how to integrate them into the workforce via employer case studies, and signposting employers to the organisations who can help them reach the veterans workforce.

Employers, stakeholders and industry experts were welcomed to Hampden Park in Glasgow in March 2023 to hear from a wide range of speakers and discuss the benefits of hiring veterans. At least four veterans were recruited following the event by employers who had attended. We are in the process of considering the next steps for the campaign.

A grant of £35,000 for SCQF was approved in February 2021 to enable skills profiling and qualification mapping to commence and for improved visibility of skills/qualifications and options available to service leavers and veterans. This work is ongoing.

As above.

The Veterans Employability Strategic Group (VESG) will refresh planning on how to build understanding and recognition amongst Scottish employers (especially SMEs) of the skills and qualifications gained in the military.

As above.

The Veterans Employability Strategic Group will consider refreshing membership of the group to broaden attendance.

During 2022 and into 2023 we conducted a light-touch review of the Veterans Employability Strategic Group to determine the most appropriate areas of focus and its membership. This work continues and we are working closely with partners and stakeholders to ensure a coordinated, collaborative approach which reduces duplication of effort and, ultimately, results in the best possible employment and skills-related outcomes for veterans and their families.

In particular, we are working with Veterans Scotland to determine how best to coordinate and reduce the duplication of the VESG and the Veterans Scotland Employment Group, and whether there is value in merging the Groups. This is currently under consideration.

The Scottish Government has reached out to Chambers of Commerce, NHS Scotland and key SME employers asking for volunteers to join and influence the direction of the Veterans Employability Strategic Group (VESG) with the aim of improving visibility of veterans and the positive contributions which they can make.

As above.

The Scottish Government will engage with organisations such as X-Forces Enterprise and Joint Forces Alba to build relationships with veterans who own their own business or are considering a self-employed career.

As above.

SCQF will continue to engage employers and the business community through the ongoing development of the Military Skills Discovery Tool.

SCQF continues to have regular discussions with employers regarding veterans qualifications and how these related to the SCQF. In addition, SCQF regularly offers to link employers with CTP and discusses veterans and Service leavers as a rich source of talent to address skills gaps.

The Scottish Government will survey work already under way within the sector to identify ways in which Social Enterprises can support the veteran community.

Social Enterprise Scotland (SES) were engaged during the development of our campaign working with the business community to help employers understand the benefits that veterans bring to the workforce. In addition, we shared our recruitment toolkit with SES, which is available to download from the new recruitveterans.scot website. We will engage directly with SES to determine what, if any, action has been taken following the campaign and determine how Social Enterprise can support the veteran community.

In addition, the Veterans Minister visited Scotland’s Bravest Manufacturing Company during 2023 to hear more about their work and how they are supporting veterans into employment.

The Scottish Government will engage with organisations such as Senscot and Social Enterprise Scotland in order to identify opportunities to promote their work among the veteran community.

As above.

Work will be undertaken to understand the current social enterprise landscape in Scotland; identify the organisations that are already supporting veterans and how this can be built upon.

As above.

Work will be undertaken to map the service charities operating in Scotland, to identify what they provide so that areas of duplication can be identified and avoided and opportunities for better collaboration identified and progressed.

Poppyscotland developed an aide-memoire on the main organisations in the public and voluntary sectors offering employment support to veterans. In addition, Veterans Scotland published a guide for veterans of support across a wide range of topics including employment. We are having additional discussions with stakeholders in the third and charity sectors, including through the Veterans Employability Strategic Group, to better understand how collaboration could be improved where necessary.

We will revisit the work to map the service charities operating in Scotland through the relevant Employment group.

This work will be revisited with Poppyscotland and partners when the review of the VESG has been completed. In addition, in July, Veterans Scotland refreshed its information booklet, helping veterans better understand the support available across a wide range of topics, including employment. 

The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with the UK Government (MOD and Office for Veterans Affairs (OVA)) to understand the actions they plan on taking in order to better prepare Service leavers for entering the civilian housing market and determine opportunities for the Scottish Government to support these efforts.

