The Armed Forces Covenant and resources

Our aim is to improve the prosperity of service personnel, their families, veterans and reservists.

Our support is underpinned by the Armed Forces Covenant.

The Armed Forces Covenant is a promise from the nation to those who serve or who have served in the armed forces, and their families, that they are treated fairly.

Principles of The Armed Forces Covenant

The Armed Forces Covenant is based on 2 key principles:

the Armed Forces community should not face disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public and commercial services
special consideration is appropriate in some cases, especially for those who have given most such as the injured and the bereaved

Principles of The Covenant Duty

In accordance with its legal duty, when exercising relevant public functions in the areas of housing, healthcare and education, the council will have due regard to:

The unique obligations of, and sacrifices made by, the armed forces,
The principle that it is desirable to remove disadvantages arising for service people from membership, or former membership, of the armed forces, and
The principle that special provision for service people may be justified by the effects on such people of membership, or former membership, of the armed forces.

Removing disadvantages

We aim to ensure that the level of access a member of the armed forces community has to goods and services, or the support they receive is not comparatively lower than that of someone in a similar position who is not a member of the armed forces community, and that any difference does not arise from one (or more) of the unique obligations and sacrifices of Service life.

Demonstrating our commitment

We recognise the value serving personnel, reservists, veterans and military families bring to our communities.

We will strive to deliver our Armed Forces Covenant principles through working collaboratively with partners including military representatives, charities, third sector, businesses and other public bodies to promote the wider armed forces agenda, covenant and covenant legislation.

Alongside our Covenant Duty we will seek to uphold the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, by promoting the council as an armed forces friendly organisation by:

supporting veterans - recognising the value of armed forces veterans in the civilian workforce and supporting the transition to civilian life
recruitment - recognising equivalent military skills and qualifications and/or experience in our recruitment and selection process
understanding our workforce - capturing service data of our employees to understand our workforce profile
supporting service spouses and partners, before, during and after a partner's deployment in accordance with our leave policies where we can
supporting reservists - with a clear reservist policy, which grants additional paid/unpaid leave for annual reserve forces training and helps managers to support mobilisations and deployment, as well as raising awareness amongst members of staff of the opportunities to become a reservist
commemorating significant events and celebrating our armed forces: such as Remembrance activities and Armed Forces Day
facilitating and providing advice and support within our armed forces communities

The council signed the Armed Forces Community Covenant with representatives of the Armed Forces from HQ Solent Station, Marchwood Military Port in 2013.

We recognise the value the armed forces community contributes to our district and endeavours to ensure that in its provision of public services, and pursuant to the Armed Forces Covenant and Duty, no member of the armed forces community is placed at a disadvantage compared to someone in a similar position who is not a member of the armed forces community.