Meeting of the Parliament 05 December 2024
I am delighted to present the Government’s eighth annual update to Parliament on support for Scotland’s veterans and our armed forces community. These debates, as well as allowing us to celebrate our successes and those of our partners, offer members the chance to hold the Government to account and to bring forward ideas for improving Scotland’s offering. I welcome that, and I look forward to an informed debate.
As ever, I begin by reiterating the Government’s commitment to ensuring that our veterans and serving personnel and their families are not disadvantaged by their service, and that Scotland is their destination of choice when leaving the forces. Our commitment to those goals is absolute, and I know that members on all sides of the chamber share our dedication to the entire armed forces community.
Alongside the debate, as ever, we have published our annual report, which details fully what we and our partners have done throughout the past year. Some weeks ago, the Scottish veterans commissioner, who joins us in the public gallery today, published her progress report, in which she assessed the extent to which the Government and its partners are delivering the recommendations that have been made by her and her predecessors. I expect that colleagues will raise the content of that report during their contributions. I was pleased that Susie Hamilton referenced areas of notable progress, in particular around health and wellbeing and employability and skills. We should be proud of that work, and of the commissioner’s recognition of the efforts that we continue to make in driving forward the recommendations that she and her predecessors have made.
Nevertheless, the commissioner highlighted two specific concerns: the veterans mental health and wellbeing pathway, and the veterans homelessness prevention pathway. I will address each of those in turn.
The Government remains committed to ensuring that veterans can access the right mental health support when they need it, and I share the desire of the commissioner—and, I am sure, of all members—to see a new veterans mental health and wellbeing pathway established as quickly as possible. The veterans mental health and wellbeing pathway advisory group held its first meeting in March, and has met four times since. I am confident that the new pathway will progress the principles of the mental health action plan to ensure that all veterans in all areas of Scotland will have access to high-quality, veteran-specific mental health services.
I also welcome the news that the advisory group has agreed a preferred mode of delivery, and that two subgroups have been established to ensure that there is full engagement and consultation throughout the process. The group aims to sign off on a finalised model of delivery at its next meeting this month, which will pave the way for an implementation timetable in 2025.
In addition, funds have been secured to carry out a test of change for a three-tier veterans support service in three health board areas where there is currently no Veterans First Point service. That will take place over the remainder of the financial year and will then be extended for nine months of 2025-26.