Veterans’ Mental Health

Jo Gideon Excerpts

Thursday 12th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Johnny Mercer]

These veterans’ hubs up and down the country are exactly what we are looking to promote more widely. Someone in Wigan who has one of these services has an advantage, because people are already of that way of thinking in bringing the services together and trying to treat the challenges that veterans have not as individual problems but as something requiring a whole solution. One of the key tasks of the Office for Veterans’ Affairs is making sure that best practice is rolled out across the country so that the experience of being a veteran is the same in Plymouth, Wigan and Manchester, and so that we meet the commitment that I have made, and the Prime Minister has made, to this House that this will be the best country in the world in which to be an armed forces veteran.

[Jo Gideon (Stoke-on-Trent Central) (Con)]

I agree with my hon. Friend that the ability to speedily find a high-skilled, high-quality job after leaving the forces is essential to help veterans to transition back into civilian life, and for their mental health. What progress has he made in increasing the numbers of veterans who have transitioned successfully into civilian employment?

[Johnny Mercer]

Two weeks ago, we had our figures out from the Career Transition Partnership, which does a lot of this work for us. Ninety-two per cent. of people who come out of the services go into education or employment. We have very good figures, rising year on year, on this, but it is not a case of self-congratulation. We have to work ever harder with that small cohort, who come out often with concomitant challenges around mental health or their domestic situation, and make sure that there is no reason why any individual who comes out of the military who is not medically discharged cannot go straight into employment. Being in the military is one of the best things you can do as a young person in this country: it gives you skills and capabilities that you will not get anywhere else. I am absolutely committed to making sure that everybody who leaves without a medical discharge finds employment.