Bereaved Military Children from the UK Armed Forces: An analysis of families seeking support from Scotty’s Little Soldiers

Abstract: Scotty’s Little Soldiers is a British charity, founded in 2010, with the aim of supporting children who have experienced the death of a parent who served in the UK Armed Forces. It was founded by Nikki Scott, following the death of her husband, Corporal Lee Scott, in Afghanistan, and the bereavement of their two young children. Months after the death, family members persuaded Nikki to accompany them on a holiday. Watching her son laughing for the first time since his father died inspired Nikki to found the charity, beginning with purchasing a lodge at a holiday resort for the exclusive use of bereaved military families.

In the proceeding fifteen years, Scotty’s Little Soldiers has grown to support nearly 800 children and young people each year. Scotty’s has developed a holistic programme designed to address known risks for bereaved children:

• Social isolation and loneliness (Holmes et al., 2013)(Mclaughlin et al., 2019).
• Education and employment (Parsons, 2011).
• Emotional and mental health (Holmes et al., 2013)(Mclaughlin et al., 2019). 

Scotty’s owns six holiday lodges across five holiday resorts in England, sending over a hundred families every year on respite breaks. They offer a range of educational grants, including the Scotty Allowance, an annual contribution towards extracurricular activities, school trips and other educational needs. They also provide 1:1 bereavement support, a talk-based therapeutic space for children who are struggling to cope. Scotty’s also provides opportunities for bereaved children to meet each other through social events, send gifts and cards at difficult times of the year, provides advocacy for families across a range of issues including school, housing, and finance, and develops training and resources for schools and colleges.

When a serving person dies, the military assigns the family a Visiting Officer (VO) and families receive the ‘Purple Pack’ – a book with guidance and support produced on behalf of the Ministry of Defence. Both Visiting Officers and the Purple Pack direct families with children to Scotty’s. When a veteran dies, there is no equivalent of the VO, and the ‘Grey Pack’ (the Purple Pack for the Veteran community) is yet to be developed. So, Scotty’s relies on word of mouth, marketing and professional referrals to reach the veteran community. The children of veterans who have died, or serving personnel who have died, are eligible to join regardless ofthe  cause of death or length of service.

Scotty’s utilises a free membership model; once a child joins Scotty’s, they are a ‘member’ and can access any of the services until their 25th birthday. This provides a unique opportunity for longitudinal data analysis of bereaved military children (and their families) from the point they join Scotty’s through to age 25 and provides valuable insight into the needs of the bereaved military community. This report, utilising descriptive data and analytic data, seeks to:

1. Understand who the charity is reaching, and which bereaved military families seek out support from the charity following a death. Section 1 will provide descriptive data of the families who have selected to join Scotty’s, including child-based variables such as the age of children at the time of parental death, the time between the death and joining Scotty’s, and the SEND needs and gender of the children being supported by the charity, along with parent related (military) variables including the branch of military service (Army, RNRM, RAF), the rank of the parent at time of death, and cause of death.
2. Understand how families engage with different services provided by the charity and to identify any trends or commonalities amongst families. Section 2 will explore whether there are any risk factors which may indicate a family is more or less likely to request specific help from the charity. It will provide both descriptive and analytic data on three of the services offered by the charity: respite breaks, educational grants and 1:1 bereavement support.