Defence Vegan & Vegetarian Network

 

Download a membership form here

Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust: Support for families serving overseas

The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust (the Trust) has awarded over £600,000 to support families serving overseas.

According to UK defence personnel statistics up to April 2024, around 5,700 armed forces personnel were stationed overseas. While the majority (66%) were posted within Europe, other key regions included North America, North Africa and the Middle East, and Asia.

Following the Trust’s own research and consultation, they launched the Supporting Serving Families Overseas Programme. Now, they have awarded nine projects a share of £127,642, with funding making its way to Spain, the Middle East, Cyprus, Belgium, Italy and more!

The projects funded in this round represent a range of support for the whole family. From support for those who have experienced, or are at risk of, domestic violence, to emotional health support for adults and children to help strengthen relationships while overseas.

Overseas, overstretched

A new posting can bring with it the usual upheaval: packing and moving all your belongings (drowning in moving boxes!), changing schools, changing job, leaving the dentist it took you 12 months to find. But add to that a language barrier, not being allowed to work for the next 2-3 years, having to pay for storage for all the things you can’t take with you, not to mention having to rebuy things you’ll need that won’t work in other countries, and you’ve got yourself an overseas posting!

The projects the Trust has supported seek to provide targeted support for families in-location to improve wellbeing and make the transition abroad easier.

SSAFA Forces Additional Needs & Disability Forum (FANDF) Conference – Registration Now Open

The Forces Additional Needs & Disability Forum (FANDF) Conference 2025 is taking place on 2 June 2025. This is an empowering and informative event designed for current service personnel and their families with additional needs or disabilities. Hosted by the FANDF committee and facilitated by SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, this conference will offer expert insights and practical advice for service families.

The event will be FANDF’s first hybrid FANDF event. You can join in person or virtually, making it accessible for those with caring responsibilities or living further afield.

Armed Forces New Helpline from Aurora New Dawn Charity

This Helpline is for any members of the Royal Navy British Army and Royal Air Force and their family members, including those deployed abroad, who are victims and survivors of Domestic Abuse, Sexual Violence or Stalking.

NHS England: Armed Forces health stakeholder brief - Spring 2025

NHS England’s Spring 2025 Armed Forces health stakeholder brief provides updates on the following topics:

•  Op RESTORE, the NHS England-commissioned physical health and wellbeing service for veterans
• Op NOVA, the NHS England commissioned support service for veterans in the justice system
• The NHS Veterans Covenant Healthcare Alliance (VCHA) Veteran Aware Annual Conference
• Step into Health - assisting with the transition from military service to careers within the NHS
• NHS SARCS: Care and support available to sexual assault and abuse survivors
• Latest primary care network veteran friendly accreditations

 

To read the brief use this link

Aurora New Dawn: Athena Domestic Abuse Awareness & Recovery Programme – 3 Jun to 22 Jul

Aurora New Dawn’s Athena Domestic Abuse Awareness/Recovery Group is military specific and all online via zoom.  This programme is for 8 weeks taking place on Tuesday evenings 3 Jun to 22 Jul, and is open to serving personnel and families worldwide. 

Details of how to sign up are on the poster, and to find out more about Aurora New Dawn’s support to the Service community, are available on this link. 

Young Carers within Armed Forces Families - Nexus Easter Newsletter

Nexus is a three-year project funded by the Armed Forces Covenant Trust. The project aims to improve support, resources and access to services for young carers within armed forces families. 

 To find out more, and the latest updates, you can read the Easter Newsletter 

Headspace: New Ebb Chat Service now available

Army personnel and Army civil servants are eligible to sign up to Headspace for free, and also to extend this free subscription offer to five friends and family.

To sign up here

Please use your @mod.gov.uk, @armymail.mod.uk or @csmail.mod.uk email address to verify your account when prompted.

The Women in Defence Awards 2025

The Women in Defence Awards 2025 are now open for nominations, until 2nd May 25.

This year there is a new International category; the International Award is designed to recognise individual women or groups of women completing exceptional work in support of the defence of their own country. 

This award is open to individual women, groups or teams, as members of the Armed Forces, Civil or Public services, or those who work in Defence industries or associated bodies. 

Locally Employed Civilians (LECs) in overseas locations have been confirmed as eligible for this category.

Details of all categories and how to nominate can be found at: Women in Defence UK | Awards 2025 Criteria.

Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust: Service Women: Seen & Heard programme

The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust recently announced over £700K to support projects that provide targeted support for serving women through their Service Women: Seen & Heard programme.

 
Find out how these projects will work to empower both regular and reserve service women, helping them to make informed decisions and access vital resources to improve health and wellbeing.

Take back your life this No Smoking Day 2025

 

Take back your life this No Smoking Day – Wednesday 12th March 2025.

