Progress update: 2025

We will consider additional interventions and activity to improve employment and skills-related advice and support for veterans and their families when more detailed Census data is published.

To further support interpretation and use of the Census and other recently released data, additional analysis is underway which aims to provide greater insight into the themes outlined in the Veterans Strategy published in 2018, such as community and relationships, employment, education and skills, health and wellbeing, and housing.

We will promote Scottish Government-funded employability support in Welcome to Scotland.

SG-funded employability support is now referenced within Welcome to Scotland, signposting veterans and their families to the support available in their local authority area. Each local authority has employability services in place which are required to consider and respond to user and local labour market needs. We have shared the link to Welcome to Scotland with both CTP/Reed and the Families Federations for wider distribution across their networks.

We will ensure that Scotland’s apprenticeship suite of offerings will continue to be promoted to the veterans and Armed Forces community.

The Scottish Government remain committed to actively promoting Scotland’s Apprenticeship programmes to veterans and the wider Armed Forces community, ensuring they are aware of and can access the full range of opportunities available. 

Our multi-year transformation programme to reform the post-school education and skills system will support delivery of our four priorities: eradicating child poverty; boosting the economy; tackling climate change; and delivering high quality, efficient public services. This programme is about driving agility and efficiency through the system, making it simpler for learners to engage with, and making the best use of the substantial investment that we make for the benefit of Scotland’s people and economy. As part of this programme, we will lead on the development of new national skills planning processes, simplify the funding body landscape, improve careers support and take a central role in the development of apprenticeships.

Work is underway to build the evidence base to improve the apprenticeship models for Foundation, Modern and Graduate Apprenticeships. We will work with stakeholders and learners to build on the strengths and make improvements over the next few years.

Our aims for apprenticeship reform are threefold: to reduce complexity; increase transparency; and to maximise the value of investment to learners and the economy. We are also cognisant of minimising disruption to the current delivery models within the apprenticeship family whilst improvements are made.

Work for Scotland, the Scottish Government’s jobs website, will continue to be linked on the Forces Families Jobs website.

The Forces Families jobs website continues to have a link to Work for Scotland to ensure that 
Armed Forces families can access job opportunities within the Scottish Government.

We will continue to offer the Going Forward Into Employment scheme for veterans and their families and guaranteed interviews for veterans.

We continue to offer these schemes to veterans and their families. Since the last SVC report we have helped Social Security Scotland recruit 6 new employees under the Veterans, Military Partners/Spouses and Service Leavers Scheme. In addition as at the end of July 2025, there were at least 138 veterans of the regular armed forces and 54 veterans of the reserved armed forces working in the Scottish Government.

We will continue to promote Scottish Government jobs at CTP’s employment fairs.

The Scottish Government had a stand at CTP/Reed’s employment fair at Murrayfield in April 2025 where once again we engaged with veterans, Service personnel and Service leavers. We provided advice and guidance on working for the Scottish Government and how to apply, as well as the employment schemes available to them, including the Guaranteed Interview Scheme and Going Forward Into Employment.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with veterans, service leavers and representative organisations to help identify the areas for improvement across both Scottish Government and partner services.

The Scottish Government continues to maintain its strong relationship with the veterans sector across the public, private and third sectors. We provide funding to representative organisations primarily through the Scottish Veterans Fund, which directly supports veterans and their families, as well as the Veterans Scotland grant.

Work for Scotland, the Scottish Government’s jobs website, will continue to be linked on the Forces Families Jobs website.

The Forces Families jobs website continues to have a link to Work for Scotland to ensure that Armed Forces families are made aware of job opportunities within the Scottish Government.

We will continue to offer the Going Forward Into Employment scheme for veterans and their families and guaranteed interviews for veterans.

We continue to offer these schemes to veterans and their families. Since the last SVC report we have helped Social Security Scotland recruit 6 new employees under the Veterans, Military Partners/Spouses and Service Leavers Scheme. In addition, as at the end of July 2025, there were at least 138 veterans of the regular armed forces and 54 veterans of the reserved armed forces working in the Scottish Government.

We will continue to promote Scottish Government jobs at CTP’s employment fairs.

The Scottish Government had a stand at CTP/Reed’s employment fair at Murrayfield in April 2025 where once again we engaged with veterans, Service personnel and Service leavers. We provided advice and guidance on working for the Scottish Government and how to apply, as well as the employment schemes available to them, including the Guaranteed Interview Scheme and Going Forward Into Employment.

We are committed to the development of a new funding model for post-school education provision. This will continue to deliver free tuition but improve the parity of living cost support on offer for those wishing to study part time or flexibly. It will continue to promote post-16 education as a positive destination for widening access students.

This will continue to deliver free tuition but improve the parity of living cost support on offer for those wishing to study part time or flexibly. We have made changes to eligibility requirements to ensure that Further Education funding is accessible for all Service children based in Scotland. In addition, Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) have clarified that funding support for higher education is available to all service children who meet the normal residence conditions or are able to demonstrate a significant connection to Scotland.

