RMA – The Royal Marines Charity Chief Executive, Jonathan Ball, recently welcomed the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, the Rt Hon Johnny Mercer MP, to the second meeting of the Single Cap Badge Associations Network (SCAN) at the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London.
The Minister addressed those representing 25 associations from all three Services, and others who made later presentations including those from the Office of Veterans Affairs (OVA), Blesma, Cobseo – the Confederation of Service Charities, Help for Heroes, ASDIC (Association of Service Drop-in Centres) and Northumbria University.
In thanking RMA for being at the forefront of the initiative, the Minister stressed the importance of building pillars of support as a way to most effectively ensure the help available to the veteran community.
SCAN has been formed to enable and encourage mutual support, assist the improvement of each member association’s membership offer, and improve member participation through the exchange of information, ideas and best practice.
Those attending were united in agreeing on the importance of identifying common opportunities and challenges that are better tackled together, calling on Cobseo’s assistance where appropriate. SCAN will also act as a communication bridge between the Ministry of Defence, OVA and the communities of the member associations in striving to make the UK the best place in the world to be a veteran.