Responsibility for commissioning of services for the Armed Forces community is split between integrated care boards (ICBs) and NHS England with the MOD providing some services, predominantly primary medical services, to those in Service.

ICBs are responsible for commissioning services for veterans and families, who form part of their registered populations; NHS England has commissioning responsibility for those patients registered with Defence Medical Services. This includes Service personnel and entitled dependants, and bespoke specialised veteran services, namely Op COURAGE: The Veterans Mental Health and Wellbeing Service, Op RESTORE the veterans physical health and wellbeing service, Op NOVA and the Veterans Prosthetics Panel. This is delivered through a single national Armed Forces health team.

In early 2021 NHS England published ‘Healthcare for the Armed Forces Community: a forward view’. This sets out NHS England’s nine commitments to improve healthcare services for this community and associated considerations for ICBs.

Assurance of integrated care boards

As part of the Armed Forces Covenant duty, ICBs must think consciously about (give due regard to) the needs of the Armed Forces community when they make decisions about the planning, commissioning and delivery of services. It is for ICBs to determine how to do this; however, the key commitments from the Armed Forces Forward View could be used by ICBs as indicators to measure progress. This non-exhaustive list should be considered as a supportive developmental checklist, which will evolve over time, rather than a pass/fail metric.

ICBs can find out more by emailing england.armedforceshealth@nhs.net