Veteran Analysis & Intelligence System
About VANTIS
VANTIS is the Veteran Analysis & Intelligence System, an independent, veteran-run data intelligence platform built to strengthen the evidence used to understand and support the UK veteran population.
“We wouldn’t have sent a fire mission in Afghanistan without coordinates. Why should we expect to support veterans without identifying where the pressures exist?”
Veteran support cannot rely on assumptions about where need exists. To target services, funding and policy effectively, we first need to understand where veterans are, where pressures are emerging and where the evidence itself is missing.
VANTIS brings together fragmented veteran-related data from across government, local authorities and public services to build a clearer geographical and analytical picture of the veteran population and the systems intended to support it.
From data to intelligence
The UK does not simply have a shortage of veteran data. It has a fragmentation problem.
Information exists across multiple government departments, local authorities, health services and other public bodies, but those datasets are rarely considered together. National statistics can provide one part of the picture. Administrative data can provide another. Local authorities may hold information that is not published nationally, while Freedom of Information requests can reveal further evidence and, importantly, where information is not being recorded at all.
VANTIS connects these separate signals so patterns, pressures, disparities and gaps can be identified that may be difficult to see from any individual dataset.
The objective is not simply to collect more data. It is to turn existing evidence into usable intelligence that can support better questions, better decisions and better targeted veteran support.
What VANTIS does
VANTIS collates, standardises and analyses veteran-related information from multiple sources, including:
- official national statistics and administrative datasets;
- local authority and other public-sector data;
- information obtained through Freedom of Information requests; and
- population and geographic data used to provide appropriate context and comparison.
Where appropriate, datasets can then be compared geographically, over time and against wider population measures to identify emerging pressure and areas where further evidence is needed.
Data gaps are part of the evidence
What is not recorded can be as important as what is recorded.
VANTIS does not treat missing information as a zero. It distinguishes between reported figures, information that is not held, information that has not been supplied, suppressed values and authorities or organisations that have not responded.
This allows gaps in veteran identification and reporting to be examined alongside the available numerical evidence, helping show not only where pressures may exist but where public systems cannot currently demonstrate what is happening.
Evidence and provenance
VANTIS distinguishes between official observations, administrative records, information obtained through Freedom of Information requests and modelled or derived analysis.
The aim is to preserve the provenance and limitations of the underlying evidence rather than combine different sources in a way that suggests greater certainty than the data supports.
An expanding evidence base
VANTIS is being expanded progressively as additional datasets are obtained, cleaned, validated and incorporated into the platform.
Its scope will continue to grow with the available evidence while maintaining clear distinctions between recorded data, derived analysis and identified data gaps.