Celebrating our commitment: Veterans Aware plaque unveiling
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Trust Chair Yemisi Gibbons, Director of Corporate Governance Steve Garside, and Associate Director of People Services Sally Spencer attended the event, joined by staff from across the Trust. We were also honoured to welcome Sonya Jaffe, Regimental Sergeant Major for the 151 Regiment, The Royal Logistics Corps in Croydon.
Yemisi and Sonya spoke passionately about the significance of this achievement before officially cutting the ribbon to unveil the plaque. It was a memorable celebration, recognising our commitment to supporting veterans.
The Veteran Aware Accreditation was introduced to support NHS trusts in understanding and meeting the needs of the Armed Forces Community, and we recently received our Veteran Aware accreditation. This accreditation signifies that we have completed the eight required standards and are actively working on implementing them. These standards include several key changes to support both staff and patients.
To achieve this, we had to evidence our current and upcoming work towards the eight accreditation standards of the things we have done to get the accreditation including:
- Creation of Armed Forces policy – outlines the support available
- Signed the Veteran’s Covenant
- Addition of status on TRAC for new employees
- Addition of status on patient record
- Training is provided to Emergency Department staff on how to identify Armed Forces patients and appropriate support channels such as charities, the Ministry of Defence, or specific NHS services. This training will continue to be rolled out across the Trust over the upcoming months
- Communications about the support available in ED, on the external website, physical posters
- Bronze Employer Recognition Scheme Award – armed forces-friendly and open to employing Armed Forces CommunityWe will continue to maintain and further work on these standards over the next year, when we will be reviewed
.