We continue to work closely with the UK Government and supported and informed the development of its 2022-2024 Veterans Strategy Action Plan, which includes commitments on veterans housing. We engage regularly with the UK Government on its progress through forums such as the Devolved Administrations Working Group. As Transition is reserved, it is the responsibility of the UK Government to prepare Service leavers to leave the Military. We have worked with the OVA on cross-UK veterans homelessness projects including Op Fortitude and the Veterans Capital Housing Fund to ensure Scotland’s interests are represented.

We will support the MOD and Office for Veterans Affairs (OVA) to better inform Service leavers by continuing to promote our Welcome to Scotland publication.

An updated version of Welcome to Scotland was again published in spring 2023 following extensive consultation with the Armed Forces and partners across the veterans sectors to ensure that the guide is both up to date and contains the most important information for personnel and their families ahead of relocation to Scotland.

The Scottish Government will work with the MOD and Office for Veterans Affairs (OVA) to highlight the relevant published information and identify ways in which the military can promote this within their own organisations both at home and abroad.

No update.

The Scottish Government will engage the Joint Service Housing Advice Office (JSHAO) to ensure the Scottish element of its publications is up to date and, where applicable, provide relevant information, guidance and signposting for inclusion in its publications.

No update.

The Scottish Government will work with the MOD and Office for Veterans Affairs (OVA) to identify whether MS Teams and/or Zoom can be used to deliver presentations by Housing Options Scotland (HOS) to serving personnel and/or Service leavers.

Housing Options Scotland (HOS) delivered a briefing to 5 Scots at Redford Barracks which had 80 attendees. As a result, HOS has set-up monthly in-person surgeries at Redford. Another online briefing took place at RAF Lossiemouth.

Scottish Government funding is allocated to Housing Options Scotland (HOS) on a yearly basis. The Scottish Government has provided funding to HOS over many years and we are fully supportive of ensuring this unique and important service continues. If additional resource is necessary to provide a follow up service, the Scottish Government will consider any funding requests that may come from HOS.

The Scottish Government continues to fund Housing Options Scotland, which includes the Military Matters project amongst the services it delivers.

During 2020 we distributed Armed Forces awareness training to all Scottish Local Authorities. Work is underway to assess the impact of the training and whether any improvements or updates are required. We will work with other stakeholders to determine whether it may be appropriate to extend the training to front line staff from other Registered Social Landlords (RSLs). We will also continue to engage with Veterans Scotland and support as appropriate the delivery of their Informing Scotland project.

We have extended our engagement with the network of Local Authority Armed Forces and Veterans Champions this year with two Ministerial meetings having taken place and we continue to determine the support and training they may need to deliver their roles, including their obligations under the Armed Forces Act.

We will share with MOD and OVA the relevant published information and identify ways in which the military can promote this within their own organisations, seeking to understand if/how SG can support these efforts.

An updated version of Welcome to Scotland was published in spring 2024, informed again through extensive consultation with the Armed Forces and partners across the veterans sectors to ensure that the guide is both up to date and contains the most important information for personnel and their families ahead of relocation to Scotland. This includes a section dedicated to Housing.

We will update our publication “A Scottish Housing Guide for People leaving the Armed Forces and Ex-Service Personnel“, first published in 2018.

We intend to do this by the end of 2024.

We will continue to engage the network of Local Authority Armed Forces and Veterans Champions, particularly in relation to the outputs from Scotland’s Census to better understand what veterans and their families need at a local level. This data may also help inform the training requirements of local authority front-line staff.

Following the initial release of data from Scotland’s Census on the numbers and locations of veterans in Scotland, the Veterans Minister wrote to all local authority Armed Forces and Veterans Champions to highlight the percentage of veterans in their areas and identified Census data as an opportunity to consider how best to support veterans and their families at a local level. The Minister offered all Champions the opportunity to meet with him to discuss the data. Later this year, NRS will publish Census data on additional topics including housing, employment and health and a new tool will be added to the website allowing the data to be analysed for particular groups of people, including veterans.

