Scottish Veterans Fund: impact report

What is the Scottish Veterans Fund?

The Scottish Veterans Fund was established by the Scottish Government in 2008. Since its inception it has allocated more that £1.4 million to over 150 projects across Scotland. The projects provide advice, help and support to veterans and their families.

In 2017, the Scottish Government partnered with Standard Life Aberdeen who made a three year contribution to the Scottish Veterans Fund. At the same time, the fund changed from accepting only single year bids to also supporting multi-year projects across the three years.

Since 2017 the annual fund has therefore comprised £120,000 from the Scottish Government and £80,000 from Standard Life Aberdeen, providing a total of £200,000 per annum to allocate to projects. The Scottish Government funding has focused on supporting veterans’ wellbeing, social inclusion, and raising public awareness of veterans issues. Standard Life Aberdeen’s funding is dedicated to supporting employment of veterans and their families. Standard Life Aberdeen also offer support to successful applicants to help maximise the social impact of their projects.

The Scottish Veterans Fund is administered by Veterans Scotland, who handle the applications and distribution of funds on behalf of the Scottish Government and Standard Life Aberdeen.

Investment made across the entire country:

• The total amount over money spent over 12 years - £1.4m
• The number of projects assisted - 156
• Number of organisations assisted - 56

The Fund is aimed especially at projects that are attempting to deliver new or innovative approaches to veterans’ issues, or to develop areas that are currently not supported by the Scottish or UK Governments.

The Scottish Veterans Fund stipulates that one or more of the following criteria is required when projects apply for funding:

• To promote physical and mental health and wellbeing of veterans
• To assist veterans to secure better access to adequate housing
• To combat loneliness and isolation, and promote comradeship
• To support successful transition to civilian life following Service
• To help veterans access services provided by the
  public or voluntary sectors
• To raise awareness of veterans’ issues amongst the general public
• To deliver greater understanding of the issues faced by veterans through new research
• To assist veterans facing additional barriers to employment
• To promote best practice transitions to employment
• To assist wider spousal/family employment, supporting veterans to transition effectively.