Support for the Veterans and Armed Forces Community 2025

Key Highlights

Collaboration and Coordination

We continue to fund twelve projects through the Scottish Veterans Fund, supporting veterans and their families across Scotland.

In October 2025 we were delighted to launch a new three-year funding round for the SVF. The fund will continue to provide £500,000 per annum over the next three funding years to projects across Scotland.

We are providing £325,000 of funding support to the Unforgotten Forces consortium in this financial year, to continue their work improving the lives of veterans over the age of 60 across Scotland; improving collaboration, sharing of best practise and cross-referrals across its partner organisations.

Data

The Scottish Government published a report to coincide with the release of further multivariate Census data in November 2024. With the November release, NRS published a Flexible Table Builder that enables multivariate analysis of the veteran population, including a wider range of variables such as ethnic group, religion and disability, as well as health, housing and employment. Scottish Government analysts have been examining this detailed data to better understand veterans’ demographic characteristics and explore key differences between the veteran and non-veteran population.

Perception and Recognition

We provided £16,000 of funding to support Legion Scotland and Poppyscotland in delivering a national commemoration event to mark the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh.

Community and Relationships

We continue to engage with underrepresented groups within the Armed Forces and Veterans community in Scotland to ensure their needs and experiences are better understood and supported. For example, we have continued to work with representatives of the bereaved community to establish their input into the NHS Covenant Standards Framework which will outline how to apply the Armed Forces Covenant and best practice for NHS Boards in relation to the whole Armed Forces Community. Within this framework we will include a standard focussed on bereavement care.

Employment, Education and Skills

The NHS Scotland Armed Forces Talent Programme has continued to expand both its reach and impact in this, its third year. The introduction of a paid placement initiative has been a major success, attracting significant interest from the Armed Forces Community

Police Scotland remains an exemplar in its recognition of the skills and experience that military service can offer employers, and its strong record in employing and retaining veterans is reflected in an estimated 700 who are employed by the organisation within Scotland (approximately 3% of all Police Scotland employees).

Finance and Debt

The Scottish Government continues to facilitate a Benefit Take-Up Stakeholder Reference Group which brings together organisations with a vested interested in promoting benefit take-up in Scotland. Membership of the Stakeholder Reference Group was refreshed in February 2025 to ensure organisations representing the perspectives of seldom-heard communities were involved, including representatives of Veterans organisations.

In August 2025, the Scottish Government published a Seldom-Heard Groups Action Plan in response to previously published research into barriers faced by seldom-heard communities, which includes veterans, when accessing social security entitlements. The research noted that barriers to take-up are experienced across seldom-heard communities and concluded that system-wide interventions focussed on accessibility, simplified processes, pre-application support and the reduction of stigma, may be more effective than those targeted at improving access for individual groups alone. As such, the Action Plan details the practical steps the Scottish Government, together with Social Security Scotland, will take to improve engagement and support for seldom-heard communities over the next 12 months.

Making a Home in Civilian Society

We have awarded Housing Options Scotland grant funding for 2025-26 as part of our strategic housing partners programme. This includes the continuation of the Military Matters project into 2025-26. Since it began in 2012, Military Matters has helped almost 2000 households. In 2024-25 the project received 189 new referrals, with a further 82 new referrals in the first two quarters of 2025-26.

Work is underway with key stakeholders including 4 of the 5 Housing Options Hubs, COSLA, ALACHO, SFHA and GWSF to agree the best approach to progressing the recommendations in the Veterans Homelessness Prevention Pathway relating to local authorities and social landlords. In addition, we are working with the Veterans Scotland Housing Group on prioritisation of the key Pathway recommendations for the Scottish Government.

Health and Wellbeing

The Veterans Mental Health Advisory Group has continued to work to develop the Veterans Mental Health and Wellbeing Pathway. The group agreed a model of delivery for the pathway, which was approved by then Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing & Sport in December 2024.

In June 2025, the Group reached a consensus on the principles that will form the National Framework for the Pathway. The model is underpinned by ensuring equity of access to care and support whilst still enabling local flexibility in terms of operational delivery.

Work on the pathway is continuing at pace, and it is expected to launch on a phased basis in Spring 2026.

The Armed Forces Personnel & Veterans Health Joint Group continues with valuable input from the stakeholders and SMEs. The group continues to promote the General Practice Armed Forces and Veterans Recognition Scheme and has agreed various initiatives aimed at increasing the currently low take up of the Scheme by GP Practices in several parts of Scotland. In addition, a training programme has been developed for colleagues working in Secondary care. The Veterans In Service Injury Network (formerly named the SVTP) launched on 26 August.