Celebrating the launch of the Female Veterans Toolkit
Armed Forces Network Chair Melanie Dyke attended the launch of the Female Veterans' Transformation Programme (FVTP) toolkit at the Royal Hospital Chelsea on 19th November 2025 launched by the Veterans Minister Louise Sandher-Jones.
What is the toolkit?
The toolkit is designed to support and empower service providers across the Armed Forces statutory, commercial and charitable sectors - giving them the knowledge they need to strengthen and transform their service provision for the 272,000 female veterans living within the UK.
The toolkit aims to help tackle key issues, including:
- Mental and physical healthcare
- Pensions and financial advice
- Care provision
- Housing provision
- Employment services
- Self-identification as a veteran
- Combatting loneliness
To do this, it offers guidance, case studies, and signposting to help service providers in giving female veterans support. It also includes films, photographs and stories from female veterans. The full toolkit is now available - Female Veterans' Transformation Programme.
The number of women serving in the UK Armed Forces has been steadily rising over the past decade. In 2015, women made up just over 10% of the serving population; by 2025, that figure is almost 12%.
A similar pattern is evident within the Reserve forces, where female representation has grown from almost 14% in 2015 to just under 16% in 2025. These upward trends are expected to continue across all three services, driven by sustained efforts within Defence to improve gender representation and create a more inclusive environment for women.
This shift is also reshaping the veteran community.
The proportion of women in the veteran population will rise in coming decades. This reflects the increasing gender diversity of the serving community, as well as a higher number of women among younger veterans.
This is why it’s so important for the RBL and the wider Armed Forces sector to recognise that women often have different expectations and experiences of Service.
To support the work to develop the FVTP toolkit we held workshops with our services teams and with female veterans. One message came through strongly: many women are reluctant to ask for support for themselves. Research from the FVTP also showed that female veterans often don’t feel recognised or celebrated in the same way as their male counterparts, and, in many cases, they still don’t see themselves as veterans at all.
The findings speak for themselves:
- 53% of female veterans say their needs are not being met by current veteran services (Sarah Atherton MP, Protecting Those Who Protect Us)
- 82% of the public say they know “not very much” or “nothing at all” about female veterans (Centre for Military Women’s Research)
The toolkit is part of a much wider effort to ensure that women who have served feel able (and entitled) to reach out to organisations like ours, for support and that their experiences will be understood.
While military culture is changing, it isn’t changing fast enough. The tragic death of Jaysley Beck is a stark reminder of the disproportionate bullying, discrimination, and harassment that women in the Armed Forces can still face. The FVTP toolkit plays an important part of continuing to change that culture.
Its aim is simple but vital: to build a future where female veterans feel confident accessing the right support, at the right time, in a way that works for them.