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Hear. Involve. Support. (2025-2028 Strategy)

HEAR. INVOLVE. SUPPORT. is the name of our new strategy and our commitment to children from forces families.

  • HEAR: Co-creating safe and inclusive spaces for views to be expressed, heard and acted upon
  • INVOLVE: Sharing power in co-producing and co-designing solutions to influence change
  • SUPPORT: Promoting youth leadership, upholding rights and improving wellbeing

This new three-year strategy launched in August 2025. It was co-produced from winter 2024 onwards alongside children from forces families, our partners, our Board of Trustees, and our staff team. In this new strategy, together we have made an intentional choice to focus more on partnership and collaboration.

We are passionately promoting youth leadership and sharing power with children from forces families. We will build on our work in the early years, with babies now directly mentioned in our vision and mission. We want to be inclusive of the whole armed forces community, whilst recognising what makes us unique is that our work is tri-serve and spans across communities in Scotland.

This strategy has been shaped by how children from forces families have told us they would like to be heard, be involved, and be supported. Join us in maximising opportunities for babies, children and young people from Regular, Reservist and Veteran families. Together, we can support them to realise their own potential and thrive.

These are the four strategic themes of HEAR. INVOLVE. SUPPORT.

Co-operating cross-sector, co-ordinating across networks, collaborating with purpose

 

 

Participation, resources and wellbeing supports in Early Years, Primary, Secondary and community settings

 

 

Creating spaces for listening, sharing power and upholding rights through learning, development and policy

 

 

A well-run organisation with our people established as our greatest asset

 

 

Our Vision

Opportunities for babies, children and young people from Regular, Reservist and Veteran families are maximised.

They are listened to, their rights are upheld, and they are empowered to realise their potential and thrive.

 

Our Mission

We provide support and opportunities to enable babies, children and young people from Regular, Reservist and Veteran families to realise their potential and thrive.

 

 

Our Values

We are…

  • PASSIONATE
  • TRUSTED
  • COLLABORATIVE
  • HONEST

 

Co-operating, Co-ordinating and Collaborating

Co-operating cross-sector, co-ordinating across networks, collaborating with purpose

In the next 3 years (by Summer 2028), we will…

 

ARMED FORCES COVENANT
  • Work collaboratively with fellow proud signatories who align with our values and share our mission and purpose, creating social value for the Armed Forces community.
GETTING IT RIGHT FOR EVERY CHILD FROM A FORCES FAMILY
  • Partner with education and other professionals, practitioners and organisations, working together to celebrate children from forces families, enhancing wellbeing for all, and achieving shared goals.
CHILDREN’S AND VOLUNTARY SECTORS
  • Collaborate locally and nationally with children’s and voluntary sector partners on shared goals, maximising the benefits from membership communities.
GRASSROOTS AND COMMUNITY SETTING
  • Understand engagement with children from forces families locally with partner organisations and uniformed groups, making our services and supports available in a community setting.
PIPELINE DEVELOPMENT AND STEWARDSHIP
  • Nurture long term relationships with people, trusts and foundations, anchor institutions and the business community to enable organisational sustainability.

 

Education and Community Supports

Participation, resources and wellbeing supports in Early Years, Primary, Secondary and community settings

In the next 3 years (by Summer 2028), we will…

 

PARTNER PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL MODELS
  • Co-design a model with Education partners to ensure we have a clear support offer to Schools across a term/academic year including participation, Tier 1 Wellbeing Service, ASN support, access to resources for 1:1 and peer group activity, support for the transition from military to civilian life, participatory budgeting, and a CPD offer to staff.
PARTICIPATION
  • Broaden our participation and engagement with a diversity of children from forces families, in-person and in digital forums, guaranteeing the space for young-person initiated activity. Support post-School to adopt leadership roles.
TIER 1 SERVICE
  • Co-design a Wellbeing Service for children from forces families in an education and community setting.
TIER 2 SERVICE
  • Evolve our Mental Wellbeing Service provision into a digital/peripatetic offer with universal access across the country.
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FOR LEARNING
  • Enhance our support to pupils with additional support needs, with a particular focus on neurodiversity.

 

“Hear Us, Involve Us, Support Us”

Creating spaces for listening, sharing power and upholding rights through learning, development and policy

In the next 3 years (by Summer 2028), we will…

 

YOUTH LEADERSHIP
  • Co-produce a Power Sharing Agreement and Action Plan between our Board of Trustees and children from forces families, developing the leadership skills of those involved and opportunities to advocate on their own behalf.
FORCES LIFE
  • Raise awareness amongst the Early Years, Education, Health and other workforces of the unique challenges of children from forces families. Deliver training and co-produce a suite of resources to support, with a focus on wellbeing indicators, additional support for learning, early intervention and prevention.
E-LEARNING
  • Develop an accredited e-Learning offer to scale our reach to cross-sector professionals.
RIGHTS CHARTER
  • Use our co-produced Rights Charter as our primary policy and influencing tool.
FUNDS
  • Pilot new ways of working with our Financial Assistance Programme, sharing power in decision making with children from forces families on how the resource is used to best meet outcomes.

 

A Healthy, Happy and Energised Forces Children Scotland

A well-run organisation with our people established as our greatest asset

In the next 3 years (by Summer 2028), we will…

 

GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT
  • Ensure good governance, financial and risk management, and safeguarding best practice.
CULTURE AND PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT
  • Nurture a culture as a happy, healthy and energised values and rights-based organisation, focused on the delivery of its mission. Develop as an organisation through embedding a learning culture where we are intrinsically motivated to achieve both personal and professional goals.
DATA AND SYSTEMS
  • Upskill our team to maximise our use of technology and AI in furthering our mission. Recognising the power of data to both learn and improve, and measure the impact of our work through our Outcomes Framework and Social Value collaborations.
YOUTH LEADERSHIP IN OUR COMMUNICATIONS AND FUNDRAISING
  • Prioritise young-person friendly communications approaches. Increase involvement of children from forces families in our fundraising activity, whilst diversifying income streams to fuel our mission and enable financial sustainability.
SCENARIO PLANNING
  • Develop plans which allow us to proactively respond to changes in the external and political environments, for example, mass deployment, injury and loss.