Supporting the Armed Forces community: Our Impact in 2025

We’re proud to share our progress in supporting and championing the Armed Forces community across the UK last year.

From strengthening our evidence base - by developing our understanding of the needs of the Armed Forces community through commissioning and conducting new research and piloting our Lived Experience Panel, and launching a major project exploring the community’s future demographics and needs - to maintaining our position as one of the most respected charities among MPs in Parliament, 2025 was another busy and successful year for the Campaigns, Policy and Research team.

In 2025, we:

Campaigned for a stronger Armed Forces Covenant:

Throughout last year, we carried out a wide variety of engagement activities to ensure the implementation of the Government’s commitment to bring the Armed Forces Covenant Duty (‘the Covenant Duty’) fully into law. This included:

Running interviews and workshops with stakeholders in policy sectors not currently covered by the Covenant Duty to gather evidence to make the case for expanding the Duty.

Submitting written and oral evidence to the Defence Select Committee inquiry on the Armed Forces Covenant.

Direct engagement with the Minister for Veterans and People and lobbying MPs, holding a Parliamentary Reception and drop-in event focused on the Covenant for MPs and their staff to learn more about the scope of the Covenant and hear from members of the Armed Forces community.

Using the Councillor Network to engage with local government stakeholders already implementing the Duty to learn from their experiences.

Producing a campaign report and launching an Open Letter to the Prime Minister, urging the Government to Keep the Covenant Promise as part of our campaign calling for a stronger Armed Forces Covenant.

We succeeded in our campaign to secure the extension of the Covenant Duty in the Armed Forces Bill 2026. We engaged with a variety of stakeholders, spanning government, academics and third-sector colleagues, to set out our asks to ensure the Covenant Duty reaches its full potential and is implemented sustainably and effectively.

Our work to strengthen the extended Covenant Duty continues into 2026.

Mark Francois MP with RBL's Hannah Pearce (Director of Campaigns, Policy and Research) and John Williams (Head of Public Affairs and Campaigns)

CPR’s Director and Head of Public Affairs and Campaigns with Mark Francois MP at our event at the Speaker’s Apartment

Minister Al Carns with event speakers Dave Coleman and Lieutenant Lily-Mae Fisher

Speakers at our Parliamentary event on the Armed Forces Covenant, joined by Al Carns MP, Minister for the Armed Forces

Developed and grew our understanding of data on the Armed Forces community:

Continued to update and share our Armed Forces community Needs Analysis with the wider sector including Armed Forces charities, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and the Office for Veterans’ Affairs - identifying areas of additional, large-scale, or unique needs among the Armed Forces community, highlighting gaps in evidence, and incorporating new insight from commissioned research and major data releases.

Incorporated data from Scotland’s Census 2022, released in February 2025, and the Veterans’ Survey 2022, through 2025 data set releases.

Gained insight through a survey of 3000+ members of the Armed Forces community across the UK to understand their experiences, the issues they face, and their views of RBL.

Reported on work conducted by RAND Europe, predicting changes in populations of groups within our community over the next 10 years.

Concluded our commissioned research project investigating hearing impairment in UK working-age veterans, undertaken by the University of Chester.

Commissioned the King’s Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR) to conduct an analysis of their cohort study, investigating interpersonal violence & abuse, help-seeking, and gambling.

Actively engaged and responded to Census consultations across the UK to ensure the veteran question is retained in future censuses, recognising its critical role in providing evidence for policy, strategy, and services.

Responded to several consultations advocating for the inclusion of the veteran question in major national longitudinal studies, to secure long-term, representative, and robust datasets of the Armed Forces community.

Embedded Lived Experience at the core of our work:

Completed a pilot of our Lived Experience panel and evaluation, recruiting 11 panel members with varied connections to the Armed Forces community, reflecting a range of experiences and backgrounds.
Trained panel members in research methods, ethics, and principles and embedded their insights in the CPR team’s work. Their insight ensured that our work reflects the voices of the Armed Forces community.

