The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Source: gov.uk (2025-11-10)

We, the undersigned, commit to honour the Armed Forces Covenant and support the Armed Forces Community. We recognise the value Serving Personnel, both Regular and Reservists, Veterans and military families contribute to our business and our country.

The Armed Forces Covenant

An enduring covenant between the people of the United Kingdom, Her Majesty’s Government and all those who serve or have served in the Armed Forces of the Crown and their families

The first duty of Government is the defence of the realm. Our Armed Forces fulfil that responsibility on behalf of the Government, sacrificing some civilian freedoms, facing danger and, sometimes, suffering serious injury or death as a result of their duty. Families also play a vital role in supporting the operational effectiveness of our Armed Forces. In return, the whole nation has a moral obligation to the members of the Naval Service, the Army and the Royal Air Force, together with their families. They deserve our respect and support, and fair treatment.

Those who serve in the Armed Forces, whether Regular or Reserve, those who have served in the past, and their families, should face no disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public and commercial services. Special consideration is appropriate in some cases, especially for those who have given most such as the injured and the bereaved.

This obligation involves the whole of society: it includes voluntary and charitable bodies, private organisations, and the actions of individuals in supporting the Armed Forces. Recognising those who have performed military duty unites the country and demonstrates the value of their contribution. This has no greater expression than in upholding this Covenant.

Section 1: Principles of the Armed Forces Corporate Covenant

1.1 We The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust will endeavour in our business dealings to uphold the key principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, which are:
- no member of the Armed Forces Community should face disadvantage in the provision of public and commercial services compared to any other citizen;
- and in some circumstances that special treatment may be appropriate especially for the injured or bereaved.
Section 2: Demonstrating our commitment

2.1 The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust recognises the value serving personnel, reservists, veterans and military families bring to our business. We will seek to uphold the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, by pledging to the following:
- Armed Forces Friendly
- UK Service Veterans And Leavers
- UK Reservists
We also pledge the following:

We strive to be an exemplar of the best care for veterans and their families; We encourage all patients to let us know if they have ever served in the UK Armed Forces so that we can best support their care needs; We are committed to learning from our patients and their families to improve quality of care; Supporting the voluntary engagement of veterans, recognising military skills and qualifications in our recruitment and selection process; and identifying the unique contributions veterans can make in a voluntary setting; Ensure we have a clear and supporting transition process in place to enable veterans and other armed forces personal to work within our organisation at a level that they are trained and experienced with; We will always treat all service personnel with the respect and regard; Increase our workforce capacity to reflect service demand; Strengthen partnerships with armed forces and veteran’s friendly organisations by considering opportunities for future working for our armed forces and veterans population; Maintain our Veterans Accreditation standards by providing training for all staff and promoting that we are an armed forces friendly organization, by using RJAH veterans buildings, social media and newsletters to all military serving and veterans personal; To support our Reserve workforce, We will grant up to 10 workings days per year with pay to enable reservist to meet obligations and attend mandatory training in addition to their contractual entitlement, to enable transferable skills from MOD to NHS.

2.2 We will publicise these commitments through our literature and/or on our website, setting out how we will seek to honour them and inviting feedback from the Service community and our customers on how we are doing.