PERSONNEL SUPPORT BRIEF - NFF

BRIEF 6
THE ARMED FORCES COVENANT
Key Points:
• The Armed Forces Covenant is the Government’s developing strategy for
support to Armed Forces Personnel, their Families and Veterans.
• A Covenant document is being prepared for the Prime Minister’s approval in
the autumn.
• The first completed commitment is a doubling of the Operational Allowance
for Afghanistan and Iraq, effective from 6 May 10
• The new Government declared on taking office that ‘we need to do much more to
ensure that our Armed Forces have the support they need, and that veterans and
their families are treated with the dignity that they deserve’. They made a number of
commitments to ‘work to rebuild the Military Covenant’ 1 .
• The Military Covenant is a fundamental Army concept that links the sacrifice of Service
made by soldiers to the responsibility of the Army and the Nation to ‘treat them fairly,
to value and respect them as individuals, and to sustain and reward them and their
families with appropriate terms and conditions of service’ 2 .
• The Prime Minister announced on HMS ARK ROYAL on 24 Jun that he wished the
Military Covenant to be re-written to express this obligation of Government and
Nation for the whole Armed Forces (hence the change in title). A draft document will
be presented to the Prime Minister for approval in the autumn.
• Many of the Coalition commitments will be led by other Government departments;
MOD will work with them to develop and deliver them. More detail on delivery of
these commitments will be provided as they develop.
• Commitments related to the Military Covenant include: doubling the operational
allowance, ensuring that injured personnel are treated in dedicated military wards,
changing the rules so that Service personnel only have to register once on the Service
register; exploring the potential for including Service children as part of the proposals
for a pupil premium, providing university and further education scholarships for the
children of Servicemen and women who have been killed on active duty since 1990,
providing support for ex-Service personnel to study at university and creating a new
programme, ‘Troops for Teachers’, to recruit ex-Service personnel into the teaching
profession.
• A Covenant Taskforce has been established by the Prime Minister to recommend
innovative ways in which the Government can rebuild the Military Covenant. It includes
representatives from MOD, Cabinet Office and academia and will report in the autumn.
• This work builds on the good things that came out of the Service Personnel Command
Paper and the Government intends to continue with the specific commitments and
principles that were laid down within it.
Brief prepared by Cdr Stuart Henderson; FLEET-DNPS PPOL CD SO1/93832 5522
1
HMSO, ‘The Coalition, Our Programme for Government’, p.15 http://programmeforgovernment.hmg.gov.uk/
defence/index.html
2
Army Doctrine Publication 01 ‘Land Operations’ para 0715
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