East Suffolk Council
Recognition for armed forces community support
East Suffolk Council has been recognised for its commitment to supporting the armed forces community with a bronze award from the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS).
The scheme recognises employers for pledging, demonstrating or advocating support for defence and armed forces personnel, while aligning their values with the Armed Forces Covenant.
To qualify for a bronze award, as well as having signed the Armed Forces Covenant, employers must pledge to support the local armed forces community and employment of reservists, veterans, cadet instructors and military spouses or partners.
East Suffolk Council's Armed Forces Champion, Cllr Lee Reeves, pictured with Community Help Officer Ritchie Downing, Cpl James Cochrane and Workforce Health and Wellbeing Advisor Anna Cleverley at Wattisham Flying Station, said:
“I am very pleased that the Ministry of Defence has confirmed that East Suffolk Council as a recipient of the ERS bronze award for its support of the armed forces community in our area.
“We recently updated our pledge to the Armed Forces Covenant and will now be looking at the next steps required to move forward with applying for the silver award and to further improve our support.
“As a recent demonstration of that support, our Community Help Hub team joined the NHS Be Well Bus at Rock Barracks earlier this month to offer information and advice to our local service community.”
East Suffolk Council’s pledge also includes an ongoing commitment to working with Rock Barracks as a local planning authority on engagement and decisions around redevelopment and expansion, to enable modern and improved housing to personnel and their families, including acting as a facilitator of community engagement on development projects.