A significant connection can include:

• Those born and lived all of their life in Scotland, or
• Those who have spent the greater part of their life in Scotland, or
• Those who completed their secondary education in Scotland.

We will continue to promote post-16 education as a positive destination for widening access students as we develop the model, however we have not yet established a timeline for completion of this work. 

Skills Development Scotland will continue to work closely with the MOD and the Careers Transition Partnership to increase the levels of careers guidance and support offered to Service leavers and families.

SDS are planning a session with Early Service Leaver CTP/FEC Advisers. The SDS service offer has continued to be promoted to partners and spouses of veterans and serving personnel through partnership relationships. Their Careers Adviser link continues with Drumfork Family Centre and the Adviser has re-engaged with Leuchars Welfare Centre to develop that relationship.

SG previously agreed that our services should offer wrap-around support as standard, and operate as part of a public service offering aimed at addressing individual’s needs. No-One Left Behind (NOLB) continues to provide tailored individual wrap-around support, including to spouses/partners of veterans and those unable to take up support offers due to health or disability.

From April 2024, all SG funded employability support has been delivered through NOLB which continues to offer employment support services for those facing significant challenges when leaving the Armed Forces. Much of this support is delivered through Local Employability Partnerships (LEPs) at Local Authority level. SG continue to liaise with LEPs to ensure veterans remain a priority group and details on NOLB have been included in Welcome to Scotland to help better ensure that ‘advice and support is clearly sign-posted and promoted proactively’.

As part of Scotland’s Devolved Employment Service: Statistical Summary Series, data on Armed Forces veterans for No One Left Behind were reported for the first time in February 2024. In the most recent quarter, January to March 2025, 62 people (1%) reported being an armed forces veteran, while 5,539 (97%) reported not being an armed forces veteran. This information was unknown for 101 people (2%). The proportion of people reporting being an armed forces veteran has consistently been 1% since the introduction of the SMF Data Template.

727 veterans have been supported through No One Left Behind since April 2019. The majority of these have entered support after a significant shift in the delivery model was implemented in April 2022, which saw Local Employability Partnerships take on responsibility for design and delivery of services which meet the needs of users in their area and local labour markets. 

NHS Armed Forces Talent Programme

The Armed Forces Talent Programme is an NHS Scotland-wide recruitment initiative for the armed forces community. It supports service leavers, veterans, spouses, partners, dependants, reservists, cadets, and cadet forces adult volunteers to enter the NHS Scotland workforce. Over the last year, the AFTP initiated 5 paid internships across NHS Scotland, which have resulted in a high conversion rate to permanent contracts (40%). This approach has continued with an additional 7 boards offering a range of placements in Audiology, Pharmacy and Senior Learning and Development roles being made available. This will continue in the coming financial year. As well as continuing to support the engagement between NHS Scotland and forces personnel, veterans and their families, the programme is broadening its scope to work with cadet forces and the Army Cadets Royal College of Nursing Scheme.

Our shared values, strong work ethic, tenacity and dedication to get the job done, means that a transition from the military to health and social care should be seen as a natural transition for many of our service leavers and veterans to consider. 
In November 2024, at an event celebrating NHS Scotland’s commitment to the Armed Forces Covenant, held in Edinburgh Castle, the Armed Forces Covenant was renewed for the organisation, underlining the commitment being made by NHS Scotland. All 22 health boards have now individually pledged their commitment beyond the legal requirements to support the Armed Forces Community. Earlier this year, all NHS Chief Executives received a briefing on the work of the AFTP during a meeting of the NHS Scotland Executive Group. The work of AFTP received unanimous support, underlining the commitment to this innovative piece of work across NHS Scotland.

The programme has further developed engagement and collaboration activity in coordinating the successful West Region Event in June 2025, where several NHS Scotland employers came together to celebrate the armed forces community, which propagated sign-ups to the Scottish Credits & Qualifications Framework partnership of Boards to become “Inclusive Recruiters”, which AFTP has enabled as part of an approach to improving sustainable workforce initiatives across the organisation.
In delivering best practice to enhance recruitment strategies for the armed forces community entering the NHS Scotland workforce, AFTP have spearheaded a tailored, accessible 1-2-1 support and advice service to armed forces community members, hiring managers, and NHS Scotland colleagues. The success of the interaction with these groups has led to improved communication pathways and outcomes for individuals who may otherwise not receive direct, relevant support.

As one of Scotland’s largest employers – with a presence in every community and with a range of roles from clinical care to community support services – this programme has the potential to benefit veterans, service leavers, their families and the communities that we serve.

Learners must choose their own paths, however we need to make sure that in making their choices they are aware of the range of potential pathways and informed by up-to-date information about the likely labour market trends and potential economic outcomes of their choices. This was reflected in this year’s PfG which included an action to ‘review and improve (school age and) adult support, including better information on career choices, job prospects and earnings’.

