AFC0033

Written evidence submitted by COBSEO.

Introduction

Thank you for the opportunity to submit written evidence to support the Defence Committee’s inquiry into the Armed Forces Covenant. You inquiry is timely given the recent publication of the 2024 Covenant Annual Report, and the government’s ongoing consultation on proposals to extend the scope of the Covent Legal Duty. Cobseo sought feedback from its members and this response incorporates written evidence provided by Help for Heroes; BFBS; Naval Children’s Charity; Tom Harrison House; RLC Regimental Charity; Building Heroes Educational Foundation; Launchpad; Th REME Charity; Black Watch Regimental Trust; Stepway; PWRR Regimental Association; Highground; Haig Housing; National Army Museum; CDARS; Royal Signals Charity; Hull for Heroes; The Explorer Foundation; Fighting With Pride; Star & Garter; and Royal Hospital Chelsea.

Our consolidated feedback, set against the question posed by the Committee, is set out below.

In what areas is the Armed Forces Covenant working well?

Since its formation as part of the 2011 Armed Forces Act, the Covenant has been instrumental in improving understanding and support regarding the needs of the Armed Forces community. It has fostered partnerships between charities, local authorities, and service providers, and Cobseo members have highlighted how the Covenant continues to make a positive difference in the lives of those who have served. This includes:

• Employment:  helping veterans transition into civilian jobs.
• Housing: improving access to housing for service families and veterans.
• Healthcare: Collaborations between the NHS and military charities provide tailored care for veterans.
• Education: Initiatives have been implemented to support the educational needs of Service children, including dedicated funding and programs aimed at mitigating the impacts of mobility and deployment on their education.
• Awareness: Public campaigns and initiatives such as the Employment Recognition Scheme which improve understanding of how veterans add value to the nation.
• Investment in local initiatives such as Armed Forces Liaison Officers in Wales, and Armed Forces Champions in England.
• The Covenant has also fostered partnerships between charities, councils, and service providers, enabling better collaboration on issues like homelessness and mental health.

The 2011 Armed Forces Act requires government to submit an annual report to Parliament on Covenant delivery, and from 2021-2023 these annual reports also included implement of the Veterans Strategy, which was an added complication given their differing aims. Cobseo, in association with other charity sector stakeholders, are invited to provide input but in practice this has been expressed as comments on developments during the year, rather than what the third sector is doing to complement statutory service activities.

While the aim of the Covenant is to ensure that those who serve, or have served, are treated fairly, Cobseo also believes that it should also underpin a ‘Thriving Armed Forces Community that is Valued and Supported by Society’ and the Service charity sector’s engagement has always endeavoured to reflect our aspiration to work in partnership to support the wellbeing of the Armed Forces Community, rather than just holding government to account. We also believe that the Covenant should be more than a transactional process for those in need, and should also recognise the value that those who have served offer to the nation. We would like to see these principles reflected in the future evolution of the Covenant.

Where is the Armed Forces Covenant failing the Armed Forces Community?

Measuring Performance

The Covenant provides a means to address disadvantage, and translating its principles into practical action is an ongoing challenge, so it is probably fairer to regard this evidence as areas for improvement rather than examples of failure. Uppermost in this respect, is that while we are confident that the Covenant is a force for good, there are still no mechanisms for measuring performance, recognising best practice, and identifying where improvements are needed. In particular, we need to do better than the input-focussed reporting that has been a common feature in annual reporting to Parliament. Comments on the difficulty of highlighting Covenant successes or failings when there is no means for measuring what good looks like was an enduring theme in feedback from Cobseo members, and addressing this shortfall will be vital ground as we lean into Op VALOUR and the future development of the Veterans Strategy in the weeks ahead.

Covenant Legal Duty

A Covenant Duty of Due Regard in the areas of Health, Housing and Education was introduced as part of the 2021 Armed Forces Act, and stakeholders across the miliary charity sector have consistently maintained that all aspects of Covenant delivery should be enshrined in law. We welcome the proposals now being developed to extend the scope of the Legal Duty, and will continue to work with government to ensure that the charity sector perspective is reflected. Mechanisms will also be needed to measure the impact of the Legal Duty in improving Covenant delivery or, indeed, whether the Duty has been satisfactorily discharged.

