Our Armed Forces Community
The Trust is proud to support those who have served, their partners and dependants. As such the Trust is a signatory of the Armed Forces Covenant.
The Armed Forces Covenant is about fair treatment. For most of the Armed Forces community, the Covenant is about removing disadvantage; so that they get the same access to services as the civilian community. The Armed Forces Covenant sets out the relationship between the nation, the government and the Armed Forces. It recognises that the whole nation has a moral obligation to members of the Armed Forces and their families, and it establishes how they should expect to be treated.
The Covenant's two principles are that:
- the Armed Forces community should not face disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public and commercial services in the area where they live;
- special consideration is appropriate in some cases, especially for those who have given most such as the injured and the bereaved.
The Trust has a range of strategies to support patients from the Armed Forces Community to ensure they do not face disadvantage as a result of their service to the country.
In the development of support the Trust considers patients from the following groups to be part of the Armed Forces Community:
- Serving Personnel
- Veterans
- Reservists
- Spouse or Partner (including spouses and partners of reservists)
- Child of a veteran, service member or reservist aged 25 or under
Gold award holders:
- must already be demonstrating support by holding a valid ERS Silver Award. Employers that do not hold a valid ERS Silver Award cannot progress to the Gold level
- must proactively demonstrate their forces-friendly credentials as part of their recruiting and selection processes
- must actively ensure that their workforce is aware of their positive policies towards defence people issues