The Scottish Government will liaise with the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) the Glasgow West of Scotland Forum (GWSF) and the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers (ALACHO) to promote to their members ex-Service personnel as a priority group under ‘Reasonable Preference Allocations Priority’ policy.

The veterans homelessness prevention pathway included a recommendation for the Scottish Government to encourage all social landlords to include ex-Service personnel as a priority group in their allocations policies under the ‘Reasonable Preference Allocations Priority’ policy introduced in the Housing Scotland Act 2014. This will be taken forward in due course.

Additionally, the Minister for Housing will raise the profile of veterans housing and homelessness during his regular discussions with organisations including SFHA and the convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) as appropriate. Additionally officials are considering other existing platforms, for example the Ministerial Oversight Group on Homelessness - which will meet for the first time on 28 September (of which the Minister for Veterans is a member) where it may be appropriate to shine a light on veterans housing issues.

Through these discussions the Housing Minister will encourage partners to consider veterans housing issues, and raising them with housing associations and local authority housing services as needed. A Scottish Government housing options guide which provides information about the range of housing options available to veterans and Service leavers, including applying for social housing in Scotland, has already been published. This signposts Service leavers and veterans to clear information about how to apply for social housing in the area where they want to live and get advice on their housing prospects and their level of priority for social housing. We have also revised the social housing allocations practice guidance Social housing allocations in Scotland: practice guide - to include a specific section on Armed Forces and veterans to help landlords consider the needs of this group in their allocation policies and respond appropriately.

Work has been carried out by the Veterans Scotland Housing Group (VSHG) identifying what each Local Authority’s allocations policy contains about veterans. This is likely to be referred to in the Veterans Homelessness Prevention Pathway.

As above. 

The Scottish Government will work to improve the provision of guidance for frontline local authority (LA) and other Registered Social Landlord staff on the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant (AFC) and each council’s policy on housing support for veterans. This could include wider circulation of the Armed Forces Awareness training distributed to LAs in 2020.

As above. 

Along with raising awareness of the pathway to prevent homelessness for veterans, the Scottish Government and the Veterans Scotland Housing Group will work to improve Armed Forces Covenant (AFC) awareness via the local authorities (LAs) Housing Options Hubs. As part of this, the group will seek to include information on the AFC and the specific challenges that veterans face.

In late 2022, the Scottish Government and members of the Veterans Scotland Housing Group attended a Local Housing Strategy (LHS) Forum for a session on veterans and Armed Forces personnel’s housing needs. The LHS Forum is for reps of local authorities who lead on the development and delivery of their LHS. There was a very valuable and interesting discussion on the homelessness pathway and LAs support to veterans.

The Scottish Government will encourage the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) and the Glasgow West of Scotland Forum (GWSF) to raise awareness of veterans issues around housing associations.

As above, through his regular engagement with partners, the Minister for Housing has committed to encouraging SFHA and others housing stakeholders to raise awareness of veterans housing issues when needed.

The Scottish Government will support social landlords in the preparation of their Housing Need and Demand Assessments (HNDA) in order to confirm that the needs of the Armed Forces community are considered, including the number, location, type, size and tenure of housing required.

In November 2022, Scotland Housing Network held a session of its Local Housing Strategy Group (LHSG) which focussed on Armed Forces/Veterans housing. The session provided to local authorities included an overview of the HNDA tool, requirements for local authorities to consider the housing requirements of Armed Forces/veterans when preparing Local Housing Strategies, an example of the approach taken by Argyll and Bute Council when developing its Local Housing Strategy, and overview of the Military Matters Project within Housing Options Scotland, and information on the pathway to prevent homelessness for veterans.

The Scottish Government will encourage local authorities to fully consider the housing requirement of the Armed Forces Community when preparing a Local Housing Strategy and to ensure that appropriate engagement takes place with relevant organisations to inform the development of each strategy.

