Impact case study database

Overview: The main beneficiaries of the VFI’s research have included the MoD and its commercial partner Right Management; the veteran’s charity, Blesma – ‘The Limbless Veterans’; GPs; limbless veterans and their families; and active and former soldiers and their spouses and families. The research therefore made an impact on government policy, commerce, charity policy and practice, GP training and practice, and the health, well-being, professional development and quality of life of soldiers, veterans and their families.

Improving delivery of charitable services: Blesma – ‘The Limbless Veterans’

Blesma – ‘The Limbless Veterans’ is the UK’s leading specialist limb loss charity. VFI research on families’ experiences of living with limb loss has transformed the services provided by Blesma to veterans and their families. The Living with Limb Loss Support Model (LLSM) was incorporated within Blesma’s strategic planning report, ‘Looking Forward to the Next Five Years’ [i] published October 2018, with its adoption becoming a ‘key operating concept priority’. Thus the research, according to Blesma, has been key to the charity’s long-term planning and central to its efforts at “adopting and sustaining good practice” [ii]. The Model was also incorporated into the Blesma Support Officer (BSOs - Blesma’s caseworker team) toolkit, and as a direct result the ten UK BSOs (who made 2,362 visits in 2019 alone) have since assessed coping levels of veterans and their family carers separately, allowing the provision of relevant support for both. The BSOs’ practice has thus been enhanced through formalising support to families as part of their remit.

According to Blesma [ii], there are between 450 and 500 limbless veterans with ‘active issues’ at any one time. In the majority of these cases, it is not just the veteran who requires support, but also the family. Each of the families visited since the introduction of the Model has benefited from support informed by the VFI’s ‘Caring and Coping’ report, meaning that the innovative LLSM reached at least 17% of the nearly 3,000-strong limbless veteran community by the end of July 2020. The Model continues to be used by Blesma and the BSOs, with families benefiting from ongoing support informed by the VFI’s research.

Limbless veterans and families visited by Blesma testified to the value and significance of the new approach because it distinguishes between how families and veterans cope: “It’s the carer that takes the brunt of it all” (veteran with limb loss) [1: p. 69]; “Ask the family if there’s anything, not the person who has lost the limb, talk to the family themselves” (daughter) [1: p. 71]. Since 2018, all new Blesma members (and existing Blesma families, where appropriate) have been given the ‘Caring and Coping’ booklet which explains the Model and what caring for and coping with limb loss might be like across five stages of the life course. This has been positively evaluated by families: “Thank you. This really shows what I’ve felt. For the first time I feel I’ve been listened to” [iii].

Changes to GP training and practice: In 2018 the LLSM was incorporated within the National GP Registrar Training Programme about Veterans’ Health that all trainee GPs must engage with during their training; several components of this training are delivered by Blesma. In 2019 alone, 641 GPs attended the new training element [ii]. As a direct result of the research findings, a pain Q&A crib sheet was also developed with a specialist consultant in veteran pain to assist both persons with limb loss (PWLL) and health professionals in explaining the nature and impact of phantom pain. This has been distributed to all Blesma members, pain clinics and prosthetic centres.

Influencing national policy development on spouse employment support

The VFI’s research played a pivotal role in MoD decisions on spouse employment by confirming the need for career support among the UK’s 64,000 military spouses, as well as validating the model of support (i.e., bespoke careers consultancy, training, and job-finding workshops). Specifically, the evaluation report’s finding that support improved spouses’ confidence in seeking employment directly influenced the UK Secretary of State for Defence’s decision to introduce a new fund for supporting the careers of spouses and civil partners of military personnel, announced in September 2018 [iv, v]. This fund supported the development of a new Partner Career Support Programme designed to empower spouses to be more confident in seeking employment. Based on the findings of the VFI’s evaluation – in particular, spouses’ need for flexible access to employment support – the MoD designed the new programme to offer tailored, flexible career support to spouses to fit around childcare and other responsibilities [iv, v]. Moreover, the VFI’s recommendations from the evaluation were used to establish the ‘statement of requirement’ by which the MoD set the terms of contracted services for the provision of career support to spouses [iv, v]. For instance, our recommendation that training should include online and distance learning formed a key part of the statement of requirement, and our suggestion that the new programme should be systematically evaluated led to the MoD creating an evaluation strategy for the programme [iv, v].

The VFI’s evaluation was discussed at length in a 2020 government-commissioned review into the needs of Armed Forces families (‘Living in our shoes’), which stated “this was an important study as it provided a wealth of information about the views of partners who took part” (p. 110) [vi]. The review also reiterated the VFI’s recommendations around flexibility of support, the need for further provision for spouses, and for rigorous evaluation of the MoD’s new programme. The new Partner Career Support Programme forms a key component of the MoD’s Families Strategy 2020, and was launched as a new six-month trial in November 2020 with a further 750 spouses able to benefit from tailored support.

In recognition of the value of the VFI’s research, in 2019 the MoD also invited Matt Fossey to sit on the Partner Employment Steering Group, a national committee which has direct access to cross-government policy discussions on partner employment opportunities. Fossey’s contributions to this group led to the creation of a new online platform, Forces Family Jobs – a job-finding website specifically for military families – which counted 1,400 active users by May 2020 [iv]. In June 2020, Fossey also requested that the MoD take steps to support spouses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Responding to this request, the Minister for Defence People and Veterans wrote to spouses signposting a battery of resources and organisations who could support them during the pandemic.

Influencing national policy development for supporting Early Service Leavers

Acting on the VFI’s evidence-based recommendations, in 2015 the MoD made employment support during transition available to around 4,000 ESLs annually across all branches of the military. This decision was enacted through a change in MoD policy (Joint Service Publication 534, v14), which formalised the provision of transition support for ESLs as part of the renewed Career Transition Partnership (CTP) contract and took effect on 1 October 2015 [vii]. Underpinning this policy change, the VFI’s research on the Future Horizons Programme (FHP) demonstrated that providing support for ESLs was morally, economically and politically justified. Since the change in policy and subsequent availability of new provision for ESLs, 5,174 ESLs have benefited from support when leaving the military [viii], with 82% of ESLs reported by the CTP as finding employment in civilian jobs following the FHP in 2017/18 [ix]. Feedback collected from ESLs during the VFI’s research on the FHP demonstrated its significance for ESLs returning to civilian life: “ FHP gave me a push in the right direction; I would have literally nothing if it wasn’t for Future Horizons,” wrote one participant. “Future Horizons have been amazing, and I couldn’t have done this without their support,” stated another. VFI research has opened up the opportunity to enjoy the same benefits to 20,050 ESLs from all branches of the military who have left since 2015 [viii].

Right Management (the career and talent management company responsible for delivering the CTP contracted services) benefited commercially from the research in that the policy decision led to an expanded contract with the MoD. They acknowledged that the research “was instrumental in validating the concept of Future Horizons” and “enabled us to extend and further develop the programme in confidence of the positive outcomes it achieves and the experiences it offers” [x]. Specifically, the evidence provided by the VFI’s research regarding engagement and employment rates, along with excellent qualitative feedback as testimony of the benefit to ESLs, demonstrated that the FHP could effectively engage and support ESLs, thereby leading to the MoD’s extension of the programme.