Beyond Housing
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 Beyond Housing 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 Beyond Housing 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 Service Spouses And Partners
- Flexible Leave For Spouses
- UK Reservists
- Armed Forces Day
We also pledge the following:

promoting the fact that Beyond Housing are an armed forces-friendly organisation; We will promote this on our website and our job adverts. seeking to support the employment of veterans young and old and working with the Career Transition Partnership (CTP), in order to establish a tailored employment pathway for Service Leavers. We will aim to advertise available opportunities within Beyond Housing with the CTP and create a job interview guarantee scheme whereby veterans will be guaranteed an invitation to the first stage of the selection process if they are able to demonstrate they meet the essential criteria of the person specification for the role. We will also work towards creating training and employment opportunities for those leaving the forces. striving to support the employment of Service spouses and partners; We will aim to advertise available opportunities within Beyond Housing with the Forces Families Jobs (FFJ). endeavouring to offer a degree of flexibility in granting leave for Service spouses and partners before, during and after a partners deployment; We offer generous annual leave and flexible working patterns, where our colleagues may adjust their working patterns to suit both their needs and the needs of our customers. seeking to support our employees who choose to be members of the Reserve forces, including by accommodating their training and deployment where possible; We will offer up to two weeks unpaid leave to enable members of the Reserve forces to attend their annual training where our service delivery allows. All our colleagues are able to apply for up to 6 months unpaid sabbatical leave. We will waive the requirement for 3 years service where the reason for that sabbatical is deployment. aiming to actively participate in Armed Forces Day and promote this internally and externally; aiming to employ at least one individual from the armed forces community

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.