Veteran Connection Programme (VCP)
About this opportunity
The opportunity:
Veteran Connection Programme (VCP) is a group-based, peer-facilitated programme that supports military veterans and service-leavers to manage the loss of identity and valued social group memberships that often comes with leaving the Armed Forces. This opportunity will allow those who serve veterans and military personnel soon to leave the forces to get involved in the development and testing of our programme to help shape the future of service provision during and after the military to civilian transition.
Why now, and why Somerset?:
While there’s a lot of transition support for practical issues (housing, employment, etc.), little support is focusing on the loss of identity and group membership that occurs when people leave the forces. VCP is the first and only intervention to focus on psychosocial integration by helping veterans and soon-to-be veterans to manage their loss of identity and the social losses involved in leaving the Armed Forces. VCP is based on decades of research that has shown that belonging to meaningful social groups that align with our identities, goals, and values is a critical protective factor against poor mental health and wellbeing.
We are conducting this work in Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall, and North Yorkshire (Catterick), because the South West and Northeast of England are home to a large number of Armed Forces veterans, often living coastally or rurally and who therefore have less opportunities for access to services than other regions.
What we hope to learn, understand, or achieve:
We are currently testing both whether VCP’s delivery works for veterans and service leavers and how exactly the envisaged train-the-trainer model should be implemented in the future, so it can be scaled up across the UK. What we learn from the current NIHR funded feasibility trial will help us design both a larger Randomised Controlled Trial testing the effectiveness of the programme in improving veterans’ wellbeing, but also it allows us to make appropriate recommendations for how service providers can use and integrate VCP in their own services.
Ways to get involved:
What organisations might gain from being involved:
We value a ‘two-way-street’ approach – VCSE organisations who get involved in VCP will create and benefit from shared learning about the best ways to support veterans and service-leavers. VCSE organisations who support recruitment in will also receive a £250 payment for their efforts (which will primarily involve promoting VCP and sign-posting potential participants to our online sign-up form).
There are also opportunities for VCSE organisations to influence the delivery of VCP, including our workshop activities. Finally, involvement in VCP will provide the opportunity for relationship building with a team of psychologists who have extensive expertise in conducting applied research on diverse topics that are highly relevant to VCSEs (e.g., help-seeking and health/wellbeing among vulnerable and stigmatised populations, organisational wellbeing, volunteering promotion, etc.).
Introduction to the project lead
Name:
Summer Bedford
Organisation:
University of Exeter
We are a group of psychologists and veterans who are interested in supporting veterans’ wellbeing. We took a successful pre-existing group-based intervention (Groups4Health) and adapted it (with the help of military veterans) to create VCP, an intervention that is specifically designed for veterans and service-leavers.
We developed VCP alongside partners representing charities, the MoD and NHS healthcare organisations, e.g., the Royal Air Forces Association, the Royal Marines Charity, the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force as well as NHS Integrated Care Boards in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. To get a better sense of those serving veterans both locally and nationally we would like to hear from local partners that serve the military and veteran community.
VCP is a one-day workshop that is delivered by both a Peer Facilitator (a veteran) and a Research Facilitator (e.g., psychologist, link worker, or mental health practitioner). It has been tested in the UK and Australia in five cohorts, with veteran participants showing increased thriving, gains in group memberships, and reduced loneliness and depression. We have also created a version of VCP for military spouses and partners dealing with the challenges of relocation (Serve Connect Programme; SCP).
What involvement might look like
What we are asking organisations to do:
Organisations that partner with us and support VCP would be asked to both promote VCP in order to aid recruitment and inform how it would look in the future. We really want to hear what works or doesn’t work for those delivering services to veterans and learn how VCP could help them in their work. This helps us make the programme better and to tailor it to the needs of both service users and service providers. We’d also like to get service providers involved in our knowledge exchange and dissemination.
How much time is likely to be involved:
Time will depend largely on the level of involvement. As a general estimate, organisations may spend 1 hour for site onboarding, 2 hours for recruitment, and 2-3 hours involvement in a some stakeholder meetings.
How we are making it easy to be involved:
Good communication between us and the organisations would help with involvement.
What can be shaped and what is fixed:
Service providers and VCSE organisations can get involved in various aspects of the work, by helping us with recruitment and delivery of the programme, but also by shaping how it will look in the future and how we can best communicate the results to service users, stakeholders and policymakers to increase the benefit for veterans and those who serve them.
Delivery timeframes:
This NIHR-funded trial must be completed by September 2027, and therefore we will only be recruiting participants from August 2026 to either December 2026 or January 2027.