AS communities mark Armed Forces Day on Saturday, a project which supports veterans in care homes celebrates its first anniversary.
Designed for use in residential settings for older people, the Veteran Friendly Framework helps providers to offer appropriate support for veterans living in care homes across England. It will deliver improved health and wellbeing outcomes for over 25,000 veterans, plus partners of veterans.
The Framework supports care home staff in identifying veterans and their wellbeing needs, addressing social isolation and providing signposting to statutory and charitable services. It is a quality improvement programme and is free to care providers.
The VFF is a two-year collaboration between Armed Forces charities Royal Star & Garter, the Royal British Legion and the NHS Veterans Covenant Healthcare Alliance (an NHS flagship Armed Forces programme), with funding support from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust.
One year on and the programme has had a huge impact already. Almost 40 care homes have achieved VFF status, and of these five have also successfully undergone their first-year review. Eighty homes are currently working towards VFF status, and nearly 100 more are engaged in discussions about taking part.
Estimates indicate that the programme is already supporting 1,500 veterans and partners, and benefitting the wider residential care community too.
The standards align to the Care Quality Commission’s assessments, helping care providers to produce evidence of quality improvement and demonstrate to relatives and new enquirers their commitment to evolving their care.
