Blaenau Gwent Council has received the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme Silver Award for its commitment to ensuring service personnel and the armed forces community are not unfairly disadvantaged when seeking employment with the council.
Councillor Brian Thomas, the Council’s Armed Forces Champion, picked up the award on behalf of the authority at the Armed Forces in Wales Awards at St Fagan’s Museum.
He said the award recognises the Council’s continued commitment to supporting serving and former members of the armed forces and their families.
As part of achieving the Silver Award the council recently adopted a Time-off for Reservists Policy that includes 15 days paid leave for training, in addition to supporting mobilisation.
The Silver Award is part of the Council’s ongoing commitment to the armed forces community through Armed Forces Covenant. The Armed Forces Covenant places an expectation on signatories that they will ensure the Armed Forces community are treated fairly and are not disadvantaged as a result of their service. The Council signed the Covenant in 2014 along with range of other civilian as well as military partners, and Councillor Thomas chairs the Blaenau Gwent Armed Forces Covenant Steering Group which takes this work forward.