Blaby District Council
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 Blaby District Council 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 Blaby District Council 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
- Armed Forces Charities
We also pledge the following:
Communications and Engagement: - We will have an Elected member who will be identified to serve as the Armed Forces Champion and a Lead Officer who will share good practice and emerging challenges through stakeholder engagement with armed forces partner organisations and the wider armed forces community.
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Apply for the Gold Award for the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme.
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Provide resources and signposting to help staff to understand and apply the principles of the Covenant in their service area.
Health and Wellbeing Support: - Ensure information about dedicated healthcare services is available and promoted to the armed forces community.
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Staff involved in supporting the armed forces community are aware of the support available and will actively promote.
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Feedback to health partner organisations where difficulties have been faced by members of the armed forces community in accessing health care provision.
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Take part in and promote awareness-raising campaigns.
Housing: - Ensure that Council staff are mindful and remain aware of the issues faced by Service personnel and their families. This includes identifying best practice in solving the most challenging of circumstances where a service family or household is settling in our District.
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Raise awareness of housing issues and develop solutions and support systems to solve or prevent issues such as homelessness by Veterans.
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Ensure the Armed Forces community works closely with Council and other housing teams to provide advice and support to households leaving the Armed Forces or being re-located within the UK.
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Give due priority in relation to local connection to armed forces personnel and veterans in the Housing Allocations Policy.
Benefits: - The whole amount of any War Disablement Pension, War Widows Pension or War Widower’s Pension will be disregarded when assessing entitlement to receive Housing Benefit or local Council Tax Support in Blaby District. The nationally agreed disregarded figure is £10 per week. Blaby District Council has chosen to disregard the full value of these incomes (although some of the elements within a pension amount do not attract the disregard) to recognise the value and contribution to our country. This disregard applies to both working age and pension age claimants (and is paid from the Councils own reserves).
Employment - As a Disability Confident employer, commit to interviewing candidates who declare themselves as disabled who meet the essential criteria of the personal specification, providing an inclusive and accessible recruitment process and making reasonable adjustments to support disabled staff to be able to successfully perform their role.
Business Support: - We will host business networking events and raise awareness to encourage partner organisations and businesses within the district to engage with and sign the Armed Forces Covenant and support those who are interested in applying and progressing through the Defence Employer Recognition Award Scheme.
Civic Responsibilities: -We will support national events and commemorative anniversary dates. We will hold a ceremony and flag raising during Armed Forces week, including Reserves Day, raising awareness through social media activities of the role our Armed Forces community and their families continue to play. We will hold a ceremony and flag raising for Remembrance Day and observe the 2-minutesilence. The Council will support community events taking place for Remembrance Sunday, including Member attendance at services across the district. We will publicise these commitments through our literature and/or our social media sites and website, setting out how we will seek to honour them and inviting feedback from the armed forces community and our staff on how we are doing.
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.
Updates to this page
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Pledges.
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First published.