This is being taken forward in the improving careers support project, part of the post-16 Education and Skills Reform Programme. The Careers Service Collaborative will work with key stakeholders to put in place a system of outcomes and measures to ensure that there is an all age career support offer for Scotland’s learners and that it is high quality and fit for the future. We recognise there has been a delay in confirming Chairs for the Collaborative however, this has now been finalised and work is moving forward at pace.

Work will continue on the development and promotion of SCQF’s Military Skills Discovery Tool.

The SCQF’s Qualifications tool now has a unique place on the My World Of Work (MyWoW) website, sitting alongside the Skills Discovery Tool (this is embedded on MyWoW and is ongoing)

Discussions with MOD and SCQF colleagues regarding keeping the qualification tool up to date with development of MOD skills framework are ongoing.

SDS takes as many opportunities as possible to promote and demonstrate the tool to veterans at events, particularly service leaver events.

Employability support

Employer engagement activity is a critical component of employability support, and will be managed locally in line with the No One Left Behind delivery model. The Local Employability Partnership Board works with a range of stakeholders including small and medium sized enterprises as potential employers for people looking for sustainable employment.

We will maintain and develop connections to the business community through the relevant employability group.

Engagement continues with stakeholders to consider how best to set, maintain and monitor the strategic direction for employability work supporting Veterans, following the review of the Veterans Employability Strategic Group.

We will continue to support and deliver the Scottish Veterans Fund.

Through the Scottish Veterans Fund the Scottish Government is currently providing funding to Salute My Job’s Career Jumpstart Programme which is a development of projects to reskill jobseekers from the Armed Forces community to realign and develop jobseekers’ military and security experience for employment in roles in greatest demand in public, private, and third sector. This includes, for example, placing job seekers from the Armed Forces community in cyber security or related roles. We also fund The Forces Employment Charity to support veterans into new careers.

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. This will include engaging with organisations including Social Enterprise Scotland (SES) to identify ways in which Social Enterprises can support the veterans and Armed Forces community.

Social Enterprise Scotland (SES) remain committed to championing the role of social enterprise in supporting veterans’ transition to civilian life. They aim to continue to drive impact through strategic advocacy, practical action in procurement systems, and visibility for trusted delivery organisations.

SES have engaged with Scottish Government and local stakeholders to elevate Community Wealth Building (CWB) as a strategic approach. This positions veterans-focused social enterprises in areas like inclusive procurement, fair employment, and community ownership. These efforts align with wider economic policy and help ensure veterans are supported through enterprise-led pathways.

Over 25/26, Social Enterprise Scotland propose to:

1. Launch a dedicated procurement-readiness pilot specifically for veteran-focused social enterprises, piloting with partners such as SBMC, Social Bite and Be-Inn Unity.
2. Inclusion in the next CWB phase: Amplify social enterprise, veteran case studies in Local Authority and NHS procurement strategies.
3. Expansion of the Buy Social supplier catalogue to profile more veteran-supported enterprises and engage procurement leads across sectors.
4. Strengthened governance alignment: Facilitate a Veterans Policy + Social Enterprise working subgroup to embed social enterprise clearly within veteran support frameworks.

SG will identify opportunities to promote social enterprises among the veteran community and seek examples of good practice. 

The Buy Social Scotland campaign, with Scottish Government support, promotes public and private sector procurement with social enterprises. We’ve emphasised veteran-supporting organisations like Scotland’s Bravest Manufacturing Company (SBMC) as valuable partners in procurement frameworks, notably through coverage in our supplier catalogue and case studies in procurement workshops.

SG will demonstrate visible support for the work of social enterprises and their support to veterans and their families.

The Scottish Government continues to showcase the work of veteran-focused social enterprises including:

• Scotland’s Bravest Manufacturing Company (SBMC), operating in Erskine and supplying major contracts via Scotland Excel’s signage framework. Their work delivers meaningful employment for veterans and people with disabilities at scale.
• The Energy Training Academy, Bravehound, Social Bite, Be-Inn Unity, and others featured through our communications channels, events, and impact stories.
• This included generalised support through the Social Enterprise Weekly bulletin, funding bulletin, and invitations to attend thematic networks and our scale for good meetings.

The Minister for Veterans will continue to engage regularly with the veterans charity sector.

In addition to meeting and engaging with the sector at various times throughout the year, the Minister for Veterans has bi-annual joint meetings with Veterans Scotland, Poppyscotland, Legion Scotland and Erskine to help foster a joined-up, collaborative approach with some of the primary organisations offering support to veterans in Scotland.

We will encourage collaborative working through the Scottish Veterans Fund.

