MOD Services held its second face-to-face Lived Experience event in March at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, London – this follows our first event in the autumn.
Lived Experience events provide an opportunity for groups to share their experiences of engaging with us and the services we provide. Senior leaders and MOD representatives listen and learn from the attendees’ experiences and are open to suggestions for improvements. Listening to the people that use the services is critical and essential to how we can continuously improve and drive positive change by using direct feedback to make services more transparent and accessible for veterans.
Areas of focus this time were on the Veterans Welfare Service (VWS), Defence Transition Services (DTS) and Armed Forces Compensation Scheme, to help gain insight from serving personnel transitioning out and veterans who had recently left the military.
VWS and DTS are the statutory services that deliver welfare and transition support on behalf of Defence. They offer support to the most vulnerable Service leavers and their families as they transition to civilian life and any service person, veteran or family member requiring help with access to injury, bereavement, and compensation schemes, or who has a welfare need that endures beyond Service.
General Sir Nick Pope, Chair of the Confederation of Service Charities (Cobseo), who facilitated the event, spoke positively:
“The Lived Experience events provide a great opportunity for alignment. From the Veterans’ perspective, it offers a rare opportunity to share experiences at the coalface. And an opportunity to feel that, at the micro level, one’s contribution is valued and respected.
“From a Departmental perspective, it enables Policy makers to receive constructive feedback from the end user, which again is a rare commodity. It’s a day of insight, a day of alignment, where all leave feeling part of a common endeavour. More of the same please!”
Brigadier Caroline Hull, Head of MOD’s DBS Armed Forces Veterans Services reinforced the importance of these events, saying:
“The views and active engagement of those who we support is critical in helping us improve the services we provide. We greatly appreciate the time given by those who attended, and we look forward to future events exploring further areas. ”
For more information on the services, we provide please continue to visit gov.uk
