The government has announced the creation of the UK’s first dedicated women veterans’ forum, aiming to place the voices and experiences of female ex-service personnel at the centre of policymaking. The initiative, unveiled on 19 November by Minister for Veterans and People Louise Sandher-Jones MP, forms part of the government’s new Veterans Strategy published last week.
The forum is intended to give women veterans a direct route to raise concerns on issues including housing, employment, health and wider community support. It is supported by up to £350,000 in funding and sits within a broader set of measures that recognise veterans as a national asset. Alongside the forum, a new oral history project will highlight the experiences of the UK’s estimated 270,000 female veterans, aiming to improve public understanding of their service and their lives before, during and after duty.
Sandher-Jones announced the initiatives at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. A former member of the British Army’s Intelligence Corps, she served in the UK, Germany and Afghanistan. She said: “As a veteran, I know first-hand the unique challenges women face in military service and the extraordinary contributions they make. With women now making up 13% of the UK veteran community, we need to make sure that they have a strong voice at the heart of Government.
This government is renewing the nation’s contract with those who serve and have served. Whether it’s accessing healthcare, housing or employment, I am especially proud of these initiatives to ensure that all women veterans feel respected, heard and catered for.”
The forum will operate as a platform for women to share lived experience and inform future support frameworks, connecting ex-servicewomen with decision-makers across government. The measures will also work alongside a new toolkit designed to help service providers, including charities and health organisations, better understand and meet the needs of women veterans.
To complement the toolkit, the Office for Veterans’ Affairs has funded photography, short films and a theatre production to highlight the stories of women who have served. All of the new programmes are part of the updated Veterans Strategy, the first since 2018.
Dorothea Barron, a former Wren, reflected on her personal experience of serving during the war. She said: “When I served during the war, we were a group of girls desperate to do our bit for our country. The camaraderie and sense of purpose was extraordinary. But after the war ended, we were simply told to go back to the kitchen – our contributions forgotten overnight. How different things are today, where female veterans of the future will have the platform and recognition we could only dream of. It gives me hope that future generations of women who serve will never be written out of the history books the way we were.”
