Support for our military personnel will continue to flourish through a new version of the Peterborough City Council’s Armed Forces Community Covenant.
The Armed Forces Covenant is a promise between the nation, government and the Armed Forces community, ensuring Armed Forces personnel and their families are treated fairly and are not disadvantaged by their service.
The new version of the covenant was agreed following a meeting of Peterborough City Council’s cabinet on Tuesday.
The covenant replaces a previous version from 2013, and aims to tackle some of the disadvantages past and present personnel and their families may face in services such as education, housing, health, employment and welfare.
These could include the awareness of how serving personnel may struggle to adjust to civilian systems when they leave services; the struggles that spouses and partners may face in maintaining a career; and service children attending numerous schools throughout their education.
The community covenant puts forward a number of principles that will be supported by the council, to include:
- Creating Armed Forces Community support documents
- Working with partners to create a “Welcome to Peterborough” document for Armed Forces Community members moving to the city
- Using collected Armed Forces Community data to identify trends and opportunities to target support
- Engaging with local Armed Forces Units to offer work experience and apprenticeship opportunities to service dependants
- Seeking permission to engage with the Armed Forces Community, through the appointed officer in Peterborough, to support veterans whose funerals are managed by the council.
Armed Forces champion Cllr Jason McNally said that the council had worked with Armed Forces covenant officer Tommy Kelly and Minister for Veterans and People Al Carns in putting the covenant together.
Cllr McNally added: “The new version of our covenant recognises the work that we can do as a local authority to help members of our armed forces and their family, as they adjust to civilian life.
“We hope that refreshing the covenant will make more people and organisations aware of it, and perhaps contact us to sign up if they wish.”
The covenant is refreshed as part of the Armed Forces Family Fun Day, which takes place on Saturday, 21 June, from 11am.
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