For the 2023-24 Scottish Veterans Fund, the Scottish Government encouraged bids for projects which promote collaboration and partnership from amongst and outwith the veterans charitable sector. An exemplar of this is a project led by Scotland’s Bravest Manufacturing Company (SBMC), which received £50,000 for 3 years from 23/24 to 25/26. The project has developed and piloted a new 22 month SBMC traineeship programme, which specifically targets early service leavers and helps veterans in their long term integration to the workforce and civilian society following their transition from the military. Through this project SBMC are not only supporting veterans to gain qualifications and practical skills, they are working alongside corporate partners such as Amey and BAe Systems to raise awareness of the benefits of veteran employment and arrange placements for veterans involved in the programme.

The Scottish Government funds Veterans Scotland to develop collaborative working groups to optimise service provision and available resources across Health, Employment and Housing. 

We have provided £325,000 of funding to the Unforgotten Forces consortium this year to support their role in sharing best practise and improving referrals within their consortium members, which include a range of both veterans and non-veterans organisations who support veterans over the age of 60 across Scotland.

We will continue to support the MOD/OVA to better inform Service leavers by continuing to promote our Welcome to Scotland publication, which is updated each year.

An updated version of Welcome to Scotland was published in Spring 2025, 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 an entire section dedicated to Housing and we have shared the link to Welcome to Scotland with both CTP and the Families Federations for wider distribution across their networks.

We will continue to work closely with UK Government 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 SG to support these efforts.

Transition is reserved and is the responsibility of the UK Government to prepare Service leavers to leave the Military. Nevertheless, we continue to engage with the OVA on cross-UK veterans projects including Op Fortitude and the Veterans Capital Housing Fund to ensure Scotland’s interests continue to be represented.

We will continue to support the work of Housing Options Scotland and its Military Matters service.

We continue to support Housing Options Scotland which includes the Military Matters project amongst its services. Military Matters focuses on housing issues affecting people serving in the armed forces in Scotland, UK service personnel transitioning into civilian life in Scotland and veterans. The service offers help to find the right home in the right place. Since it began in 2012, Military Matters has helped almost 2000 households. In 2024-25 the project received a total of 189 new referrals. In quarter one of 2025-26, Military Matters received 43 new referrals (up to 20 June).

We will publish refreshed Local Housing Strategy guidance for local authorities by the end of this Parliament. The guidance will require local authorities to consider the needs of armed forces communities including spouses, partners, children and the bereaved when developing their 5 year Local Housing Strategies. The guidance will also require local authorities to engage with veterans organisations.

The new guidance will include links to reports on the armed forces and veterans from the 2022 census, as well as a reminder of local authority duty under the Armed Forces Covenant.

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.

Serving members of the armed forces and veterans have priority access to the Low Cost Initiative for First Time Buyers Scheme (LIFT).

Local authorities are responsible for assessing housing need and demand, and to set out how the requirement for housing will be met through their Local Housing Strategies and Strategic Housing Investment Plans. This includes the size, type and tenure of housing required to address need in their communities. In preparing their LHS, local authorities are expected to consider the housing requirement of the armed forces community.

Local authority Local Housing Strategies are refreshed around every 5 years and are subject to a robust peer review process by Scottish Government and an external peer reviewer from a local authority. The review process includes feedback to ensure that the needs of the Armed Forces community have been considered. For example, the draft LHS prepared by City of Edinburgh Council covering the period 2025-2030 states that the Council has a policy that if ex-service personnel have left the UK regular Armed Forces within the last 3 years their application for a local authority house may be backdated to the date they entered the Armed Forces. It also states that the Council has commissioned 85 bedspaces for veterans at Whitefoord house, in the Canongate area, as a registered housing support service provided by Scottish Veterans Residences for former members of the UK Armed Forces who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

Work is underway with key stakeholders including 4 of the 5 Housing Options Hubs, COSLA, ALACHO, SFHA and GWSF to discuss the best approach to progressing the recommendations in the Veterans Homelessness Prevention Pathway relating to local authorities and social landlords.

Officials have had initial discussions with the chair of the Veterans Scotland Housing Group on prioritisation of the key recommendations from the pathway.

We will continue to engage with partners from UK Government, including Defence Medical Services, to ensure that service leavers and their families have access to relevant information in relation to the health care system in Scotland. Through this engagement we will identify areas where we can improve collaboration to address issues associated with transition, which is reserved to the UK Government. Furthermore, we will continue to consider ways in which the Scottish Government can support service leavers and ensure they are informed fully before leaving the Armed Forces.

We have been further developing our relationships with stakeholders across the UKG and DMS. We recently hosted the DMS Senior Leadership team, which has strengthened the understanding of the NHS in Scotland, and a follow up visit is planned in Autumn 2025. We have also included the DMS Senior leadership team in our AFV focused meetings (IG and SOG). 

Our continued commitment to the work of the UKG and MOD Health Partnership Board enables us to share information and approaches to best support veterans to look after their health when transitioning. Through our regular stakeholder meetings with colleagues in DMS, we are keeping them fully appraised of policy and programme developments e.g. the GP recognition scheme and the Veterans In Service Injury Network (VISIN). This contributes to the range of information and support that can be provided to a service leaver.

