EEAST celebrates Armed Forces Week with launch of network for military community

In Armed Forces week we celebrate and recognise the many staff across East of England Ambulance Service who have served in the armed forces or are part of the wider armed forces community, including spouses and dependents of active serving personnel, reservists, military co-responders, and cadet forces adult volunteers.

EEAST actively encourages engagement, recruitment, and development of service leavers, including military veterans, their dependents and reservists.

**Armed Forces Network ** We are using Armed Forces Week to formally launch our Armed Forces Network on Thursday June 26.

EEAST CEO Neill Moloney said: “Within EEAST we have a wide range of people from within the military communities, whether by being veterans, reservists, military co-responders who volunteer with us in their spare time, or by being the spouses of those currently serving.

“We hope our Armed Forces Network will provide a space where veterans, reservists and their families can come together to improve the support we offer to staff.

“We also recognise that EEAST’s patients that are veterans can also have complex and specific needs and we hope that the lived experience of members of the Armed Forces Network will also help us improve the support we provide to those patients.”

**Reservists ** Across the trust we currently have around 40 staff with reservist or cadet force adult volunteer commitments (less than 1.5% of our total workforce).

As a provider of medical care, our staff often serve as reservists, but we also have reservists in non-medical roles including the RAF Regiment, Army Infantry Regiments, Royal Marines, Signals and logistics, and Royal Navy.

Medical reservists play an essential role in the armed forces and the training they receive brings a wealth of skills and experience to their main employers (in the NHS).
The average reservist receives training worth approximately £8,000 each year in transferrable skills such as in communications, IT and LGV licences. Therefore, the more reservists the Trust employs, the more we also benefit.

Being a reservist also develops operational skills including teamwork, leadership and improvising in unfamiliar of difficult circumstances.

**Veterans ** We work closely with the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (DRES) and hold their Gold Award in recognition of our support and commitment to reserves and veterans. We were one of the first UK ambulance trusts to hold this award and continue to work with colleagues across other ambulance trusts to share best practice and explore further opportunities for collaboration.

We also hold ‘Veterans Aware Trust’ status as part of the Veterans Covenant HealthCare Alliance (VCHA). There is also a national initiative called ‘Step-into-Health’ which is an NHS-led scheme that identifies employment opportunities for military staff and their dependants.