Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help roll out the Veteran Aware accreditation to healthcare providers in (a) Leicestershire and (b) Bosworth.

There are two accreditation schemes in operation - the Veterans Healthcare Covenant Alliance (VCHA) and the Royal College of General Practitioners’ Veteran Friendly Practice scheme.

The University Hospitals Leicester NHS Trust and Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust are accredited under the VCHA scheme and will undergo re-accreditation during 2022. The VCHA are also working with East Midlands Ambulance NHS Trust on accreditation.

There are currently 15 general practitioner (GP) practices accredited in the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) area. This represents 11.2% of the open GP practices in the STP area. Seven of these are in the NHS West Leicestershire Clinical Commissioning Group area, serving the Bosworth area.

In May 2021 the Royal College of General Practitioners hosted an online training event for the East and Central region and provides new materials for practices. The Royal College is currently planning to deliver geographically targeted engagement to increase accreditations.