In September 2023, North Devon Council pledged its ongoing support to veterans and serving military by signing up to the Armed Forces Covenant. 

The Armed Forces Covenant is a promise that those who serve or have served in the armed forces and their families should be treated fairly and not face disadvantages when seeking access to public or private goods and services in the UK.

The council was part of a Devon-wide covenant signed in 2012 before the current iteration of the covenant was strengthened in 2021.

By signing the new covenant, we commit to honour the Armed Forces Covenant and support the armed forces community. We recognise the value serving personnel, both regular and reservists, veterans and military families contribute to our business and our country.

View North Devon Council's Armed Forces Covenant

Armed Forces Covenant Employer Recognition Scheme - Bronze Certificate

Section 1: Principles of the Armed Forces Covenant

We, North Devon Council, will endeavour in our business dealings to uphold the key principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, which are:

• no member of the Armed Forces Community should face disadvantage in the provision of public and commercial services compared to any other citizen 
• In some circumstances special treatment may be appropriate especially for the injured or bereaved

Section 2: Demonstrating our Commitment

We recognise the value serving personnel, reservists, veterans and military families bring to our business and to our country. We will seek to uphold the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, by:

Promoting the Armed Forces: 

• Promoting we are an Armed Forces friendly organisation through digital and social media channels
• Publishing our Covenant pledge on our website

National Events

• Promoting Armed Forces Day, Reserves Day, the Poppy Appeal Day and Remembrance activities through digital and social media channels

Veterans, Reserves & Service spouses & partners

• We welcome job applications from veterans, reservists spouses & partners who meet the criteria in job specifications
• Additional time off work entitlement for Reservists allows for up to 12 days paid leave per annum (pro rata) for training
• If an employee is actually called up, the required paid time off work will be granted and any salary adjustments necessary will be made as per the official procedures issued to the Council

Supporting Housing Needs

• Veterans and serving personnel are identified when applying for Housing Support via type of service, dates of service and service number which enables North Devon Council to offer suitable advice
• The Devon Home Choice Policy (Devon Social Housing Register) provides various provisions for both veteran and serving personnel with regard to banding and local connection
• For Disabled Facilities Grants North Devon Council identifies members and ex-members of the armed forces. Where a means test is required any income from the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme will be disregarded
• Our Outreach team work closely with veterans, monitoring welfare & providing wraparound support

Additional Support

• We offer discounted rates for charities (including Armed Forces related) for use of our Pannier Market and events where trade collections are required
• War Disablement Pension and War Widows payments are disregarded when calculating Council Tax support
• We regularly provide Community Councillor funding to the Chivenor Military Ladies Choir & welcome applications from Armed Forces charities and local organisations
• We provide an annual grant to Citizens Advice Bureau who, along with NDC,  routinely refer clients to RBL, SSAfA, Ops Fortitude & Ops Courage
• We will continually review the support offered by North Devon Council and update our pledge regularly

We will publicise these commitments through our literature and/or on our website, setting out how we will seek to honour them and inviting feedback from the Service community and our customers on how we are doing.