As above. 

Any proposed Scottish Veterans Housing Alliance could effectively feed into both the Housing Need and Demand Assessments (HNDA) and Local Housing Strategy (LHS) processes to help inform future need for veterans in Scotland. The Scottish Government will discuss with the Veterans Scotland Housing Group (VSHG) the proposed purpose and associated benefits of an alliance and will consider further if a request/proposal to fund a feasibility study is submitted.

No proposal for a Scottish Veterans Housing Alliance has yet been forthcoming.

We will liaise with SFHA (Scottish Federation of Housing Associations) GWSF (Glasgow West of Scotland Forum) and ALACHO (Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers) to promote to their members ex-Service personnel as a priority group under ‘Reasonable Preference Allocations Priority’ policy.

A letter was sent from the Minister for Housing to stakeholders in January 2024 which asked them to consider including additional priority in their allocations policy for veterans.

We will support local authorities in the preparation of their Housing Need and Demand Assessments (which covers social landlords) in order to confirm the specialist housing needs of the Armed Forces Community are considered. This could include the number, location, type, size and tenure of housing required as well as any specialist housing requirements.

The Scottish Government’s Centre for Housing Market Analysis (CHMA) has continued to review Housing Need and Demand Assessments submitted by local authorities and has provided feedback on these. The HNDA Guidance will be refreshed at the end of 2025 and this will include the guidance on veterans and the Armed Forces Community.

SG will encourage local authorities to fully consider the housing requirement of the Armed Forces Community when preparing a Local Housing Strategy and to ensure that appropriate engagement takes place with relevant organisations to inform the development of each strategy.

In reviewing Local Housing Strategies that have been submitted by local authorities, the Scottish Government has continued to ensure that this includes a focus for local authorities to consider the housing requirement of the Armed Forces Community when preparing a LHS. The Scottish Government will refresh its Local Housing Strategy guidance and will ensure that it continues to include a focus on housing requirement of the armed forces community and veterans.

Funding can be made available through our Affordable Housing Supply Programme to deliver homes specifically for veterans where Local Authorities identify this as a strategic priority.

There have been no new Affordable Housing Supply Programme approvals this year where the client group has been specified as veterans.

The Scottish Government will work to improve the provision of guidance for frontline local authority (LA) and other Registered Social Landlord staff on the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant (AFC) and each council’s policy on housing support for veterans. 

We will revisit this work through engagement with the Champions, following the release of Census data.

The Scottish Government will review Local Housing Strategies submitted by local authorities and provide feedback to ensure that: the needs of the veterans and Armed Forces community are considered; and there has been engagement with the relevant veterans organisations.

Local authorities are responsible for assessing housing need and demand and setting out how the requirement for housing will be met through their Local Housing Strategies and Strategic Housing Investment Plans, including the size, type and tenure of housing required to address need in their communities. Scottish Government guidance for local authorities on preparing a Housing Need and Demand Assessment requires them to give due consideration to Specialist Provision requirements including accessible and adapted housing and wheelchair housing amongst others. When evidencing this they should consider a range of households such as older people, disabled people, people with a mental health condition, and the Armed Forces community. The Scottish Government’s Centre for Housing Market analysis (CHMA) will continue to review HNDAs when these are submitted by local authorities to ensure that their HNDA’s can be signed off as being “robust and credible”

In 2023, the Scottish Government reviewed 11 Local Housing Strategies, including ensuring that the needs of the Armed Forces community have been considered. Some examples included: Renfrewshire Council’s commitment to the armed forces community through the joint funding of a Veterans Support Advisor who provides housing support across Renfrewshire and the neighbouring Inverclyde and East Renfrewshire local authority areas; and South Ayrshire Council highlighted that Riverside Scotland completed a development of 63 modular homes in the village of Dundonald and allocated over 13% of these to veteran households. Over the next 5 years, the council plans to carry out a review of accommodation models for veterans to respond to any current gaps in provision.

