Veterans Minister Alistair Carns has said he wants to offer a more formal type of support to personnel who leave the forces, rather than relying on goodwill. Mr Carns said he aims to achieve “institutional resilience” in support networks for service leavers.
The former colonel in the Royal Marines spoke to BFBS Forces News during a visit to Jaguar Land Rover in Warwick, where some veterans have transitioned into civilian work. The employment rate of personnel six months after leaving the Armed Forces reached a record high of 89%, according to data published for 2022/2023 by the MOD’s Department of Defence Statistics Health.
However, Mr Carns highlighted that at the moment a lot of veteran support is carried out on a volunteer basis.He added: “I want to take a proportion of that, institutionalise it and make a solid structure that will be dedicated to delivering for veterans.
“No matter what changes, politically, environmentally, economically, there is a structure and that’s what I look forward to the next six to 12 to 18 months.”
The former colonel added: “Watch this space. We’re going to try and design something with veterans, with military personnel, with the Civil Service that can deliver that for veterans as a group. “Veterans were more likely to seek help after two years of leaving the Armed Forces (66.3%) than within two years of leaving (38.7%), according to the results of the Government’s Life After Service in the UK Armed Forces survey.
RAF veteran Keeran Morar was medically discharged before joining Jaguar Land Rover. She told BFBS Forces News that she would have “loved it if there were more organisations that could reach out to me”. She added that they would need to be more obviously available. “When you’re leaving it’s almost like a deer in headlights,” Ms Morar said.
The Armed Forces Covenant aims to ensure the defence community faces no disadvantage when it comes to public and commercial services.
“I’d like to see it far more institutionally brought into the system and taken into law in the future,” Veterans Minister Mr Carns added.