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  In this stage we will create a platform for people’s voices to be heard through a comprehensive collaborative cross-Scotland consultation process dividing it into north, central and borders so that any changes to services can then take account of the views and wishes of a diverse group pf people. This approach builds on the successful delivery of the Scottish Veterans Wellbeing Alliance and the Armed Forces Transitions study which used a similar sampling strategy and achieved a wide impact and reach. Through partnership between academia and practice the foundation for an evidence-based approach to development will be progressed. All consultation will be recorded and on completion all data and themes will be analysed to produce a report highlighting geographical spread of veterans, their families and support systems currently in place. During the delivery of the VPPP programme through the SVWA veterans and their families identified the need for a clear pathway to access health and wellbeing services. We will explore in detail what that pathway might entail from their perspective and other key stakeholders for example GPs, Police, Primary care staff. Central to our exploration will be discussion around how key generic services might also be employed as key support systems to veterans and their families.

The SVWA has a key focus on social prescribing interventions which are part of the holistic pathway to extend into and reach out from the current veterans’ mental health services across Scotland. This has included activities such as fishing, wellbeing walks, various trips, peer support and café/roll mornings. There has been the delivery of coaching, conflict resolution, mediation, arts, self-management, and physical activity which were delivered in the different places and spaces including digital space. It is essential that the current SVWA network social prescribing elements continue during phase 1 ensuring partnerships that have been promoted through the alliance are maintained and developed and new partners are encouraged and actively recruited. We will empower the current social prescribing organisations to evaluate their intervention and use wellbeing measurement tools which would demonstrate impact.

Sustainability is at the heart of the SVWA and to achieve this outcome there needs to be a recognised, agreed strategic plan to guide current and future development, and to be explicit about we will monitor progress and impact. To ensure a strategic plan that is coproduced and collaborative, we will draw from the consultation process and actively seek to engage with organisations that are not currently part of our network and both specific and non-specific charities who support Armed Forces communities across Scotland are mapped into the pathway and become part of the alliance.. This will feed into our continuous delivery, co-creation and co-design of interventions that meet veteran and their family’s needs. A funded element of the alliance is the CAPS Independent Collective Advocacy which challenges power imbalances that may exist to capture the unbiased voices and views of veterans to help shape the work of the Alliance and wider policy through a Veterans’ Advisory Group.