• Quitting smoking is the best thing you can do for your health.
• It’s never too late to quit smoking. Even if you’ve tried quitting before, give it another go this No Smoking Day.
• When you stop smoking, there are almost immediate improvements to your health.
• There’s no need to go it alone – it’s much easier to stop smoking when you get the right support and there are lots of options to choose from.
• Getting free expert support from your local stop smoking service is proven to give you the best chance of quitting successfully. Some are now able to offer free vape starter kits too.
• NHS Better Health offers a range of free quitting support including the NHS Quit Smoking app, Personal Quit Plan, 28-day email programme, local stop smoking service look-up tool, as well as advice on stop smoking aids including information on how vaping can help you quit smoking.
• On average, you could save around £2,500 per year by quitting smoking.

Sennelager Face to Face Parent support sessions March 2025

Your SSAFA Health Visitor, will be facilitating a number of face to face parent sessions over the next few weeks/months, as per the attached timetable.

These sessions aim to equip parents with practical tools and knowledge to navigate key developmental stages with confidence, ensuring the best outcomes for their child each session will allow for discussion and Q&A. 

We will also be running some online sessions, open to all GSO families.  

Fussy Eating Campaign

 

Next Monday sees the start of our 'Fussy Eating' campaign. This campaign was developed in response to feedback from Early Years educators, Primary Schools, Health Visitors, and School Nurses, highlighting a growing concern about childhood fussy eating.

 
The campaign focuses on key topics such as the importance of a well-rounded diet, making food enjoyable, introducing new foods, establishing healthy mealtime routines, and celebrating small achievements.

 
Please find a comms plan and supporting images attached. I have also attached a campaign poster, for you to print or share with your communities.

Don't forget you can also view this and any other campaign on our Family Hub!

Headspace App – Five FREE family & friends subscriptions available for Army Personnel and Army Civil Servants

Army personnel and Army civil servants are eligible to sign up to Headspace for free, and also to extend this free subscription offer to five friends and family. 

To sign up, please go to https://work.headspace.com/britisharmy/member-enroll

Please use your @mod.gov.uk, @armymail.gov.uk or @csmail.mod.uk email address to verify your account when prompted.

Headspace says, “We make mental health support accessible to everyone, no matter their background or experience.

Through our flagship Headspace app, we provide mindfulness tools for everyday life, including meditations, sleepcasts, mindful movement and focus exercises. 

Our enterprise offerings combine this experience with a human-centered model of care, with coaching, therapy, psychiatry and EAP services under one roof. Our team of experts ranges from mental health clinicians, to Emmy award-winning producers and data scientists, working together as one to help millions of people around the world be healthier and more productive.”

Online Wellbeing Sessions

 

Session Two 11th Feb 2025

Session Three 6th Mar 2025

Universal Credit for armed forces personnel posted overseas

Serving personnel and families are entitled to claim Universal Credit, regardless of their location. This means families stationed overseas can submit claims in the same way as those in the UK.

Universal Credit for armed forces personnel posted overseas - GOV.UK

Togetherall: New Year Goals & Pressures

New year, new mindset - feeling the pressure? Transform stress into positive energy by setting small and achievable goals. Togetherall has your back with expert tips and a handy goal-setting tool to track your progress. Join the anonymous online community today for FREE at togetherall.com​ and kickstart your journey to better mental health.​

Please donate blood and save a life this Christmas!

 Facts and figures

• 1 in 4 of us will need a blood transfusion in our lives yet only 3% of those eligible give blood.
• In 2023, 1.44 million blood donations were made by 785,000 amazing individuals.
• The NHS needs 140,000 new first-time donors this year.
• Sickle cell is the UK's fastest-growing genetic disorder, and many patients require regular blood transfusions. For the best treatment, patients benefit from blood transfusions from donors of the same ethnicity.
• To ensure the donor base reflects the diversity of patients, the NHS needs 12,000 new donors of Black heritage this year.
• O negative is the universal blood type, crucial in emergencies or when a patient's blood type is unknown. Although only 8% of the population has O negative blood, it accounts for 15% of hospital orders.
• There are 25 permanent blood donation centres across the country, with the most appointments for donors in Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield, and London.

Give the best gift this winter: give blood. You can register and book an appointment at blood.co.uk, by calling 0300 123 23 23 or on the NHS Give Blood app.​

NHS 'Help Us, Help You' - Pharmacy First

Community pharmacies can offer treatment and when appropriate some prescription medicine, for seven common conditions without patients needing to see a GP, as part of a major transformation in the way the NHS delivers care.

Highly trained pharmacists at more than nine in ten pharmacies can now assess, treat, and when appropriate, provide some prescription medicine for earache (for those aged between 1 and 17), impetigo, infected insect bites, shingles, sinusitis, sore throat, urinary tract infections (UTIs) for women aged 16-64 - without the need for a GP appointment.

Available at the heart of local communities, community pharmacy teams have the right clinical training to give people the health advice they need, with no appointment necessary and private consultations available. Community pharmacists will signpost patients to other local services where necessary.
By expanding the services community pharmacies offer, the NHS is aiming to help free up GP appointments and give people more choice in how and where they access care.

Don't wait for minor health concerns to get worse – think pharmacy first and get seen by your local pharmacy team.
For more information, visit nhs.uk/thinkpharmacyfirst

Domestic Abuse - Help is at hand