Development of a pathway to prevent homelessness for veterans is underway and is intended be published by the end of 2021. This will include homelessness at transition and experiencing homelessness at any point as a veteran.

We know that the best way to end homelessness is to prevent it from happening in the first place. As stated in Equality, opportunity, community: New leadership – A fresh start (published 18 April 2023), by 2026 we will have delivered legislation on the new prevention of homelessness duties, subject to the agreement of parliament.

We remain committed to developing and implementing prevention pathways for groups at particular risk of homelessness, in line with the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group (HARSAG) recommendations. To date, five prevention pathways have been developed including one for veterans. Due to capacity challenges, we are currently focusing on the prevention pathways for women and children experiencing domestic abuse and people leaving prison.

With regards to recommendations 16 and 17 specifically within the pathway, we have already taken forward steps to suspend local connection in Scotland for everyone, which will also be to the benefit of veterans and their households. We are also currently working on changes to existing housing legislation to enable local authorities to provide support to households who are at risk of homelessness earlier. This follows the recommendations of the Prevention Review Group and will see the statutory timeframe for prevention of homelessness increased from two months to six months. As noted above, we have also established a Ministerial Oversight Group on Homelessness which will meet for the first time at the end of September.

We have worked with the OVA on their veterans homelessness projects including Op Fortitude and their Veterans Capital Housing Fund to ensure Scotland’s interests are represented.

The Housing Minister has committed to raising the profile of veterans and housing issues at relevant stakeholder meetings.

The Housing Minister met with members of the Veterans Scotland Housing Group in February 2024.

The Housing (Scotland) Bill will be introduced to the Scottish Parliament.

The Housing (Scotland) Bill was introduced to Parliament in March 2024. This Bill will enable the delivery of our commitment for longer-term private sector rent controls; tenants’ rights and other protections; and duties aimed at the prevention of homelessness.

We will work with Veterans Scotland to develop a plan to set out the actions needed to progress the recommendations contained in the Veterans Homelessness Prevention Pathway.

A baselining exercise, led by the Scottish Government, to ascertain progress made since the publication of the veterans’ homelessness prevention pathway is underway. This will look at all 24 recommendations in conjunction with partners including Veterans Scotland and will identify where effective steps have been taken to deliver against the recommendations and where further action is required. This information will also support prioritisation of recommendations in line with available resource to ensure sustainable progress is made going forward. 

While this exercise is live, progress recorded so far includes the ongoing sharing of information through the Veterans Scotland newsletter to ensure consistency and accessibility of messages; delivery of a variety of events and briefing sessions in line with the ‘Informing Scotland’ approach including Veterans Housing Scotland (VHS) Group-led awareness sessions, Housing Options Scotland engaging local authorities, VHS hosting Civic Receptions across Scotland and both VHS and Scottish Veterans Residences speaking at the Housing Options Hubs; and development of a draft approach to a Veterans Housing Alliance which will now be considered more widely. All Veterans Scotland Members are fully compliant with OSCR EDI Policies and that members, such as Scottish Veterans Residences, continue to collect and report accurate data as per the Social Landlord Housing Regulator requirements.

Furthermore, on 26 March the Housing (Scotland) Bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament. This important price of legislation includes the provisions which constitute the homelessness prevention duties.

Engage with partners from UK Government and Defence Medical Services (DMS) to ensure that service leavers and their families have access to relevant information in relation to the health care system in Scotland.

We continue to engage with colleagues, through a variety of forums, across the UK Government, devolved nations and DMS, this helps to ensure that the information that is available to service leavers and their families is relevant and up to date. Through this engagement, we are connected to a project which, although the business case has still to be approved, has the potential to accelerate the ability for healthcare professionals to access medical records when leaving service. 

