Support for the Veterans and Armed Forces Community 2025

Cross-Cutting Factors

Collaboration and Coordination

Armed Forces Covenant Participation and Engagement

We remain an active member of the Armed Forces Covenant's governance structure and are actively engaged with MOD and partners through groups such as the Armed Forces Covenant Community Action Group. We continue to work collaboratively with colleagues across the UK on the implications in Scotland of the UK Government commitment to implement the Armed Forces Covenant fully into law and increase its scope into other areas of devolved policy.

Unforgotten Forces Consortium

We are providing £325,000 of funding support to the Unforgotten Forces consortium in this financial year, to enable them 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 all with a view to putting the consortium on a sustainable footing over the longer term, once our funding ceases.

Scottish Veterans Fund

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

Organisation

Community Veterans Support

Project Title

Warmer, Healthier, Safer Veterans – Extend “Warmer Spaces” provision for veterans into evenings and weekends, including food, peer support and financial advice.

Organisation

Erskine

Project Title

One-Stop Shop - Extend provision of tailored financial advocacy, guidance and support to veterans through Erskine’s One Stop Shop.

Organisation

Fighting with Pride

Project Title

The Journey Home Project in Scotland – Fund the introduction and development of the Veterans Standard Manager role in Scotland to build the community of LGBT veterans in Scotland and support developing capacity in services that can support that community.

Organisation

Forces Children Scotland

Project Title

Future Transitions | Financial Education for Civilian Life – Develop a bespoke financial education service to support children, young people and parents in making the transition from military to civilian life.

Organisation

Forces Employment Charity

Project Title

Early Service Leavers – Scotland Co-ordinator – Continue pilot scheme from 2022-23, which introduced an Early Service Leavers co-ordinator for Scotland to provide dedicated employment support for this vulnerable cadre.

Organisation

Lothian Veterans Centre

Project Title

Warm Welcome for veterans and their families – Provide support in current cost of living crisis by opening warm hub for veterans and their families to provide food, heating and social interaction in a location that can provide onward access to other support.

Organisation

Military Wives Choir

Project Title

Supporting our Hidden Community – Enhance level of support given to members in Scotland and to reach and recruit more members amongst women whose lives are currently impacted by their connection to the military.

Organisation

Salute my Job

Project Title

Career Jumpstart Programme – The Career Jumpstart Project is a development of projects to reskill jobseekers from Armed Forces community to realign and develop jobseekers’ military, security and experience for employment in roles in greatest demand in public, private and third sector.

Organisation

Scotland Bravest Manufacturing Company

Project Title

Enhanced Manufacturing Traineeship – Provide opportunities for early service leavers and other veterans to obtain qualifications and sustainable employment with the support of a qualified trainer.

Organisation

Scottish Veterans Residences

Project Title

Occupational Therapy to Improve Veterans’ Health and Wellbeing – Employ a full time occupational therapist to support Veterans’ physical and mental health recovery and rehabilitation through the use of a holistic and biophysical approach.

Organisation

SSAFA

Project Title

Professional Support to Relieve the Cost of Living Crisis – Partly fund the employment of a Regional Casework manager to better manage workload of case workers in Scotland in order to provide a more agile and individualised response to veterans.

Organisation

Thistle Health and Wellbeing

Project Title

Meaningful Connections – Support 150 veterans and their families across Scotland who have been severely impacted by long term conditions, particularly early service leavers, medically discharged veterans and those with mental health needs.

The Scottish Government's Veterans Unit has now introduced a requirement for all organisations that receive grant funding from the unit to commit to becoming a member of or join a Relevant Accreditation Scheme, or implement policies, procedures and good practice, which demonstrates commitment to inclusivity and accessibility for the LGBTQI+ community. This requirement has been included as a condition for funding for grant recipients from April 2024 onwards, and all recipients have now provided evidence demonstrating compliance in 2024-25. This will be a condition for funding for all new Veterans Unit grant recipients going forward.

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.

After gathering feedback from current recipients and other stakeholders over the summer we have made some significant changes to the SVF’s model. As a result, there will now be two streams within the fund:

• The first will total £400,000 and welcomes bids for up to £50,000 per annum for up to three years for projects aimed at supporting veterans and their families in Scotland.
• The second stream will total £100,000 per annum and welcomes bids for up to £10,000 for smaller-scale, one-year projects that either aim to support veterans and their families in Scotland, or that aim to support serving families alongside the veterans’ community.

Veterans Scotland

The Scottish Government is funding Veterans Scotland who propose to deliver the following outcomes this year:

• An integrated framework of multi-organisational collaborative working groups based tracked by measurable objectives to optimise service provision and available resources in each functional area.
• Further development of Veterans Scotland convener role, facilitating, steering, negotiating and mediating, plus encouraging and enticing working group members to commit.

