We are proud to be a gold accredited member of the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme.
As we are one of the island's main healthcare providers, we recognise how important it is to drive improvements across the care we provide for people who serve or have served in the UK Armed Forces and their families. With around 7,200 veterans on the island, (a number which rises to circa 15,000 when including the Armed forces Community) the Veteran Aware accreditation will ensure that these people will be cared for by front line staff who have received training and education based on their specific needs. It will also mean that our staff can help to signpost them to other local support services.
Please let a member of our staff know if you or your spouse / partner has ever served in the UK Armed Forces so that we can best support your care needs. By recording you as veteran in your health care record we will help to ensure you are able to access specific veteran's health services, such as those for mental health, hearing loss and wheelchairs.
To those who proudly protect our nation, who do so with honour, courage, and commitment, the Armed Forces Covenant is the nation’s commitment to you. It is a pledge that together we acknowledge and understand that those who serve or who have served in the Armed Forces, and their families, should be treated with fairness and respect in the communities, economy and society. The covenant focuses on helping members of the Armed Forces community have the same access to government and commercial services and products as any other citizen.
We welcome placement applications from serving members of the defence medical services. If this is of interest then please complete the application form and send to: iownt.
Steve Parker, Medical Director
Steve is a Consultant General Surgeon and the trust's Medical Director. Prior to working in the NHS he spent 16 years in the Royal Navy. He also spent 3 years in the submarine service and saw active service in both Gulf Wars and in the former Yugoslavia. He is passionate about recognising the service of veterans, the impact of service life on families and is committed to ensuring that neither are disadvantaged when accessing the NHS.
Mandy Blackler, Veteran Aware Management Lead and Head of Corporate Nursing
Mandy comes from a military-based family with her brother, nephew, ex-husband, step father and brother in-law all ex-Army veterans. Along with her background knowledge of the Armed Forces, Mandy feels it is extremely important that as an organisation, the Isle of Wight NHS Trust recognises veterans and does everything possible to help and support them.
We are privileged to have a network of Veterans Champions that are based in multiple areas across the organisation. These champions are keen to promote the work that we do and are a source of information if you have any queries whilst in hospital.
We are in the process of setting up specialist champions for key areas of concern, as detailed below:
Veterans and Service Leavers: Mandy Blackler, Steve Dyer, Mollie Kimber
Spouses and Families: Laura Robinson
Reservists: Nick Gale, Chris Jenkins
Cadet Forces Adult Volunteers: Sarah Bartlett, Paul Dyer
If you would like to be put in touch with any of our champions, please email: iownt.
Armed Forces and Veterans Breakfast Club is a growing network across the UK and Worldwide. Each group consists of veterans and serving members of the Armed Forces, who meet up for support, a chat and some breakfast!
Combat Stress is a charity which supports veterans’ mental health, helping former servicemen and women deal with trauma-related mental health problems such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Treatment can be provided to veterans from every service and every conflict, in a range of settings, including phone, online and in the community or a specialist centre.
Defence Medical Welfare Service (DMWS) is a charitable organisation that specialises in emotional and practical support when someone is in hospital, and when they are discharged but still receiving treatment. They will arrange to speak to the patient to help identify services and support, and enable referrals to a range of military and non-military organisations.
Help for Heroes provides recovery and support for members of the Armed Forces community whose lives are affected by their service, no matter when they served. The charity’s aim is to empower veterans and service personnel to look beyond illness and injury. A wide range of services is offered, including emotional support, mental health and wellbeing, career recovery, welfare and financial advice.
Op Courage helps military veterans, reservists, and serving personnel of the armed forces access mental health and well-being support. Telephone 0300 365 2000 (option 4).
Op RESTORE: The Veterans Physical Health and Wellbeing Service provides specialist care to veterans with service-specific injuries. Veterans benefit from a personalised care plan implemented by top military and civilian trauma experts in health centres across England.
Royal British Legion provides lifelong support for members of the Royal Navy, British Army, Royal Air Force and their families. Key services include household repairs, home adaptations, financial advice, care homes, dementia care, Admiral Nurses dementia care and a care phone service.
SSAFA is an armed forces charity provides lifelong support for veterans and their families. Trained SSAFA volunteers can provide practical, emotional and financial support if and when veterans need it, via a network of local branches means that help and advice is always close at hand.
Veterans Outreach Support provides a welcoming setting where UK veterans and family members can drop in for confidential, social and psychological support. Telephone: 02392 731 767 or email: admin
We are keen to promote the work of our Reserve Forces and Cadet Force Adult Volunteers, and have been working closely with them over recent months. At present, we have a total of eight Reservists on our staff and five Cadet Force Adult Volunteers, who we are proud to support.
We have hosted an awareness raising event where Reservists and Cadet Force Adult Volunteers from the Army, Navy and Air Force joined us for the day in the Conference Room. We have also hosted a training day which was offered to all cadets on the island to support them in their careers, where they learned life skills such as CV/personal statement writing, how to manage anaphylaxis and shock, interview techniques, cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and how to recognise and promote their transferrable skills.