We have continued to build on our relationship with DMS for example we have connected DMS with our NHS Armed Forces and Veterans Champions Network. It is hoped that this will facilitate a meaningful exchange of information and help identify where gaps in information might be. In addition, we have reviewed and updated the information on the Veterans Health pages on the NHS Inform Website. This provides those transitioning with information to help them access healthcare in Scotland.

Identify areas where there can be greater collaboration with stakeholders across the UK Government and Defence Medical Services to address issues associated with transition.

As above. 

Working with colleagues in Defence Medical Services, consider ways, such as engagement sessions/presentations on healthcare in Scotland, which can support service leavers to ensure they are fully informed before leaving.

As above. 

Continue to press MOD and UK Government colleagues for the effective roll out of Project Cortisone in Scotland as soon as possible.

We continue to engage with colleagues across the UK Government and Defence Medical Services to ensure that the information that is available is relevant and up to date. We are working with colleagues across the UK to understand what we might be able to do in the short term until Project Cortisone is established and working.

The GP recognition scheme and a letter subsequently issued by National Clinical Director outline best practice with regard to ensuring that veterans do receive the most appropriate person-centred care, including ensuring veterans are encouraged to disclose their veteran status.

Through our work within the General Practice Recognition Scheme and the Fife pilot project, establish processes and provide information on good practice regarding veterans’ health records held in primary healthcare systems.

As above.

Through our work within the General Practice Recognition Scheme, we will establish processes and provide information on good practice regarding veterans health records held in primary healthcare systems.

Following a successful pilot, the General Practice Armed Forces and Veterans Recognition Scheme was launched in November 2023. The scheme aims to raise awareness among General Practice teams of some of the health challenges that veterans and Armed Forces families face as a result of military service. Easily accessible training materials for use by all members of General Practice staff, both clinical and non-clinical, can be found on Turas, which is NHS Education for Scotland’s single, unified online learning platform. Staff within practices are encouraged to undertake the training to help them identify the Armed Forces and veteran population within our healthcare system, and to ensure this status is highlighted on referrals. This not only helps demonstrate our collective commitment to upholding the Armed Forces Covenant, but also makes a significant contribution to delivering person centred care.

We are continuing to promote the benefits of identifying members of the Armed Forces Community to support the provison of safe, effective, person centred health care. As a minimum, we expect General Practices to apply the agreed codes to patient records and to encourage veterans to self identify, should they wish to do so. The training, included as part of the GP scheme, is intended to give staff groups working in primary care a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of military service on health. Officials are working to promote uptake of the Scheme through speaking to individual practices and Boards, as well as through promotion by Board champions. Expansion of the scheme to cover secondary care is being considered, as is other ways in which the identification of veterans can be progressed.

Inspired by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) ‘veteran aware’ GP accreditation scheme, convene a group to develop a similar scheme for general practices to raise awareness of issues impacting the health of veterans and Armed Forces families living in Scotland.

We have completed the pilot of the Armed Forces & Veterans General Practice Recognition Scheme and have received feedback from participating practices to help improve the content and scheme process. We are currently preparing for a national roll out of the scheme, this includes developing training modules which have been made available on Turas, the National Education for Scotland website which houses health and social are learning resources. It is a current Joint Group priority to explore what is required to develop this scheme for secondary care and colleagues in NHS Highland and NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde have started considering training material content.

We will work with partners to develop training materials to be made available to practices who have agreed to be part of an initial pilot scheme. This material will reflect the multi-disciplinary teams that exist within these practices with specific content aimed at administrative staff, clinical staff and practice managers and provide signposting to support organisations.

As above. 

We will assess feedback from this pilot and where relevant adapt the training content and any associated processes or data gathering to ensure optimal results prior to wider scheme roll out.

In conjunction with the General Practice scheme, a letter from the National Clinical Director has been issued. This builds on the findings from the Fife coding project and outlines some straightforward recommendations that practices should consider as a minimum. These include the application of the UK wide agreed code for their veteran patients. 

We will engage with colleagues in England and Wales to share our learning and support further scheme improvements.