We will continue to press MOD and UKG colleagues for the effective roll out of Project Cortisone, or equivalent, in Scotland.

Project CORTISONE consists of a number of work strands to deliver its various primary objectives:

1. Introduce coherence across the breadth of the Defence Medical Services (DMS) information and to enable seamless interoperability with the information systems of partner and other supporting organisations, principally the NHS structures of the home nations. This in turn enables the DMS to achieve their clinical outputs in a fully-informed, efficient and effective manner, and to maximise the return on investment in clinical research programmes and projects.
2. Provide coherence and interoperability across information systems/services.
3. Provide timely access to accurate, up-to-date patient information in support of clinical activities and diagnoses.
4. Underpin clinical best practice through provision of integrated health and reference information at the point of delivery of care.
5. Ensure that data can be captured once, at source, and used for their primary and secondary purposes across the organisation, regardless of host system configuration or location.
6. Enable integration of deployed services into the DMS’ information mainstream.

While we understand that Project Cortisone, in its current form, has been delayed we have engaged closely with MOD to understand what mitigations are planned and to reinforce the impact of further delays on veterans and their families living in Scotland. At present the focus is on a new electronic healthcare record to replace DMICP which is on schedule for the formal award of contract at the end of September 2025.

There is also work ongoing to ensure interoperability with all 4 nations of the UK is delivered which will improve NHS/MOD data sharing. The new eHR is fundamental to this but will provide further updates as and when possible.

Regular meetings are in place between DHAC representatives and MoD to discuss ongoing technical and data requirements. This will particularly focus on the data sharing agreements that are needed between NHS Scotland and MoD.

This has been supported by senior level engagement to provide more oversight and drive for the work required.

We will roll out the Armed Forces and Veterans General Practice Recognition Scheme across Scotland and provide appropriate training materials to practices.

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.

We continue to promote the benefits of identifying members of the Armed Forces Community to support the provision of safe, effective, person centred health care. We currently have 32 practices registered under the scheme with 173 individuals undertaking the course.

While GPs are, at the time of writing, in formal dispute with the Scottish Government, officials have engaged with BMA Scotland on how best to communicate with GPs on relevant veterans health initiatives, such as VISIN and the GP Recognition Scheme. Officials are working to promote uptake of the Scheme through speaking to GP committees within territorial boards, as well as through promotion by Board champions. DMS has also committed to write to the BMA to promote the schemes benefits and officials are working with his team to ensure that figures are improved. We have also promoted the scheme on the NHS Inform and ALISS webpages.

NHS Highland have been working with Associate Advisors across Scotland to deliver an online training package to trainee GPs as part of the NHSH AF&V project. This training package formed much of the basis of the TURAS Learn AF&V Recognition Scheme. This plan will ensure that GPs at the beginning of their careers would have an understanding of the AF&V community to bring forward into their GP surgeries when they graduate. It will also ensure a steady annual flow of students that will reflect in the numbers undertaking the training.

We will continue to progress the priorities of the Strategic Oversight Group, including the implementation of the Veterans In Service Injury Network.

The Armed Forces Personnel and Veterans Health Implementation Group (IG) has continued to make progress against the priorities assigned by the Strategic Oversight Group (SOG). The following progress has been made against the SOG’s 2024 priorities.

Development of the General Practice Armed Forces and Veterans Recognition Scheme: The scheme was launched by the Veterans Minister on 6 November 2023 and we are continuing to promote and encourage take up of the training. Training content for Secondary care has been also been developed. It has been recommended that this continues as a priority. Officials are conscious of pressures on General Practice and are working with colleagues in GP Policy to ensure that the benefits to both veterans and clinicians of the scheme are communicated effectively to promote involvement. Officials are working to promote uptake of the Scheme through speaking to individual practices , as well as through promotion by Board champions. Defence Primary Healthcare has also committed to write to the British Medical Association to promote the schemes benefits and officials are working with partners to ensure that figures are improved. We have also been able to advertise the scheme on the NHS Inform and ALISS webpages.

NHS Highland have been working with Associate Advisors across Scotland to deliver an online training package to trainee GPs as part of the NHSH AF&V project.  This training package formed much of the basis of the TURAS Learn AF&V Recognition Scheme. The positive about the plan is that it will ensure that GPs at the beginning of their careers would have an understanding of the AF&V community and bring forward into their GP surgeries when they graduate.  It will also ensure a steady annual flow of students that will reflect in the statistics.

Establishment of the Veterans In Service Injury Network (VISIN): The Veterans In Service Injury Network (VISIN), supported by £50,000 of investment from the Scottish Government, was launched by the Veterans Minister on 26 August 2025 after a soft launch in April 2025. The creation of VISIN will support veterans in receiving reviews of injuries and conditions arising as a result of their service. It will fulfil recommendations first made by the Scottish Veterans’ Commissioner in 2018. It will also ensure that veterans in Scotland have access to similar services as their counterparts do in England and Wales, where pathways already exist. NHS Highland is the host board and co-ordinator. We had previously reported that the pathway would be in place by 2024, but this was delayed as officials worked with the BMA’s SGPC and with NHS Highland and other Boards to ensure that promotion of VISIN and the data sharing agreements underpinning the network were in place. We have successfully worked with NHS Highland and SGPC to address these issues.

