The below is on the scowling marquee ACO announcements
Squadrons are reminded that every cadet under the age of 18 should be issued with the card entitled ‘A Young Person’s Guide to Keeping Safe In the Air Cadet Organisation’. It is recommended that the ‘pack up’ that new cadets receive include this card and regular checks should be made to ensure that all relevant cadets possess a card.
I for one have yet to see these cards. Any ideas what they are?
It is a credit-card-sized piece of thick paper with space for contact numbers for OC Sqn, WExO, WCPO and Childline, plus basic info on safeguarding.
When my wing handed us a batch (based on current numbers) we were told they were in short supply and to recover them from cadets upon leaving. I laughed.
Why not just add it to the 3822?
Because that’s the common sense approach Matt, you should know the dangers of such things! 
It’s also the contradiction that gets me, “you must only contact cadets through Bader email” but “here’s the OC’s mobile number”
If said cadet needs some form of assistance from the OC while out and about, a mobile number is much more useful than an email address.
Never seen one, there was talk of them.
We have got a poster in the main hall and main office.
I can’t see why a cadet is going to need to contact me randomly. If they are on an activity / going on an activity they will have contact details of the relevant member(s) of staff. Also in order for me to know if it is from a cadet I’d need to have their details on my phone. If I get a call and the number is unidentified I don’t answer. But then I don’t sit there with my mobile hoping and praying someone might contact me and reaching for it every time it makes a noise.
Frankly I would prefer an email in these instances as it is traceable and what was said is visible.
It is a safeguarding thing, not for routine questions about squadron stuff.
It is important that our cadets know how to contact people who may be able to help if there is a safeguarding or welfare issue and that help may be needed at any time from any place. that is why the card has space for the details of the OC, the WExO, the Wing CP officer and Childline.
I for one will not be giving my PRIVATE phone number to every new cadet who walks through the door. My safeguarding duty of care of cadets in on parade nights and on properly authorised activities. It ends there! If there is an issue at any other time then it is child line, social services, NHS or the police to deal with.
That is a valid enough response as far as I am concerned.
The Sqn Cdrs Terms of Reference as per Sharepoint include the text “and for responding swiftly and appropriately when suspicions or allegations of inappropriate behaviour arise” which could be seen as creating a requirement for squadron commanders to be contactable 24/7 on such matters. I would not consider this to mean contacted directly by cadets though.
Ive always worked by the rule that cadets should never have staffs personal phone numbers.Ive seen what happens when they do and its not pretty.I think silverback is spot on.We do enough on parade nights and auth activities.We are not on call 24/7 plus we arent social workers either.
We specifically have a Squadron mobile for use by the person in charge of activities so that cadets never have or need personal contact details of staff. West Ham will win the League and the Devil will be ice skating to work before cadets and by extension their parents have the ability to contact me outside of parade hours.
All my cadets and their parents have my mobile number if they need to urgently get in touch. In 16years as staff I have only had 2 issues with cadets phoning inappropriately
1- she called at 3am pretty drunk and left a message saying she wouldn’t be in at work in the morning because she was at a party. Explained when I saw her why she should change my name in her phone from boss man cadets as it was too close to boss man work!!
2- was a male corporal calling to complain he hadn’t got picked to go to a camp, I pointed out that I was working 600miles away the staff made the decision which I backed and the only decision I would be making was him keeping his rank for making a nuisance call!! 3
It is made VERY clear to all that my phone is for emergencies or parents seeking urgent assistance at camps etc and I have had no issues other than the 2 above and for the first 1 we kept the message playing it back to her every now and again just to remind her about the dangers of drink 
What Big G said. There is a “Squadron Duty phone” which is a mobile that can accept texts/calls or there is the emergency number, which means emergencies only.
I’ve asked if I can have electronic copies that we can use to share with cadets but was told that wasn’t possible…