Supporting the Armed Forces community: Our Impact in 2024

We’re proud to share what we’ve achieved last year in supporting and championing the Armed Forces community across the UK.

Understanding the Community’s Needs

In 2024, we worked on better understanding our community by:

• Conducting a major needs analysis to understand gaps in support.
• Meeting with veterans, service personnel and their families and tracking their views through surveys, one-to-one and group discussions.
• Prioritising lived experience – using real stories to shape our work.
• Exploring how the community will evolve over the next 10 years.
• Investigating hearing loss in veterans, with new research coming soon.
• Sharing insights with decision-makers like the Defence Select Committee.

Improving Support and Services

Our research is helping shape better services for the community:

• Underpinning work with partners to make care homes more veteran-friendly.
• Supporting the design and delivery of an independent evaluation of Battle Back and the Invictus Games Team UK programme.

Building Stronger Connections with Our Partners

• By undertaking joint projects on veterans’ health, including specific issues women veterans face, and on LGBTQ+ veterans.
• By sharing findings with Parliament and other key national groups.

Sharing What We’ve Learned

We unveiled new data on veterans at the Forces in Mind Trust conference, helping shape national conversations about support and services.

Looking ahead, we’ll continue to highlight areas of unmet need and fill data gaps with fresh research.

Using Data to Make a Difference

• We launched an interactive map to track council support for military compensation.
• We collaborated with national data partners like the Ministry of Defence (MOD), Office for National Statistics (ONS), and the Office for Veterans' Affairs (OVA), which has led to new insights being published about veteran families.

Making an Impact Across the UK

In Wales

• We worked with local councils, NHS Wales and the Welsh Veterans Commissioner to assist and understand the Armed Forces community in Wales at a local level.
• We partnered with the Ministry of Justice and HMP Berwyn to support veterans in the justice system.
• As part of the Welsh Government’s Expert Group on the Needs of the Armed Forces community, we contributed to policy discussions on healthcare, housing, education, and mental health. The RBL’s participation ensures that the experiences and needs of the Armed Forces community in Wales are reflected in public service planning and delivery.
• We hosted a visit for the Welsh Cross Party Group on Armed Forces and Cadets to our Battle Back Centre to further the understanding of the Armed Forces Covenant, and Armed Forces recovery programs. As a direct consequence, Sports Wales has signed the Armed Forces Covenant and are seeking ways to be more inclusive for the Armed Forces community.
  

In Scotland

• Through engagement with the Scottish Government, we achieved changes to benefit rules affecting injured veterans.
• We attended all major political party conferences.
• We hosted a Scottish Parliament exhibition and met with Scottish Government Ministers to discuss a range of issues affecting the Armed Forces community in Scotland.

Supporting Local Government

• We expanded our Councillor Network—mobilising local action.
• We reached out to all 2,600 new councillors after local elections.
• We helped councils implement the Armed Forces Covenant Duty by sharing knowledge and experience with council members and staff, reviewing policies and websites, and assisting in writing new action plans.

We encouraged regional mayors to deliver on their pledges related to the Armed Forces community. 

Influencing National Policy

• Our Manifesto for the General Election helped secure key promises from the new UK Government, including extending the Covenant Duty.
• We hosted national roundtables on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and are expanding this work to Wales and Northern Ireland in 2025.
• Our Credit Their Service campaign continues to make change—33 local councils now exclude military compensation when calculating benefits.