Meeting description: We informed the Member about the welfare support provided by Poppyscotland to the Armed Forces community. We discussed Poppyscotland's learning and outreach work the impact of COVID-19 the 2021 Poppy appeal and the publication of our manifesto ahead of the Scottish Parliament election. The lobbying was undertaken with the intent of raising awareness of Poppyscotland's day-to-day work and to highlight the policy recommendations within the manifesto. The Poppyscotland manifesto recommendations that we highlighted to the Member were: - Involve the Armed Forces community in Scotland in policy working groups in order to capture and consider the experiences of serving personnel veterans and their families. - Introduce a veteranas patient satisfaction survey to empower veterans to provide tailored feedback on the quality and suitability of specialist care that they receive. - Establish a veteranas housing action group with powers to review challenging cases oversee the effective implementation of the veteransa housing pathway and act on any recommendations it makes. - Commission and act on an independent review of existing targeted provision aimed at ensuring the most vulnerable serving personnel and veterans experience a agood transitiona. - Lead a public awareness campaign to promote the positive message that veterans and their families are assets are highly skilled and worth investing in throughout Scottish workplaces and society. - Fully exempt military compensation from financial assessments for social security benefits. Poppyscotland was proud to have published our first manifesto for the Scottish Parliamentary elections this year. Our Military personnel are experiencing disadvantages during and after their Service and we used the Scottish Parliament election campaign to call on all political parties to take urgent action.
Topic label: Housing, Defence