City Council scoops gold for its support for the Armed Forces

The Gold Award from the Ministry of Defence is the highest badge of honour for those employing and supporting the past and present members of the Armed Forces and their families.

This is the second time City Council, which continues to grow its support for the Armed Forces, has received a Defence Employer Recognition Scheme Gold Award.

Welcoming the award, Councillor Harry Trueman, the City Council's Armed Forces Champion, said: "As a city we're hugely proud of our connections with the Armed Forces.

"We recognise and value the enormous contribution that serving and former personnel make to communities across our city. 

"We have a strong network of organisations including the Sunderland Armed Forces Partnership and Veterans in Crisis which works hard with other community based groups and veterans charities to support our armed forces and the 11,000 veterans living in our city, as well as their families.

"This includes helping to make the transition into and out of military service as smooth and easy as possible so that serving members of the Armed Forces and veterans don't have to fend for themselves. This ongoing support has also resulted in Sunderland being one of the few cities where no veterans are street homeless."

"So we see this Gold Award as a testament to the hard work going on across Sunderland city to support our Armed Forces and veterans and celebrate their contribution to our city." 

To win a Gold award, organisations must demonstrate exceptional commitment to supporting the armed forces community.

This includes having supportive HR policies in place for reservists, veterans, Cadet Force adult volunteers and the spouses and partners of those serving in the Armed Forces.

Winners also need to be advocates for the Armed Forces Covenant by actively encouraging other organisations to employ armed services personnel, veterans and their families and provide robust support for reservists.

The city also hosts and supports a number of commemorative events throughout the year which allow everyone to engage with the wider Armed Forces community including the annual Remembrance Sunday Parade which attracts thousands in addition to various flag raising ceremonies. Sunderland also maintains strong links with its adopted regiments, 4th Regiment Royal Artillery, The Rifles and its affiliated warship the submarine HMS Anson.

The Gold Award is the second award Sunderland has received in recent weeks for its support for the Armed Forces.

In October, the city's Armed Forces Partnership won the prestigious Working Together Award in this year's Soldiering on awards. The Working Together award honours a group of people, team or organisation that has successfully taken a collaborative approach to supporting the Armed Forces community.

Ger Fowler, Chief Executive of Veterans in Crisis, said: "To be recognised throughout the whole country is a massive achievement. It works so well because people are from Sunderland and they only want the best for Sunderland. I know from travelling around the country that Sunderland is the best place in the country to be veteran."