Consider what more can be done to improve the identification of veterans throughout healthcare, particularly on referrals from Primary to Secondary Care: At present the focus is on a new electronic healthcare record to replace DMICP which is on schedule for the formal award of contract at the end of September 2025. There is also work ongoing to ensure interoperability with all 4 nations of the UK is delivered which will improve NHS/MOD data sharing. Regular meetings are in place between DHAC representatives and MoD to discuss ongoing technical and data requirements. This will particularly focus on the data sharing agreements that are needed between NHS Scotland and MoD, and is at a senior level to provide oversight and drive for the work required.

Develop a Covenant Standards Framework: We had noted last year that work would be de-prioritised to ensure that the VISIN was sufficiently implemented.  As this is now the case, work can be restarted and prioritised for 2025. The document will be designed to support NHS Boards to uphold their obligations under the Armed Forces Covenant and ensure that the whole armed forces community is considered in relevant activity. Work was initiated in October 2024 in conjunction with DMWS, NHS England and NHS Highland.

Explore how forces families are considered in policy delivery and decision making: We have ensured that families are specifically considered in the decision making and development of treatment pathways, as despite providing a crucial role in supporting the veteran/serving personnel this can often be overlooked. Both the Primary and Secondary Care training for the GP scheme highlight the requirement to encompass the whole Armed Forces and Veterans community, including Armed Forces families. Although VISIN is only for UK veterans, the recommendation letter shared with the veteran’s GP includes signposting to Armed Forces and Veterans families-specific support such as The Ripple Pond.

The Strategic Oversight Group met in May 2025 and agreed the following priorities for 2025-26:

• To continue to promote the GP recognition scheme and the training for Secondary care. (Continuation from 2024/25)

• Consider what more can be done to improve the identification of veterans throughout healthcare, particularly on referrals from Primary to Care. (Continuation from 2024/25)

• Oversee the implementation of VISIN. (Continuation from 2024/25)

• Develop a Covenant Standards Framework. (Continuation from 2024/25)

• Explore how forces families are considered in policy delivery and decision making. (Continuation from 2024/25)

In 2024, we established 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.

In December 2024, the then Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport gave approval for the model for delivery for the Veterans Mental Health pathway. 

The model envisages a national framework, which outlines the elements of support, care and treatment that should be available to all veterans regardless where they live in Scotland. This will be accompanied by national standards, which those involved in operational delivery of mental health and wellbeing services will be expected to implement, adhere to and be assessed against.

The national framework document was approved by the Advisory Goup in June 2025, it aims to ensure that the approach is clearly articulated and easily understood. A final draft will be submitted for approval to the Minister for Social Care and Mental Wellbeing by the end of summer 2025.

The Advisory Group, with input from the operational working group, the stakeholder network, and Veterans Link Scotland, will support the development of the service standards documents with a view to launching the Pathway in 2026.

Three Short Life Working Groups have also been established to support the work of the Advisory Group. These groups allow for a detailed examination of key topics, drawing on relevant expertise of members and will make recommendations to the Advisory Group.

We continue to host Veterans Link Scotland, a lived experience group for veterans. Veterans Link Scotland 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, including the development of a national mental health pathway for veterans. 

Veterans Link Scotland provided critical feedback on a draft model of delivery paper for the pathway in 2024 and on a draft of the national framework for the pathway in 2025 which was fed back to the Advisory Group. Veterans link Scotland members are represented on both the Advisory group and the Short Life working Group which is looking at the specification on peer support. 

The Scottish Government will introduce a requirement for all veterans organisations that receive grant funding from the Veterans Unit in the future to commit to working towards obtaining a relevant kitemark or otherwise which demonstrates inclusivity and accessibility for the LGBTQI+ community. This requirement would be included as a condition for funding for all new grant recipients from April 2024 onwards.

The Scottish Government’s Veterans Unit has now introduced a requirement for all organisations that receive grant funding from the unit to commit to becoming a member of or join a Relevant Accreditation Scheme, or implement policies, procedures and good practice, which demonstrates commitment to inclusivity and accessibility for the LGBTQI+ community. This requirement has been included as a condition for funding for grant recipients from April 2024 onwards, and all recipients have now provided evidence demonstrating compliance in 2024/25. This will be a condition for funding for all new Veterans Unit grant recipients going forward.

The Scottish Government accepted both suggestions from Lord Etherton’s Independent LGBT Veterans Review related to kitemarking for health and housing service providers.