Healthcare

As shown by the MOD’s survey findings in the 2024 Covenant Annual Report, not all healthcare organisations are veteran-aware, and inconsistencies remain across England and the rest of the UK, with some members of the Armed Forces community still experiencing challenges when trying to access healthcare or continued treatment. There is also a lack of clarity around the interpretation of priority access for wounded, injured and sick veterans by clinicians and the NHS. Mental health services for veterans often remain underfunded and are difficult to access.

Housing

While progress has been made, a number of Cobseo members highlighting difficulties in the provision of suitable accommodation for veterans. For some this was from a lack of understanding, or local authorities regarding the Covenant as discretionary rather than enforceable. Resources and priorities were also flagged up, as was the perception of a postcode lottery for vital services in some areas.

Children of Serving Families

Children with special educational needs and disabilities face additional challenges as a result of their Serving parent’s mobility obligations. This includes the interruption of Education Healthcare Plans (EHCP) resulting from relocation, differing local authority classifications/definitions, particularly between England and Scotland, which has resulted in some parents having to fight to get the EHCP upheld. Other factors meriting better Covenant recognition are children having to move within the school year, and those coping with bereavement.

Addiction Support for Veterans

Addiction treatment is a local authority responsibility, but resources are scarce and there is insufficient understanding of the unique needs of veterans when commissioning treatment, and the barriers that deter them from seeking support (eg shame, stigma, lack of knowledge or belief that support is available). There are also no funded pathways for Serving personnel to access specialist residential addiction treatment.

Employment Recognition Scheme (ERS)

The ERS was brought in with a particular focus on the employment of Reserves, and the extension of the Covenant provides an opportunity to consider from first principles how best to make use of this connection with the 12,000 signatories which span employees across the state, private and charity sector. What are the engagement mechanisms, what broader/ enduring incentives are there for organisations to sign up; and can this be aligned to wider initiatives on societal engagement, strategic reserve, value of Service etc? Several Cobseo members commented that more could be done to encourage employers to sign up and utilise the ERS as a means of raising public awareness of the Armed Forces.

What are the main causes for these failings?

Inconsistencies in understanding and delivery of the Covenant across the regions is a recurring theme as are the resource pressures, which is often a factor in veterans being unable to access the support they need in a timely fashion. There is clearly more work to do in terms of promoting understanding of the Covenant, and buy-in, with local authorities and statutory service providers, which would also benefit from greater investment in training for those responsible for Covenant delivery. The complexity of coordinating between multiple agencies (eg local councils, NHS, and charities) can also be factor affecting service delivery. The introduction of effective performance metrics would help in quantifying the extent of these challenges, and this is where action should be prioritised.

Are there areas which the Armed Forces Covenant ought to be extended to and why?

The Covenant Annual Report outlines just how much Covenant-related activity is undertaken by, and is the responsibility of, national government and the devolved administrations. Even where the delivery of services may be local, the source of policy development, legislative requirements and direction is often central government. Despite this, current legislation applies only to elements of local government, and some health and education bodies. As a result, there is an inconsistent approach to policy and services, leaving some persistent issues within the Armed Forces community inadequately addressed.

Expanding the Covenant Duty to include all policy areas across the UK and devolved governments would foster a more cohesive and consistent strategy for supporting the Armed Forces community. Since members of the Armed Forces rely on public services at all levels of government, all layers of government must integrate the Covenant principles when planning policies and service delivery. The vehicle for this will MOD’s ongoing work to include proposals to extend the scope of the Covenant legal Duty as part of the renewal of the Armed Forces Act in 2026.

Cobseo members also offered the following suggestions for improving Covenant support:

• Social care for veterans with long-term health conditions and/or disabilities that may result from their service, which for many is closely linked to their healthcare, yet many face a constant battle to ensure their care needs are met, appropriately funded, and expertly coordinated. Separate evidence is being provided by the Royal Star & Garter to illustrate the importance of extending the scope of the Covenant to include social care.
• Greater support for families and carers.

