Supporting Our Armed Forces Community: What It Means at CPFT
Guest blog post by Major (Ret’d) Tom Bale, Associate Director Corporate Programmes & Armed Forces Lead, CPFT.
At Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT), we’re proud to stand beside those who serve and those who have served. We are a successfully accredited Veteran Aware organisation and a signatory of the Armed Forces Covenant. We’re also proud to be part of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Armed Forces Covenant Partnership, working alongside local authorities, charities, and community groups to strengthen support across the region.
Tommy Kelly’s story on his guest blog post shows why the Covenant matters. For us, it’s about how we make that commitment real every day. As CPFT’s Armed Forces Lead, I bring my own lived experience from over two decades of military service. I now lead a dedicated group of veterans, reservists, Armed Forces family members, and allies, all united by a simple goal: to make sure no one from the Armed Forces community faces extra hurdles when accessing the care and support they need.
Across CPFT, we’re proud that so many of our staff bring that connection with the Forces into their work. Our Modern Matron in inpatient and crisis services is a veteran, and our Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Team (CRHTT) includes reservists and people with strong family links to the military. Their understanding of service life helps shape the compassionate, person-centred care we provide.
We also offer a specialised inpatient service for serving members of the Armed Forces, and we work closely with NHS 111 to make sure veterans are supported from the very first point of contact. This month, CPFT will be one of the first sites to facilitate the delivery of a new national NHS training programme developed by the NHS National Armed Forces Healthcare Training and Education Programme. The Programme has been designed to support NHS staff in delivering Armed Forces aware care to the community. It aims to reduce health inequalities, unwarranted variation and disadvantage experienced by the Armed Forces Community as well as supporting NHS systems to fulfil their statutory responsibilities as per the Armed Forces Covenant. Its goal is to improve health and wellbeing through raising awareness and delivering personalised care that responds to the unique needs of the individuals within this group.
Supporting the Armed Forces community also means looking after our own people. We offer flexible working for staff whose spouses are deployed, and our Wellbeing Service works closely with the Armed Forces Staff Network to signpost tailored help for veterans and their families within the Trust. And sometimes, support is simply about staying connected, whether that’s visiting a veteran after discharge from our care, keeping in touch with local regiments and air bases, or marking national events together as a team.
At CPFT, this isn’t just about accreditation or policy, it’s about people. We’re proud of our Armed Forces community, and proud to play our part in making sure they receive the care, respect, and understanding they have earned. As we continue to learn and grow as a Veteran Aware Trust, we’ll keep listening to the voices of those with lived experience, because lasting change starts with understanding.
This blog post follows on from Tommy Kelly’s reflections on why the Armed Forces Covenant matters for mental health; a reminder of the challenges veterans face and why partnership working across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough makes such a difference. Tommy Kelly is the Armed Forces Covenant Partnership Coordinator – Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Cambridgeshire County Council – take a look at his blog post on this link.
The How Are You Cambridgeshire & Peterborough team have also identified a number of UK-wide charities that offer wellbeing support for serving and veteran UK Armed Forces personnel and their families, including helplines and websites – find out more on this link.
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