Improved the quality and impact of existing evidence:

Used our insight to strengthen how services are developed and improved, helping ensure they genuinely reflect the priorities, challenges, and lived experiences of the Armed Forces community.
Completed reporting to assess the impact of the Veteran Friendly Framework (VFF), and continued ongoing evaluation for the Battle Back Centre and Invictus pathways.
Created national and local authority-level dashboards to represent data, informing decision-making visually.
Shared research insight and evidence across the Armed Forces community sector, supporting cross-sector collaboration, collective, priority-setting, and a shared understanding of need, and enabling coordinated approaches to research and evaluation.
Provided specialist guidance on veteran-related data to help improve the accuracy and visibility of the Armed Forces community within national datasets and new research studies.

Prepared for the Scotland and Wales Elections in 2026:

Developed manifestos outlining our priority policy asks to drive during the forthcoming elections in Wales and Scotland in 2026.

Engaged with a wide variety of stakeholders across several policy areas and utilised the latest data and evidence to determine the greatest needs and how best the Welsh and Scottish Governments can meet them.

Attended and exhibited at a wide variety of conferences and events across 2025:

Attended the annual Armed Forces Covenant Conference in Glasgow, hosted by the Ministry of Defence, where policy colleagues led a workshop on how we can measure the impact of the Armed Forces Covenant Duty.

Attended a wide range of Party Conferences across the political spectrum to engage MPs and staff on RBL’s campaigning priorities. This included attending the Liberal Democrat, Reform UK, Scottish National Party (SNP) and Scottish Greens conferences, and speaking on joint panels at Labour, Conservative and Green Party conferences to discuss the Armed Forces Covenant and plans to fully implement it into law. We also met with representatives of the internal ‘Friends of Forces’ groups from a variety of these parties.

Exhibited at the LGA conference, engaging directly with councillors and other local authority representatives to brief them on our ongoing work and highlight how they can better support the Armed Forces community in their areas.

Responded to consultations and evidence submissions:

Made several submissions to a variety of Government departments and local authorities, including:

The Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, focusing on the impact of welfare benefit policy changes on the Armed Forces community.

The call for evidence for England's first-ever men's health strategy. We highlighted the unique needs of men who have served in our submission.

The Casey Commission, chaired by Baroness Louise Casey, which aims to reform adult social care in the UK.

The Education Select Committee: Solving the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) crisis inquiry.

Continued to engage local authority stakeholders:

Grew our Councillor Network to over 1,100 members, with a 59.6% increase over the Year.

Hosted our first webinar for members of our Councillor Network, sharing our knowledge of the Armed Forces Covenant and answering questions from our network members. Nearly 100 registrations, and 100% of surveyed attendees said they will attend future webinars.

Contacted all 16,000 councillors in England to share our new Councillor Caseworker guide, which launched in April 2025 and has been downloaded over 250 times.

Influenced more councils to Credit Their Service: 53 councils across England now exclude military compensation in benefits means tests, with campaign progress expected in Scotland and Wales in 2026.

Launched our interactive Credit Their Service map in April 2025, which details the local authorities meeting our Credit Their Service asks.

Introduced all 1,600 councillors elected in the 2025 local elections to RBL’s work.

Progressed the adoption of the RBL ‘Action Plan for your Armed Forces community’ in 15 Combined Authorities and the Greater London Authority.

Supported the development of regional Thrive Together partnerships, with RBL now sitting on two steering groups, in the North West and in London.

Collaborated with national local government bodies, the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU), the National Association of Local Councils (NALC), and the Local Government Association (LGA) on subjects including remembrance, the profile of the veteran population in England, and sharing our Councillor Casework guide.

Supported the SCiP Alliance Hub Network throughout the year, including presenting on our Armed Forces community Needs Analysis, priorities for the Government, and Special or Additional Educational Needs and Disabilities roundtable events at a North West Hub event and co-leading the London Hub.

Maintained our influence within Westminster:

Continued to support the Armed Forces community APPG as secretariat and held five well-engaged meetings, on the issues of non-UK personnel and their families, the Armed Forces Covenant Duty, military compensation and the benefits system, service leavers’ skills and employment research, and the Veterans Friendly Framework for Care Homes.

Hosted an event at the Speaker’s Apartment focused on sharing the needs and experiences of the Armed Forces community in the UK, and the work RBL does to support them, with recently elected MPs.

Continued to grow our grassroots campaigning network.

Supported a Westminster Hall debate on the 'Contribution of RBL' attended by 40 MPs, showing the high regard MPs have for RBL and Poppyscotland.