• The provision of support programmes to assist Serving families in preparing for financial planning in civilian life.
• Doing more to raise Employers’ awareness of how military skills apply to civilian jobs.

• Improving family support services (eg portable childcare and career support for spouses).

• Extending the Covenant to include more comprehensive resettlement support during the transition process.
• Recognising and addressing the needs of reservists, who often lack access to the same level of support available to full-time serving personnel.
• Doing more on remembrance and celebration of military heritage to maintain public awareness of the Armed Forces.

If so, which are the priority areas?             

The top priority needs to be developing performance metrics as everything else flows from that.

What legislative changes should be made and why?

The Armed Forces Act 2021 put the principles of the Covenant on a legal footing for the first time. However, while most of the public believes it is the responsibility of the national government to deliver, the UK Government has exempted itself from the new duty to give due regard to the Covenant in decision-making and policy development. Instead, only some limited public bodies (mainly local councils) are subject to the new Duty. This cannot be right when responsibility for many issues concerning our Armed Forces community rests with national government and the devolved administrations.

While the Duty is a step in the right direction, if all areas of potential disadvantage are to be addressed, and if special consideration is to be truly provided for, future legislation needs to set measurable and enforceable national standards for which central Government is held to account. Otherwise, there is a danger that we will create a two-tier Covenant with respect to the redress under it that members of the Armed Forces community will be able to seek. In addition, without developing a suitable set of metrics to monitor and measure the duty’s implementation, it continues to be difficult to hold any public body to account in any formal way, beyond the services charity sector highlighting its observations to national government through the Covenant Annual Report.

While we recognise that local authorities may want to be able to deliver the principles of the Covenant through a variety of mechanisms and in different ways, there remains the risk that service providers with limited resources will adhere to the minimum requirement of what they have to provide, and not to the duty of due regard. We therefore believe all of the issues that matter to the Armed Forces community should be given greater legal protection under future legislation and that the performance of central government, the devolved governments and all public bodies should be measured more formally. The simplest and most effective way to achieve this would be to expand the range of public bodies subject to the new duty of due regard and extend it to all their functions.

What impact would the extension of the Armed Forces Covenant legal duty to central government and devolved administrations have?

The Government's Annual Report on the Covenant outlines just how much Covenant-related activity is undertaken by and is the responsibility of national government and the devolved administrations. Even when services are delivered locally, central government is often the source of policy development, legislative requirements, and direction. Bringing central government and the devolved nations into scope would improve consistency, increase awareness, expand good practice, and encourage collaboration.

The Covenant itself makes clear that “the Covenant should influence policy, service delivery and standards in the areas and ways set out …. In many cases these will be a responsibility of central government departments and devolved administrations but, in other cases, responsibility will lie with local service providers or organisations within the voluntary or commercial sectors.” This rightly recognises the range of actors involved in the delivery of the Covenant but notably puts the role of central government first and foremost.

Every local authority in Great Britain has signed the Covenant, along with many in Northern Ireland, and we know many have chosen to go above and beyond to find new ways to support the Armed Forces community. While many good practices have been identified across the UK, geographical nuances continue to impact the delivery of the Covenant without clear legal processes for each nation to follow. Healthcare, Housing, and Education are all devolved responsibilities, and to have any effect, the Legal Duty would need to be applied in separate legislative settings.

Within healthcare, for instance, the key principles of the Covenant are applied to some of the most injured personnel through the provision of advanced prosthetic services, access to some military rehabilitation facilities, additional funding for mobility and hearing services, targeted case management, and mental health provision. However, we know veterans still have completely different experiences of these services depending on where they live in the UK.

Ultimately, extending the Covenant would ensure consistency across the UK in what is produced, demonstrating both the letter and spirit of the Covenant while respecting and reflecting the devolved context wherever possible. It will ensure persistent issues within the Armed Forces community can be adequately addressed.

Conclusion

I look forward to developing some of these themes during the HCDC panel session on 4 February.

23rd January 2025