Both of these events were very successful and we have been asked to repeat them on an annual basis, so keep an eye on our social media for details.
Why do we need to know if you are part of the Armed Forces Community?
It is important that we identify who has served in the military so that we can help with any specific needs that you may have. This video helps explain some examples: https://youtu.be/af3Oo5Ss8o8
What is the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme?
The Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) encourages employers to support defence and inspire others to do the same. The scheme encompasses Bronze, Silver and Gold awards for employer organisations that pledge, demonstrate or advocate support to defence and the armed forces community, and align their values with the Armed Forces Covenant. The ERS is designed primarily to recognise private sector support although public sector organisations such as the emergency services, local authorities, NHS trusts and executive agencies are also eligible to be recognised. We are very proud to have been awarded the Gold ERS award, for which we had to evidence the following:
- must have signed the Armed Forces Covenant
- employers must have an existing relationship with their National Account Manager/Regional Employer Engagement Director/appropriate defence representative
- the employer must already be accredited as a holder of ERS Silver Award and held it with sufficient time to develop suitable plans and policies and evidence to support the ERS Gold application
- the employer must proactively demonstrate their forces-friendly credentials as part of their recruiting and selection processes. Where possible, they should be engaged with Career Transition Partnership (CTP) in the recruitment of service leavers and have registered for the Forces Families Jobs (FFJ) portal
- the employer must actively ensure that their workforce is aware of their positive policies towards defence people issues. For example, an employer nominated for support to the Reserves must have an internally publicised and positive human resources policy on Reserves
- the employer must be an exemplar within their market sector, advocating support to defence people issues to partner organisations, suppliers and customers with tangible positive results
- within the context of Reserves the employer must have demonstrated support to mobilisations or have a framework in place. They must provide at least 10 days’ additional leave for training, fully paid, to the Reservist employee
- the employer must actively encourage a positive environment for Reservists by ensuring that positive policies in support of Reservists within the workforce are communicated to line managers
- the employer must not have been the subject of any negative public relations or media activity
- the employer should be an exemplar in demonstrating support to the Cadet movement. This could, for example, be through mentoring cadets in key employment skills, by providing guaranteed interviews for cadets, by direct investment in equipment and infrastructure for a local cadet unit, or by funding and sponsoring competitions, events, and specific activities for cadets such as overseas expeditions
- the employer promotes volunteering with the cadet forces from their workforce, by providing additional leave for employees who are Cadet Force Adult Volunteers (CFAVs)
What is Veteran Aware?
NHS Veteran Aware is an accreditation programme designed to support NHS trusts in understanding and meeting the needs of the Armed Forces community. Accreditation is administered by the Veterans Covenant Healthcare Alliance (VCHA), an NHS England funded programme of work hosted by the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust. Veteran Aware accreditation seeks to deliver:
- better health and wellbeing for the whole of the Armed Forces community,
- a more joined-up experience of care for serving personnel and their families as they move around the country and transition from service to civilian life,
- faster and more local access to high quality, personalised care for the Armed Forces community and
- greater value for money.
Veteran Aware accreditation supports NHS, and other healthcare organisations, to meet the commitments of Armed Forces Act, 2021.
What support do you offer LGBT+ veterans?
We have signed up to Pride in Veterans Standard, and display their logo to demonstrate that we are a safe space and willing to listen if you want to share your experiences as an LGBT+ veteran. Further support for LGBT+ veterans can be found here: Pride in Veterans Standard (fightingwithpride.org.uk)
Our trust recognises your service, and we want to work with you to make it as easy as possible for you to work here, even if you wish to continue to serve in the Armed Forces – as a Reservist or as a Cadet Force Adult Volunteer. We know that Reservists play an essential role in our Armed Forces, and they make a vital contribution to protecting the nation’s security at home and abroad, giving up valuable spare time alongside their professional and personal lives, and we are therefore keen to support you in these roles. We ensure that our Reservist colleagues, or Cadet Force Adult Volunteers are not disadvantaged and we remain committed, through our Reserve and Cadet Forces Policy, to granting additional paid leave of 10 days per year to enable you to do your training. We also work with line managers to ensure that team members are supported with leave and shift management wherever practical.
If you would prefer to leave your military career behind and would like to come and work in the NHS, our jobs are advertised here: NHS Jobs and we offer a guaranteed interview scheme to anyone just leaving the military and looking for their first civilian role, whose skills match those required in the job description. We also advertise through Forces Families, the Career Transition Partnership and Step Into Health. As your first civilian role you will find things very different, so we can offer you a buddy scheme where we can put you in touch with someone from the same military service who knows what it’s like to make the transition from military to civilian life and can help you along the way. Our former military staff have told us that one of the things that they miss the most is the camaraderie and banter, so we offer a monthly staff veterans breakfast club where military staff members can enjoy a leisurely breakfast on a Saturday and banter is the order of the day!