We have established regular bilateral meetings with NHS England. These meetings will enable us to discuss activity and consider service improvements where there is synergy between our work. 

Establish a Veterans’ Mental Health & Wellbeing Action Plan Implementation Board which will report to the Minister for Mental Wellbeing and Social Care on a quarterly basis.

The Veterans Mental Health and Wellbeing Implementation Board and the Implementation Team, hosted by Combat Stress, are working on developing a new Veterans Mental Health and Wellbeing Scotland pathway. The aim of this work is to implement the principles of the Veterans Mental Health and Wellbeing Action Plan and to improve access to mental health services for veterans across Scotland through developing the role of peer support services. The Implementation Team is currently developing an implementation plan for the new pathway.

Commission See Me to develop an anti-stigma campaign and to identify the barriers that veterans experience when trying to access mental health services and is reflective of the lived experience of veterans.

The veterans mental health anti-stigma campaign, developed by See Me, was launched on 29 November 2022. The campaign included recordings of veterans’ stories of dealing with mental health problems, pictures of veterans displayed in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and a short podcast series. To date, See Me recorded 609 listens to veterans’ stories and almost 3000 visits to the campaign’s website.

Commission Combat Stress to support the work of the Implementation Board and help develop the role of peer support services across Scotland.

See update for Action 1. 

Peer support services will also link with colleagues in housing and employment to optimise the impact of social prescribing.

See update for Action 1. 

We will establish a new Veterans Mental Health Advisory Group to oversee the development of the Veterans Mental Health & Wellbeing Pathway and the implementation of the principles of the Veterans Mental Health & Wellbeing Action Plan. The Advisory Group will include linkage with peer support services across Scotland.

The Veterans Mental Health Project achieved its initial milestone by implementing a clear governance structure to oversee and progress the Veterans Mental Health & Wellbeing Pathway through the Advisory Group, Stakeholder Network and Operational Working Group. All three groups have now met and agreed terms of reference and membership.

The Veterans Mental Health Advisory Group held its inaugural meeting on Monday 18 March 2024, chaired by Dr Lynne Taylor, the Scottish Government’s Principal Psychology Advisor. The first milestone for the Advisory Group was realised when the group agreed the preferred model of delivery for the Veterans Mental Health & Wellbeing Pathway.

At the Advisory Group meeting on 23 August, broad consensus from the Group was reached that the preferred model is a national framework to be applied locally, overseen by a centralised hub. SG officials are now preparing a paper for discussion at the October meeting which will set out greater details on the delivery and cost of this option.

The Operational Working Group will then consider the operational arrangements and local service provision required to implement the preferred option. Ongoing engagement and consultation to sense check all proposals will take place with the Stakeholder Network, which now has over sixty members from statutory and third sector organisations, as well as those with lived experience.

We will ensure future clinical mental health services for veterans meet the needs of veterans, are accessible to veterans across Scotland and are in line with the new Veterans Mental Health & Wellbeing Pathway.

Veterans Link Scotland is a veterans voice group which was established in 2023 to provide a safe space where veterans can draw on their lived experience to offer guidance and advice to the Scottish Government and influence aspects of service design and delivery. The views and experiences of this group will inform any decision regarding mental health services for veterans in Scotland.

We will continue to Monitor the nature and scale of drug use amongst veterens across Scotland by obtaining data from the new Drug and Alcohol Information System (DAISy).

We are developing a Mental Health and Substance Use Service protocol to ensure better working links between services to deliver person-centred, joined up care for people that use substances. On 27 June 2023 Public Health Scotland published ‘Drug and Alcohol Information System: Overview of Initial Assessments for Specialist Drug and Alcohol Treatment 2021/22 and 2022/23’. This is an official statistics release which reported that in 2021/22 3% of people starting treatment for substance use reported having ever served in the armed forces, with a further 3% not wishing to answer. For those that reported serving 40% of veterans reported a length of service between one and four years, and 48% reporting serving five years or more.