Defence Online

Stepping up for veterans

November 30, 2016

Established in 2010, Walking With The Wounded provides vulnerable veterans’ independence through employment.

The charity recognises the inherent skills of our armed service personnel and wants to compliment these qualities, as well as provide support to transfer their skills into the civilian workplace allowing them to regain their independence and provide stability to the them and their families

The charity supports many inspirational fundraising programmes, which demonstrate the fortitude and bravery of our wounded and keeps them in the public eye; from the North and South Pole expedition with Prince Harry, to annual challenges such as the ‘Cumbrian Challenge’, the ‘Ride of the Lions’, and Walking Home for Christmas.

Defence Online’s Head of Content, Victoria Maggiani, spoke with Polly Elworthy, Operations Manager for Walking With The Wounded, about the charity’s successes and aims for the next year.

Polly Elworthy

Thank you for speaking with me today Polly, on what must be a chilly day in Norfolk!

Yes it’s freezing here, I have a cosy foot warmer under my desk but I don’t think it’s going to be enough today!

Can you tell me a bit more about WWTW?

The main structure of WWTW is four core programmes: Home Straight, Head Start, Project Nova and Step Into Health.

Step Into Health supports veterans and ex-service personnel find a career outside of the service. It was actually devised between the Chief Executive of WWTW and Chief of Executive of the Norfolk and Norwich NHS Trust when they realised what a huge advantage they could provide to each other – ex-service looking for jobs and the biggest employer in Europe looking for staff. They realised there was no formal pathway for the forces to get into the NHS, which didn’t make much sense as the ideals and staff qualities required by both organisations are very similar.

It has been a really exciting programme to work with.

How does it work?

People can come along to our information days to find out a bit more about the NHS, it works as a bit of a funnel – people can see the wide range of jobs that are available in the NHS, not just care – doctoring/nursing etc – they have IT, Finance, PR, communications, administration, which people don’t really think about.

They can then get a placement, which then gives people an opportunity to appreciate the breadth of role available and what they can do. It also gives veterans the opportunity to have some civilian work experience, and a civilian reference.

The other positive thing to come out of it is we are seeing an increase in the number veterans going into further education; from the placement they decide they do want to get into the clinical sector, which is fantastic.

Also while the NHS is not for everyone, a number of people on the placements have gained clearer idea of what they do want to do post-service. One person on a placement witnessed police involvement in the A&E and decided that that was actually what he wanted to do; he is now retraining with the Police.

Another placement saw someone progress into education, gaining experience in the training and administration section of the NHS, he decided he loved training people and now works for one of the big education boards.

From the success we’ve seen with this programme, we are looking to create other ‘Step Into’ programmes with other corporate partners. With the advent of the new apprenticeship levy, organisations are looking at ways they can create programmes that will work with that and support their recruitment of apprentices, which in some larger corporations could be up to half a million apprentices.

So something like the Step Into programme will support the Apprenticeship Levy and Armed Forces Covenant. And of course, from our perspective an apprenticeship is about career progression and learning your trade. So this is a perfect fit for us.

Hopefully we can create more programmes like the NHS Step Into, which has been hugely successful.

What are your other programmes directed at?

Our Criminal Justice programme is Project Nova, a service for veterans and service leavers that get caught up in the criminal justice system.

The custody suite is where you can start to see service leavers spiralling – too much drinking/bad behaviour/an aggressive attitude- if there’s any mental health issues, or issues in transition to civilian life.

Project Nova is an early intervention programme, we work very closely with the police and they have changed their questions so people will be asked now in the custody suite “have you ever served.’ If they have they will be asked if they can be referred through to Project Nova.

Once the referral is made, Project Nova picks them up and does an immediate assessment over what is driving that behaviour. Then they make a customised plan with the individual to address those needs and help them stop reoffending, to stop them going to far down the wrong route and hopefully get them back on the right track, in employment and working as part of society rather than against it.

Project Nova was rolled out in Norfolk & Suffolk at the end of last year and we now have Nova projects in the North West, North East and it has just launched in South Yorkshire & Humberside. We are hoping to make that a national programme.

Project Nova is a really important part of our work and has been really successful so far. One of our successes from Project Nova was picked up in the custody suite and he has since gone through the Step Into Health programme and decided he wanted to go into physiotherapy. From few employment prospects, he has attended a number of Access courses and is now in Further Education studying to work in physiotherapy.

He said: “Walking With The Wounded, Project Nova and Step into Health have all given me a lot of support and direction. The harsh reality is that without this support I would probably have ended up in Jail.

“My biggest achievement is having been accepted onto the Access Course. I have a keen interest in the subjects and I hope to go on to train to become a Physiotherapist working within the NHS.”

Is there anywhere else you direct your efforts?

There is another project, Home Straight, which is about employment, working mainly in homeless residences. While the residence provides welfare assistance, we bring in an employment advisor to assist the clients into employment. As while obviously its great dealing with a certain needs, if they don’t have the independence to move on once that is done, then it is all for nothing. So we help give them back their independence, which underpins all the work the homeless residence is doing.

The other part of Home Straight is working inside the NHS in veterans mental health teams. Once a client is in a more positive state, and their mental health will benefit from working, they will be referred through to the employment advisor, who will provide advice as well as in work support once they have a placement. That helps maximise the possibility of retention of employment.

Another programme we operate is Head Start which supports ex-service personnel who are seeking support for their mental health.

Head Start exists to complement NHS and other Third Sector organisations in the provision of mental health support to ex-service personnel. Through a national network of accredited therapists we fund private face to face therapy for those with mild to moderate mental health difficulties such as depression, anxiety or PTSD and adjustment disorder, including support for those who simultaneously misuse substances.

The NHS is central to ex-service personnel getting support with their mental health. However where the local NHS and its veteran specific services have limited geographical coverage and long waiting lists, Head Start offers an alternative.

Underpinning all that is the First Steps programme- for education and training. First Steps funds any identified requirement from the employment advisors –they will pay for travel, training, books, equipment that is required etc. Their role is “ensuring that veterans/service-leavers have the qualifications required for the role or pathway that has been identified as the right pathway for them”

Sometimes we get referrals from Poppy Factory or Help the Heroes, there is great collaboration between the Service Charities to provide support and advice.

We all work to ensure we are maximising the funding – WWTW might not be able to fully fund a course, but together we may all be able to.

The work you do is obviously very important for service leavers, and we hope you continue to build on the work you have already achieved. Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about?

We have a big fundraising push for this Christmas and would like to invite everybody to ‘Walk Home For Christmas’.

Walking Home for Christmas

This is our annual Christmas event – where we ask people to fundraise by walking: home, to your Christmas do, to the shops etc. we have had people who have walked some way – from London to Cambridge – to Wales, and one who walked home from Cyprus! It doesn’t matter how far you walk, it’s simply the signing up that counts to support our vulnerable veterans regain their independence through employment. You register with us and receive a hi-vis and santa hat and can get fundraising.

We hope you are your readers will get involved in this campaign.

For more information on the Charity and its programmes please visit: walkingwiththewounded

Main Image: Prince Harry leading Team UK in Antartica ©Walking with the Wounded/EPA

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Post written by: Vicky Maggiani

Vicky has worked in media for over 20 years and has a wealth of experience in editing and creating copy for a variety of sectors.