We are a veteran friendly organisation. For any armed forces or veterans enquiries please contact: Armed.Forces@nca.nhs.uk
Link to access: Armed Forces Mental Health Services: Op Courage
Further Information at: Healthcare for the Armed Forces Community
Veterans Awareness and Training Support
Documents
Useful Websites
Useful Links
We are proud to announce that the NCA NHS FT has been awarded the Defence Relationship Management (DRM) Employers Recognition Scheme (ERS) Gold Accolade for our commitment to the defence and armed forces community. Our CEO Dr Owen Williams OBE signed the NCA Armed Forces Covenant Pledge at the beginning of our Armed Forces Week celebrations reaffirming our commitment to our serving personnel, reservists, veterans and their families at a ceremony held at the NCA Resilience centre hosted by the NCA Emergency Planning, Resilience and Response Unit and attended by the Lord Lieutenant of Greater Manchester.
Armed Forces Lead - Allan Cordwell
Head of NCA NHS FT Emergency Planning, Resilience & Response Unit
allan.cordwell@nca.nhs.uk
Clinical Lead - Prof Martin Smith
Consultant in Emergency Medicine
Martin.Smith@nca.nhs.uk
Management Lead -Nicky Clarke
Chief of People
Nicky.clarke@nca.nhs.uk
SALFORD CO - Sarah Ingleby
Divisional Director of Nursing Tertiary Medicine
sarah.ingleby@nca.nhs.uk
OLDHAM CO - Leah Robins
Director of Operations
leah.robins@nca.nhs.uk
BURY CO - Tracy Shaw
Patient Experience Lead
Tracey.shaw@nca.nhs.uk
ROCHDALE CO - Charlotte Marshall
Directorate Manager – HMR Adult Community Services
charlotte.marshall@nca.nhs.uk
Reserves Day is on Wednesday 21 June 2023 and Armed Forces Day is on the 25 June 2023.
Care Organisations from across the Trust will be hosting flag raising ceremonies in honour of Armed Forces Week that takes place between the 19- 24 June.
Local Veterans and Reservist Units will be in attendance with colleagues and the public invited to join the short ceremony.
Date: Monday 19 June
09:30 - Fairfield General Hospital, Bury: First left off the front roundabout
11:30 – Rochdale Infirmary: Front of MRI at the flagpole
13:00 – Royal Oldham Hospital: At the front entrance at the flagpole
15:30 – Salford Royal: Main Entrance
Teams are to assemble 10 minutes before the ceremony begins.
The event will begin with an opening welcome from the respective Care Organisation followed by the parade being brought to attention with the armed forces flag being raised to the accompaniment of NCA Emergency Planning, Resilience & Response Unit (EPRRU) Piper Mr Richard France. The final flag ceremony at Oldham will be played by NCA bugler William ‘Spud’ Taylor followed by a 2 minute silence.
Click the link below to see event flyer:
In support of the NCA Armed Forces Covenant commitment, we're pleased to announce that the Defence Discount Card will be accepted at our restaurants across all NCA sites, giving a 20% discount on purchases.
The Defence Discount Service is home of the Defence Privilege Card, a vetted discount card that can be used in stores, restaurants and venues. The card gives veterans and the armed forces community, including reservists and spouses/partners of serving personnel, military discounts.
Find out more here on how to apply and which high street and online discounts are available: https://www.defencediscountservice.co.uk/
NHS Employers has launched a new champions' scheme in partnership with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Department of Health. The scheme has been created to increase the awareness of reservists within the NHS, and to highlight the benefits that employing reservists can have for organisations and employers.
The NCA's Reserve Forces Champion is Mr Allan Cordwell, Head of Emergency Planning, Resilience & Response Unit.
The Champion's role supports reservists by:
- Displaying their contact details on the NHS Employers' reserve forces footprint map, which also provides the contact details of local military units and the local defence relationship management contact
- Highlighting their position to the reservists within their organisation
- Encouraging their organisation to apply for, and achieve, the different award levels of the employer recognition scheme (ERS)
- Encouraging their organisation to sign the armed forces covenant
- Sharing relevant links and good practice via the NHS Employers and MoD websites, on their internet/intranet, as well as talking to colleagues about supporting reservists
- Sharing information supplied by NHS Employers on how their organisation supports reservists at recruitment and induction stages
Mr Cordwell said: "The role is a very interesting one, and as a reservists veteran myself, I am fully aware how beneficial military training and deployment can be both for the individual employee and the Trust itself.
‘The first objective is to compile an up-to-date list of how many reservists and veterans we actually have working for us in the Trust. To this end, please can any reservist currently working in the Trust, confirm their line manager is aware of their role and then contact myself either via email or telephone."
Tel: 0161 656 1927 (Int: 71927) Email: allan.cordwell@nca.nhs.uk
Once we have the database complete, we'll be holding events across the Trust to facilitate networking and allow managers to meet serving reservists. We'll also be highlighting the role of the new Defence Medical Welfare Service, supported by EPRRU, based in the Resilience Centre at The Royal Oldham Hospital. And we'll be forging links with the Royal British Legion and other veterans support groups and charities.
The RBL has published its winter individuals grant programme designed to help Veterans in difficulty due to the Cost Of Living Crisis.
Details can be found via an article in Quest magazine here: Royal British Legion offers £200 a month energy bill top-up grants for veterans (questonline.co.uk)
The grant page itself on the RBL website is here: Everyday Needs Grants (britishlegion.org.uk)
The Veterans’ Gateway is made up of a consortium of organisations and armed forces charities, including The Royal British Legion, SSAFA – the Armed Forces charity - Poppyscotland, Combat Stress and Connect Assist. Connections with additional key referral organisations, both within and outside the armed forces sector, means we can get you to the right organisation who can help. Funded by The Armed Forces Covenant, this is the first time a group of this kind has come together formally to deliver a service to help the armed forces community.
The Gateway is the first point of contact for whatever support you need, whether you're based in the UK or abroad. Many of our team are veterans themselves so they understand the issues people face after leaving the armed forces. They work with people on a one-to-one basis, connecting them with the right support as soon as possible. Please follow the link below for further information and contact details:
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