Armed Forces Personnel and Veterans Health Joint Group Strategic Oversight Group 13 May 2025

Attendees and apologies

•    Gregor Smith, Chief Medical Officer, Scottish Government (SG)
•    John Harden, National Clinical Lead for Quality and Safety, Scottish Government SG 
•    Martin Bell Veterans Scotland
•    Craig Cunningham, NHS Lanarkshire Armed Forces and Veterans Champion
•    Karen Ross, Army Families Federation (AFF)
•    Susie Hamilton, Scottish Veterans Commissioner (SVC)
•    Sharon Callaghan, Regional Clinical Director Operations Manager 
•    Col Kate Nicholson, Regional Clinical Director – Defence Primary Healthcare (DPHC) Scotland
•    Cllr Margaret Anslow, Local Authority Champion, Falkirk
•    Cllr Ronnie Proctor, Local Authority Champion, Angus
•    Emma Watson Mack, Veterans Scotland

Attending as Observer

•    Julie McIlroy, Head of Strategy, SVC office 
•    Paul Hood, Deputy Head of Veterans Unit, SG 
•    Mark Fergusson, Survivors Support & Veterans’ Mental Health, SG
•    Gary Cocker, Participation Team Lead, SG

Apologies: 

•    Andrew Carter, NHS Borders Armed Forces and Veterans Champion
•    Mairi McKinley, NHS Fife Armed Forces and Veterans Champion 
•    Ian Cumming, CEO Erskine
•    Jo McBain, NHS Highland Armed Forces and Veterans Champion

Guests:

•    Kari Magee, Veterans In Service Injury Network
•    Dan Hull, Technical Architect, Digital Health and Care
•    Ian Thompson, Clinical Lead, Digital Health and Care

Official Support:

•    Stephanie Johnstone, Armed Forces and Veterans Health Policy, SG

Items and actions

Welcome 

Gregor welcomed everyone to the meeting and apologies received were noted.  

Gregor also extended a welcome to new additions to the SOG, Cllr Ronnie Proctor, Local Authority Champion from Angus Council and Cllr Margaret Anslow, Local Authority Champion from Falkirk Council. Gregor congratulated Col Kate Nicholson on her recent appointment of Regional Clinical Director – Defence Primary Healthcare (DPHC) Scotland. 

A note of thanks was given from Gregor to Col Sharon Finlay (DPHC) for her input to the Strategic Oversight Group. 

Brief roundtable catch up 

Gregor asked the group to share any reflections of how things have been since last meeting. 

John Harden noted as his first chair that the SOG and IG were immensly supportive and thanked everyone for their support and input. He mentioned that the visits throughout the year to place such as Redford barracks was very beneficial. 
 
A positive reflection was noted by Craig Cunningham on the Lanarkshire Community and Covenant Group which brought together counsellors, key players and voluntary organisations where they have been able to come together and improve the outcome for an individual.  
 
Gregor Smith explained that during his first year as honorary Commodore, he has learned so much about the role of the reserves and the regulars working closely together. 
 
Karen Ross noted that she was seeing issues with serving personnel / Armed Forces Families on long waiting lists for surgery. She explained that this may be due to the wording in the Armed Forces Covenant 
 
Gregor explained that with the policy intent of Armed Forces Covenant, there shouldn’t be any mis-interpretation. Gregor and John would be happy to speak to anyone if they are having issues. He also mentioned he would speak to AVM McLoughlin about this issue. 
  
Cllr Proctor noted the benefits on linking with all organisations across the board. One example of this working was for an individual where Dundee Veterans Housing Association, Senior members of Tayside, V1P and veteran organisations, where everyone worked together to improve the outcome of an individual. 

TOR & Membership of Joint Group 

The group considered the TOR and membership of the Joint Group.

Martin Bell noted MOD integration is having both the Regional Clinical Director (RCD) and Deputy Commander 51 Brigade present.  

He also noted the Medical Military Liaison Officer position does not exist anymore. 

Susie Hamilton noted that representatives should cover all of the military, not just the army.  Col Kate Nicholson confirmed that she did cover all military however it was noted that Gregor, John and Stephanie would revisit membership. 

Action Point:  Gregor and John to discuss membership and re-circulate to the group for approval. 

Implementation Group Report to SOG on IG priorities 

John ran through on the SOG Progress report and provided more detail on certain work undertaken. 

Agreement of 2024/25 priorities 

John Harden then moved to asking the group for Agreement on the priorities for 2025/2026. 

•    To continue to promote the GP recognition scheme and the training for Secondary care. 
•    Consider what more can be done to improve the identification of veterans throughout healthcare, particularly on referrals from Primary to Secondary Care.
•    Oversee the implementation of the VISIN. 
•    Develop a Covenant Standards Framework 
•    Continue to explore how forces families are considered in policy delivery and decision making.   

John also highlighted to SOG, concerns around prosthetic and orthotics services for veterans and its sustainability. He noted that SG believe that there is a need to scope this further and note that there is a number of levers to scope the current service model. 

The SOG agreed the priorities for 2025/26. 

Susie noted her concern with the uptake of the GP scheme. John Harden did explain that uptake does continue despite the pressures in Primary Care. 

Stephanie also explained that there is scope to liaise with teams to understand if a geographical / digital map can be created to show the spread of practices that had undertaken training. She also explained that the current spread is evenly distributed throughout Scotland and she will be looking into data on what types of staff are undertaking the training i.e. admin staff, practice managers etc which can be provided at the next SOG. 

John noted that the GP scheme should be made more of an immediate priority. He felt that better promotion would be needed as it seems some GP’s are not aware. 
 

Veterans In Service Injury Network

Kari Magee and Stephanie Johnstone gave a presentation on the VISIN which launched on April 1 2025. 

Veterans Mental Health

Mark Fergusson gave a presentation on the Veterans Mental Health Pathway and the status of the work. 

MOD Interfaces

Dan Hull and Ian Thompson gave a presentation of the work SG have undertaken on improving connections between MOD and NHS Interfaces.

AOB

Gregor thank all for their time and advised that the next meeting will be in May 2026 with officials sending out invitations nearer the time.