A Major Milestone For The Armed Forces Covenant As 2000 Business Sign Up

The Defence Secretary announced today that 2,000 organisations have now signed the Armed Forces Covenant.

Speaking at a ceremony at O2, the 2000th British company to sign up to the Covenant, Gavin Williamson thanked those involved:

“This makes a real difference to people’s lives. Your commitment to them, your commitment to the nation, so thank you.”

The Ministry of Defence hope the Covenant will entice more reservists into the Army helping to deal with a shortfall of 4000 personnel.

The scheme isn’t just advantageous for the forces, HR Director from O2, Ann Pickering, explained just how much they stand to benefit:

“People who’ve worked in the Armed Forces have a really strong skill set around logistics, around communications, around leadership and around management.

“You need to look beyond their title when they were in the armed forces and think about the transferable skills they’ve got, because every company could really benefit from those.”

The Covenant represents a commitment from the government and any business who has signed to ensure forces personnel will not be at a disadvantaged because of their military service.

Critics have said however that the MoD should instead be focusing on the issue of service’s pay.

Speaking at the event, Defence minister Tobias Ellwood said:

“It is for the Armed Forces independent review body to make their assessments on what’s going on, but I do hope that we will see something that’s attractive so we can make sure we can continue to recruit the next generation of armed forces personnel.”

An In Depth Look Into the Report Detailing The Covenant's Progress over the last year

Today’s celebrations also come on the day the Government release their annual report on the Covenant’s progress.

The report stressed achievements like the Veterans Covenant Hospital Alliance and the 12,500 service personnel who’ve bought homes under the help to buy scheme.

However, it also said concerns remain with the perception of veterans, maintenance of Service accommodation and the transition to civilian life.

Sir John McColl, the Chairman of the Confederation of Service Charities said: "The feedback we’re getting from our membership is that actually we’re seeing a larger number of people coming forward asking for support and the support they are asking for is more complex.

"Therefore we need to calibrate the optimism within the Covenant report with the understand there is a growing need out there, and that gives us cause for concern.”

The call for further support is echoed in two recent reports, one from Lord Ashcroft and the other from the Armed Forces charity SSAFA. They both revealed key issues surrounding veterans transitioning from service to civilian life.

Lord Ashcroft’s research found overall people received the Armed Forces positively however, 54% regarded service leavers as ‘mad, bad and sad’.

While 65% believed that "problems adjusting to a civilian environment" were prevalent, and 41% saw “problems finding a good new job” as a key issue.