The Scottish Government wrote to social housing stakeholders on 26 January 2025 highlighting veterans housing issues and encouraging social landlords to consider a number of actions in relation to veterans. We highlighted Lord Etherton’s recommendation, recognising that a number have signed up to the Stonewall HouseProud Pledge Scheme or the Fighting with Pride’s Pride in Veterans Standard and asked that this is something that can be considered. 

We will write to all Armed Forces Champions LA/NHS/Police in order to highlight that the identity and contribution of under-represented groups within the veterans community are recognised. 

The Minister for Veterans wrote to all Local Authority Armed Forces Champions following the release of the Census data publication on the veterans questions. This correspondence highlighted to each Local Authority the number of veterans in their local authority and to encourage them to use this data and consider the diversity within this cohort when informing future policies.

The Scottish Government will work closely with the UK Government and relevant stakeholders to better understand the needs of women veterans.

Scottish Ministers met with researchers undertaking studies into the needs of female veterans in order to further understand the unique needs of and challenges faced by this marginalised group. Furthermore Minister and officials met with a group of female veterans to hear first hand their experiences. 

The Scottish Government contributed significantly to the previous UK administrations Women’s Veterans Strategy. 

We will continue to provide grant funding to Veterans Scotland.

Veterans Scotland’s grant for this financial year includes an outcome to deliver better recognition and representation of female veterans at all levels including underlying policy, service organisation and structure, and design and delivery, to better support the wellbeing of female veterans.

The Scottish Government’s Sexual Assault Response Coordination Services (SARCS) policy unit are planning marketing activity for 2025/26 to continue to raise awareness of SARCS. As in 2024/25, veterans stakeholder groups will be contacted during the campaign.

The Scottish Government wrote to all stakeholders who work with and support veterans and their families to draw attention to the relaunched “Turn to SARCS” national awareness campaign in 2024/25. This highlighted the work of the campaign and included a stakeholder toolkit to help organisations convey this vital information - and the same will be done in 2025/26. Veterans stakeholders were also contacted during Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence Awareness Week in February 2025. In addition, all relevant information for Scottish SARCS has been provided for inclusion in the Female Veterans Transformation Toolkit.

The Minister for Veterans will meet with academics to better understand the research on the needs of women veterans.

The Minister for Veterans met with Dr Moira Bailey from Robert Gordon University in February 2024 to discuss published research on improving access to service charities for female veterans and better understand how we can seek to address any issues in Scotland. The Minister subsequently met with a group of female veterans in April 2024 to hear about their experiences and consider ways in which the Scottish Government could support this cohort of veterans.

Following these meetings, we have funded Veterans Scotland to deliver better recognition and representation of female veterans at all levels of their work. We will ensure the lessons learned through research and from other work are reflected in our updated action plan following the refresh of the UK Veterans Strategy.

From a Sexual Assault Response Coordination Services (SARCS) Policy Unit perspective, consideration has been given to the above training package and whether it would be appropriate to ask SARCS staff to undertake this training however the conclusion was that it is too GP-centric. 

A Veteran specific training package for SARCS staff does not currently exist. Anyone who attends a SARCS will be treated in a person centred and trauma informed way. Consideration will be given to whether a bespoke training package is required, working with other UK nations.

We are working with the other 4 Nations on a series of briefings for serving armed forces communities in order to raise awareness of SARCS. 

Following work with the rest of the UK, these briefings are going to be trialled in England before being rolled out fully. Scottish Government have expressed a keen interest in this collaboration.

Data on veterans has become available from the 2022 Census and a range of other sources in 2024 and 2025.

Scottish Government analysts are using this data to enhance our understanding of the veterans and the circumstances they live in.

In June 2024, National Records of Scotland (NRS) published initial information from the 2022 Census on Scotland’s veteran population. This is the first time Scotland’s Census has ever collected data on veteran status.

The Scottish Government published a report to coincide with the release of further multivariate Census data in November 2024 which demonstrates differences between Scotland’s veteran and non-veteran population, based on providing high-level statistics on veterans’ demographic characteristics. This can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/summary-characteristics-of-uk-armed-forces-veterans-scotlands-census-2022/

With the November release, NRS published a Flexible Table Builder that enables multivariate analysis of the veteran population, including a wider range of variables such as ethnic group, religion and disability, as well as health, housing and employment. Scottish Government analysts have been examining this detailed data to better understand veterans’ demographic characteristics and explore key differences between the veteran and non-veteran population. 

The first findings for veterans from the 3 Scottish Government major household surveys – Scottish Household Survey (SHS), Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) and the Scottish Health Survey (SHeS) – have also started to become available in the last year. Results on veterans from the pooled analysis of the common questions across the three surveys were also released as part of the Scottish Surveys Core Questions 2022 and 2023. Additionally, findings on a range of topics were also published from the Veterans’ Survey 2022 by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Office for Veterans’ Affairs (OVA) over the last year. The survey was a collaboration between ONS, OVA and the devolved administrations. Findings released included information on whether patterns seen in results at UK level were replicated amongst respondents in Scotland.