Veterans Scotland's work this year is intended to deliver an integrated framework of multi-organisational collaborative working groups tracked by measurable objectives to optimise service provision and available resources in each functional area. (Health, Housing, Employment).

Veterans Scotland's grant for this financial year includes an outcome to deliver better recognition and representation of female veterans at all levels including underlying policy, service organisation and structure, and design and delivery, to better support the wellbeing of female veterans.

Relationships with the Families Federations

We continue to have regular discussions with the Families Federations in Scotland and are committed to maintaining these excellent relationships across the three services to ensure a joined up approach to supporting Service families in Scotland.

Scottish Veterans Commissioner

We continue to fund and remain fully supportive of the work of the Scottish Veterans Commissioner, and have this year approved an extension to the current Commissioner’s term. We have in the last twelve months also welcomed two thematic reports from the Commissioner; Veterans and the Law, published in October 2024 and Veterans and Finance in June 2025 and have accepted all the recommendations made to the Scottish Government in each report. We contributed to and welcomed the Commissioners 2025 progress report published in September 2025, which once again demonstrated the Scottish Government’s progress against the various outstanding recommendations. We welcomed the fact that this year there were no outstanding recommendations flagged as red by the Commissioner’s RAG rating process. However, we also acknowledge her judgement that further progress is required in respect of the Veterans Homelessness Prevention Pathway, take up of the GP Veterans Recognition Scheme and the Veterans Mental Health Pathway.

Relationships with the UK Government and other Devolved Administrations

We continue to remain committed to working collaboratively with the UK and Devolved Governments particularly in support of the delivery of the Veterans Strategy Commitments. Throughout the past year we have engaged regularly with the UK Government as it has developed the extension of the Armed Forces Covenant Duty and the new VALOUR programme. We will continue to work with them to try and ensure such initiatives take account of the devolved nature of much of the support to veterans across Scotland.

We have also engaged with the UK Government as it developed a new Veterans Strategy which was published in November, based around three key themes of “Celebrate, Contribute and Support”. We will take this opportunity to consider how we might develop a new action plan going forward.

Data

In June 2024, National Records of Scotland (NRS) published initial information from the 2022 Census on Scotland’s veteran population. The Scottish Government published a report to coincide with the release of further multivariate Census data in November 2024. This demonstrates differences between Scotland’s veteran and non-veteran population, providing high-level statistics on veterans’ demographic characteristics.

In tandem 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.

Findings for veterans from the three Scottish Government major household surveys – Scottish Household Survey, Scottish Crime and Justice Survey and the Scottish Health Survey – have continued to be made available in the last year. Results on veterans from the pooled analysis of the common questions across the three surveys were also released as part of the Scottish Surveys Core Questions 2022 and 2023.

Additionally, findings on a range of topics were also published from the Veterans’ Survey 2022 by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Office for Veterans’ Affairs (OVA) over the last year. The survey was a collaboration between ONS, OVA and the devolved administrations. Findings released included information on whether patterns seen in results at UK level were replicated amongst respondents in Scotland.

UK Government Data-Sharing Opportunities

The Service Leavers Database – Scotland (c. 1975 - 2023) was included on the Research Data Scotland catalogue in April 2025. The data is now available to researchers wishing to undertake projects and can be accessed through the standard Scottish Government and National Records of Scotland Data Access Panel procedures. Administrative Data Research (ADR) Scotland officials have received an updated version of the database (c. 1975 - 2024) which they are processing.

Perception and Recognition

Armed Forces Engagement

We continue to work closely with the Armed Forces in Scotland and support the Firm Base working groups and annual conference (the latter took place in October, with good participation and engagement from partners from across Scotland).

The Deputy First Minister attended the Army Expo 25, an immersive exhibition that demonstrated the Army’s purpose, plans and transformation priorities over the next decade.

The Minister for Veterans visited RAF Lossiemouth in December 2024, meeting with the Station Commander, service personnel and veterans. In January 2025 the Minister for Veterans also met with Brigadier Andrew Muddiman, Naval Regional Commander for Scotland and Northern Ireland at HMS Scotia in Rosyth.

In addition, the Minister for Veterans met regularly with his UK counterparts, Alistair Carns MP, former Minister for Veterans and People in the Ministry of Defence and Ken Skates MS, Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales in the Welsh Government.

Commemoration

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. This concert served as Scotland’s official national event, bringing together veterans, serving members of the Armed Forces, and members of the public to honour the sacrifices made during the Second World War. The event was attended by the First Minister, demonstrating the Scottish Government’s ongoing commitment to the Armed Forces community.

In addition to the national concert, a range of commemorative activities took place across Scotland to mark both VE Day 80 and VJ Day 80, with Scottish Government Ministers attending events in local communities to pay their respects. As well as these major anniversary events, Ministers also took part in a variety of other commemorative activities throughout the year.