Plymouth celebrates Armed Covenant work as new national brand is launched

Plymouth is celebrating its work on the Armed Forces Covenant and Corporate Covenant – as a new national brand is launched to raise its profile.

Nationally, the Armed Forces Covenant – which is a promise from the nation to those who serve or who have served, and their families, to do all we can to ensure they are treated fairly and not disadvantaged in their day-to-day lives – has launched its new branding (14 January).

The aim is to raise the profile and ensure organisations who support the Covenant also receive recognition for doing so.

In Plymouth, the Armed Forces Community Covenant – led by Plymouth City Council working in partnership with a range of local partners – has been a great success and has also led to the development of the Armed Forces Corporate Covenant. Successes of the Covenant include:

Plymouth as home of the innovative Service and Veterans Veterans’ children’s voice group, HMS Heroes, supported by the Community Covenant, supports more than 2000 children locally and approximately 9000 children at national level.
We hosted the first local Covenant conference with a wide range of local partners and linked in our work with a range of partners and Plymouth University bringing us more closely together, alongside the voluntary sector.
Our Corporate Covenant - which focuses on the Council working with local employers to help veterans back into work when they return to ‘Civvy Street’ – is going from strength to strength, with high profile employers such as Amey and Babcock signed up. The Corporate Covenant has received praise at national level, recently featuring in a two part, high profile BBC2 documentary with Alex Polizzi – ‘Hire Our Heroes’. At the time, Alex said: “I would like to congratulate Plymouth City Council for its work on the Corporate Covenant, they have shown the way forward and other areas could definitely learn from this.”
As a result of our active support for local bids to the Covenant, Plymouth has received a total of £300,000 from the Covenant grant scheme for diverse projects including youth sailing and junior field gun activities, Bravo 22 drama and theatre for children, youth activity and locality play events, a community facility linked to a local scout group, and support for homeless Veterans.
The Council retains a dedicated officer for children of Service and Veterans to link in with local schools.

Councillor Pauline Murphy, Armed Forces Champion for Plymouth, said: “There’s some fantastic work going on here in Plymouth and we’re really working hard with our partners to promote the Covenant as widely as possible.”

Councillor Philippa Davey, Cabinet Member for Safer and Stronger Communities for Plymouth City Council, said: “We are very proud of both the Community and the Corporate Covenant in Plymouth and it was fantastic to get the coverage in the BBC documentary recently. We hope that other areas are inspired by the work being done in Plymouth.

“We would like to thank Oliver Colvile and the previous MP for Moor View, Alison Seabeck, for their support and attendance at meetings.

“We would welcome the support and attendance of other key partners including all 3 of our current MPs who could share the work the Covenant does, and which has been heralded as groundbreaking.”

Heather Ogburn, Senior Leadership Advisor for Plymouth City Council, who coordinates the Covenant for the Council, said: “The new national branding will help both raise the profile of the Covenant and ensure that there is consistent and recognisable branding. We will be starting to use the new branding in Plymouth with immediate effect.

“We are always looking to promote both the Community and Corporate Covenant. We are particularly interested in signing up more local employers to our Corporate Covenant. If you are interested then please do contact us on 01752 307485 or email heather.ogburn@plymouth.gov.uk

For more information on the new national branding click here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/a-new-look-for-the-armed-forces-covenant