Analysts are now leading work to robustly analyse, collate and make use of the data now available to offer insight into the themes outlined in the Veteran Strategy published in 2018, such as community and relationships, employment, education and skills, health and wellbeing, and housing. This includes considering how best to finalise and populate a monitoring framework for Scotland for the Veterans Strategy published in 2018. Outputs from this work are expected later in 2025.

Scottish Government analysts have been working with the MOD to set up a Data Sharing Agreement to obtain an extract from the Service Leavers Database to enable further research (including by academics) on veterans living in Scotland.

A Data Sharing Agreement is now in place. In the last year 2 Service Leavers Database (SLD) extracts have been received by Administrative Data Research (ADR) Scotland officials in the last year. Service Leavers Database linkage data – Scotland for 1975 to 2023 has been processed and made available to researchers within the ADR Scotland secure infrastructure. A data sharing agreement between the Scottish Government and MOD will facilitate annual updates to the SLD dataset. Researchers wishing to undertake projects will access the data through the standard Statistics Public Benefit and Privacy Panel procedures.

Role for policy areas carrying out activity for veterans to either provide assurance that families are included, or to expand polices to do so, e.g. homelessness, mental health, housing/social housing, health, education, benefits, etc.

Refreshed Local Housing Strategy guidance will be published by the end of this Parliament and will require local authorities to include information demonstrating that consideration has been given to the needs of Armed Forces Communities including spouses, partners, children and the bereaved and that engagement has taken place with relevant organisations such as Veterans Scotland and the local authority’s Armed Forces and Veterans Champion.

We have been furthering our engagement with charities that support bereaved families. This includes meeting with representatives from Beyond the Wire, a charity dedicated to improving the lived experience and outcomes of the Armed Forces bereaved community. As a result of this meeting we have become members of the charity, which keeps us informed on the progress of their work.

The General Practice Armed Forces and Veterans Recognition Scheme was launched in November 2023 and 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. 

Ensure that mechanisms are in place across Scottish Government policy areas and wider public sector to support sharing of best practise, identification of challenges and consistency of support.

The Scottish Armed Forces Education Support Group (SAFESG), chaired by SG education colleagues, meets quarterly to discuss issues in education support in the armed forces community and the unique challenges faced by children of veterans and serving personnel across Scotland and share best practise. The ADES National Education and Transition Officer role, funded by SG, maintains a network of AF champions and lead officers across Scotland.

Ensure that mechanisms are in place across Scottish Government policy areas and wider public sector to support sharing of best practise, identification of challenges and consistency of support.

The GP Recognition Scheme is intended to drive this across GP practices, while the Veterans Mental Health Pathway will ensure this in the mental health space.

Ensure that mechanisms are in place across Scottish Government policy areas and wider public sector to support sharing of best practise, identification of challenges and consistency of support.

The Scottish Government is funding Veterans Scotland (VS) who propose to deliver the following outcomes this year:

• An integrated framework of multi-organisational collaborative working groups based tracked by measurable objectives to optimise service provision and available resources in each functional area.
• Further development of VS convener role, facilitating, steering, negotiating and mediating, plus encouraging and enticing working group members to commit.

Veterans Scotland’s work this year is intended to deliver an integrated framework of multi-organisational collaborative working groups tracked by measurable objectives to optimise service provision and available resources in each functional area. (Health, Housing, Employment)

VS’s work will also include the creation of an online toolkit for Local Authority Champions to ensure continuity of service, best practice and ongoing improvement to services at local and regional level.

Poppyscotland Credit Their Service campaign demands an end to “the unfair treatment of military compensation as income by welfare benefits”. This issue was raised by Jeremy Balfour MSP by way of a non-government amendment to the Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill during Stage 2 which sought to disregard military compensation as income when assessing an application for a Discretionary Housing Payment.

During a meeting of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee on 19 September 2024, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice made a commitment to undertake a review of the Scottish Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) guidance manual, with consideration to the issue raised by Mr Balfour. Following engagement with Poppyscotland, local authorities and COSLA, the Scottish Government concluded that the guidance should be strengthened. A revised guidance manual was published in May 2025 and confirms that the principles applied to the treatment of disability-related benefits should be extended to all payments which relate to disability, injury or illness, including compensation payments. Further, veterans in receipt of military compensation are also now specifically mentioned within the ‘priority groups’ section of the guidance. It is considered that the updates will ensure greater parity between the treatment of compensation payments and disability related benefits. Poppyscotland have reviewed the updated guidance and have confirmed that they are pleased with the amendments, commenting that the changes are “a positive step in the right direction”.

Any monies received to a veterans under the LGBT Financial compensation Award scheme to be discounted for the purposes of Council Tax Reduction.

In March 2025, the Scottish Government announced that any awards to Veterans from the LGBT Financial Recognition Scheme will be fully disregarded indefinitely in the calculation of Council Tax Reduction.