Aneurin Bevan University Health Board
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 Aneurin Bevan University Health Board 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 Aneurin Bevan University Health Board 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
- UK Cadets
- Armed Forces Day
- Reserve Forces Day
We also pledge the following:

-The development of an action plan that outlines the work we are doing to support the armed forces and sharing this with our local partners through our internal armed forces forum, as well as attending the five local authority armed forces forums where possible. This action plan also highlights our 3 areas of priority for 2018-2019 -Having a schedule of monthly communication messages on our intranet and in our organisations newsletter ‘Nyes News’ to raise awareness across all staff groups of the role that reservists, service leavers, veterans and their families play within ABUHB -Promoting and sharing areas of good practice across NHS Wales, such as our work with CAMHS which is the first in Wales -Promoting the work we are doing on our recruitment website with a dedicated page for reservists, service leavers, veterans and their families -Undertaking a survey to ask our staff if they are a reservist, service leaver ,veteran or a family member to establish a baseline and ask if they would like to be a member of our new armed forces network and what additional support we could provide as an organisation -Developing and agreeing a statement that will now be included with any Tendering Exercise undertaken by ABUHB encouraging supply chain to understand our commitment to the covenant and join themselves Armed forces friendly: actively create opportunities for members of the armed forces and veterans and identify this connection on the NHS application form and including a dedicated armed forces section on our new recruitment website -Active recruitment of service leavers, veterans and their families is one of the Health Boards priority areas for 2018/19 Service spouses: including them as part of our new internal ‘armed forces network’ which seeks to provide additional support by asking the question ‘what can we do differently as an organisation to support you’ Providing a degree of flexibility using our special leave policy for service spouses and partners before, during and after a partner’s deployment -Promoting the support we provide through paid leave for employees who are members of the reserve forces and adult cadet volunteers to accommodate their training and deployment Cadets: through invitations to participate in our internal careers fairs where they will have access to the young people from schools who attend these events -Designating reserve forces day as ‘proud to serve- wear your uniform to work day’ as well as supporting our local community events by enabling staff to actively participate in armed forces day where possible -Signing up to the ‘step into health’ programme to support recruitment of service leavers, veterans and their families -Working with 203 Welsh Field Hospital to provide joint leadership development days for our leaders and managers and develop an ABUHB e learning module to raise managers awareness of the role our staff play in the armed forces -Develop a fast track referral into Children Adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) for children of armed forces families in addition to providing all Wales veterans health and wellbeing service to prioritise veterans with health issues related to their military service as described in the Welsh health circular

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.