New Women Veterans’ Strategy to look at experiences of former female service personnel

The Office for Veterans Affair has announced its intention to publish a Women Veterans’ Strategy.

The strategy will look at the specific needs and challenges faced by women veterans, and will also celebrate their successes.

The launch of the Women Veteran’s Strategy comes after the OVA and the Ministry of Defence launched a wider review of veterans’ welfare services, which is designed to examine their effectiveness and efficiency, answering the calls of relevant stakeholders.

There are more than 235,000 women in England and Wales who have proudly served in the Armed Forces.

However, women veterans have been reported to face issues accessing support services, particularly where those services are inadvertently orientated towards men.

Through the strategy, the Government will tackle areas where women veterans might be missing out on support, as well as any accessibility issues, within the wide variety of services already being delivered for the veteran community.

In developing the strategy the OVA will outline what support is already being delivered across the UK and what more may need to be done, both by the Government and across wider support services.

The OVA has commissioned research into the accessibility of services available to women veterans and the experiences of women in interacting with existing support. The research is due to report back this summer, with recommendations being used in the development of the strategy.

Working with experts in academia, charities and other government departments, this will cover areas such as mental health, physical welfare and employment.

The Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Johnny Mercer said:

Making this country the best place in the world to be a veteran shouldn’t just be something we say, but something we do.

In order to deliver this ambition, it’s vital that we listen to women veterans, celebrate their successes, and deliver the support they need. That’s what the new Women Veterans’ Strategy will do.

The OVA plans to publish the Women Veterans’ Strategy later this year.