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Response to the Scottish Veterans Commissioner Report

Gary Seath 10 months ago

Influencing Policy Media

A response to the Scottish Veterans Commissioner (SVC) report ‘Community and Relationships: Anything but Uniform’.

Forces Children Scotland welcomes the launch of ‘Community and Relationships: Anything but Uniform’ by the Scottish Veterans Commissioner and support its recommendations.

Lieutenant Commander (Retired) Suzie Hamilton’s commitment to meeting with and listening to veterans and their families was certainly appreciated by the children and young people supported by Forces Children Scotland, whom she met with.

When talking to the Commissioner, the young people highlighted how challenging it can be at the point their parent transitions from the Armed Forces and how hard it can be to access information and support in their own right.

At Forces Children Scotland, we are committed to realising the rights of children and young people from serving, reservist, and veteran families.

This report highlights how important it is to realise these children’s right to have a say in decisions that affect them and their right to receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds.

Without listening to and involving children and young people, we can not achieve the recommendation by the Scottish Veterans Commissioner that “spouses, partners, children and the bereaved are explicitly included in policy and practice relating to the veteran community.”

Sophia recently has made the change from military to civilian life with her family and has worked with Forces Children Scotland to share those experiences through the charity’s Tornado of Change Project, funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

Sophia has contributed her story to the Scottish Veteran’s Commissioner’s report, told through a specially commissioned animation.

View Sophia’s Animated Story

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