The 2025 Armed Forces Covenant Annual Report, which was presented to Parliament at the end of 2025, highlights the progress made with the delivery of the Armed Forces Covenant over the last 12 months and includes details of many of the new policies and programmes that have been implemented. The Report reflects on changes made to support education, accommodation, health, childcare and wider support to the Armed Forces community. In addition to the report, the MoD has also produced a summary document and a one page infographic, to illustrate how the Covenant has moved forward.
In his introduction, the Secretary of State comments on the expansion of the Armed Forces Covenant legal duty and states “the stronger legislation will ensure all government departments including devolved governments will be legally required to consider the needs of the armed forces community when making policy or decisions giving them a meaningful voice and delivering on this government’s pledge to put our armed forces community at the very heart of government decision making. Their courage duty and sacrifice are the foundation of our national values and they deserve nothing less.”
The Naval Families Federation was pleased to contribute our formal observations on the annual report again this year. For the first time though, our views were consolidated with those from our colleagues in the Army and RAF Families Federations, the Royal British Legion and Cobseo. This joint approach allowed us to represent the whole Armed Forces community, ensuring that the views of serving personnel, veterans and families were considered. We were also able to raise concerns about some aspects of the delivery of the Covenant, based on evidence presented to us by our communities.
We look forward to working with the MoD and other government departments to see how these changes are taken forward, particularly as the Covenant is extended to include 14 different policy areas. The extension of the Legal Duty will encompass all UK government departments and devolved governments, building on the current policy areas of housing, education and healthcare to also include: Social care, Childcare, Personal taxation, Social security benefits, Criminal justice, Immigration, Citizenship, Pensions, Transport, Armed Forces compensation and employment.
If you have a comment to make about the Armed Forces Covenant, or the annual report, please get in touch and let us know your views. The Naval Families Federation continue to champion families in all their diversity, raising issues pertinent to RN and RM families alongside the Army and RAF. Our advocacy team would love to hear from you! Phone 023 9265 4374 / email contactus@nff.org.uk or use the direct contact form on our website nff.org.uk/contact