An independent survey of MPs recognised us as a top campaigning charity working in Westminster.

We were the charity most frequently mentioned by MPs on X (formerly Twitter) over the past year.

Produced 16 briefings on policy issues and occasions key to the Armed Forces community, used by Parliamentarians for Parliamentary debates and events.

Held one-to-one meetings with MPs to discuss how they can support the Armed Forces community in their constituencies.

Held an event in Parliament to promote the LGBT Financial Recognition Scheme.

Hosted our annual Poppy Ride in collaboration with the Industry and Parliamentary Trust (IPT), with 62 MPs and Peers taking part, including the Commons Speaker.

Charlie Maynard MP

Charlie Maynard MP joined by a serving member of the Armed Forces community at our annual Poppyride at Portcullis House

Calvin Bailey MP 3 (1)[6]

Calvin Bailey MP, Reed in Partnership staff, the Chief Executive of the Forces Employment Charity and our Public Affairs and Campaign Manager at an Armed Forces community APPG

Our Impact across Devolved Nations

In Wales:

Worked with Team Invictus and the Battle Back Centre to host an event in the Senedd focusing on recovery.

Held a roundtable event in Cardiff on Service children with Additional Learning Needs, fostering collaboration on policy, practice and research following on from events held in 2024.

Continued to represent RBL on the Welsh Government’s Expert Group on the Needs of the Armed Forces community. Our participation ensures that the experiences and needs of the Armed Forces community in Wales are reflected in public service planning and delivery.

Engaged key stakeholders from across Wales ahead of our Manifesto for the Senedd elections in May 2026.

Wales supporting image

Our Head of Public Affairs and Campaigns pictured with James Evans, MS and a member of the UK Invictus Games team

In Scotland:

Strengthened ministerial influence by engaging directly with the Minister for Health and Social Care and the Minister for Veterans, raising priority issues including the low uptake of the GP Armed Forces and Veterans Recognition Scheme, housing barriers for veterans, and the future implementation of VALOUR in Scotland.

Expanded political reach and visibility through three high-profile receptions in London, Inverness and the Scottish Parliament, engaging over 250 decision-makers and stakeholders, including UK and Scottish Ministers, MPs, MSPs and local councillors.

Deepened parliamentary engagement by hosting MSP visits, supporting Parliamentary Questions on expanding the Armed Forces Covenant, and exploring opportunities for new motions on social care and Covenant delivery.

Advanced policy change through campaigning, securing progress towards amending Scottish Welfare Fund guidance so Local Authorities disregard Guaranteed Income Payments when assessing veterans for crisis and community care grants.

Influenced evidence and data policy by submitting a coordinated response to the Scottish Census consultation, working with 10 external stakeholders to protect the inclusion of the veteran status question.

Progressed strategic policy development through collaborative work on the Scottish Manifesto, informed by stakeholder consultation.

Melanie Ward MP and Helen Owen, Poppyscotland Chair and RBL Trustee 2

Melanie Ward MP and Helen Owen, Poppyscotland Chair and RBL Trustee

In Northern Ireland:

Represented RBL on the Northern Ireland Veteran Support Committee (NIVSC), including attending the Northern Ireland VALOUR Workshop and engaging with local authority veteran champions.

Briefed MPs ahead of the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill as it began its passage through Parliament.

Ahead of the Assembly Elections in 2027, we will produce a manifesto with recommendations for the next Northern Ireland Executive.

Members of the Armed Forces community joined by RBL staff at 10 Downing Street

What's next

The Campaigns, Policy and Research team will continue to advocate for the Armed Forces community at all levels of government across the UK in 2026. We are committed to understanding the evolving needs and demographics of the Armed Forces community.

A preliminary analysis is expected for Armed Forces-related questions added to the British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey 2025, including one on awareness of the Armed Forces Covenant. Work is ongoing to scope and plan for future opportunities provided by this cohort.

In 2026, we are focused on ensuring the Armed Forces Bill delivers a stronger, consistently applied, adequately funded Armed Forces Covenant that is properly measured so its impact is clear.

To keep up to date with how this and other campaigns progress, sign up to our Campaigning Community.

If you have any questions or would like to share your experiences related to any of our work, please get in touch via [email protected].