Before stating the following, i’ll make my stance clear in that I am all for staff being able to drink during their down time, safe in the knowledge that there is a suitable, sober duty officer in place to deal with incidents.
I guess the argument revolves around who is ultimately responsible for cadets over night on Camp, and by extension, the correct ratios. If activities are authorised on the basis of, for example, minimum supervision ratios of 1:4, how do we interpret what ratio we would have when all but one member of staff has been drinking, and the ratio effectively reduces to something more akin to 1:30?
The flip side of course, is that what incident could arise overnight that would require all the staff to act upon/supervise.
Staff don’t get the chance to bond enough as it is, yes, there are ‘staff only’ courses, but they are few and far between, and typically geared towards newer members of staff. It is important to allow staff this social downtime on activities to bond, and as has been stated, offer a welcome break from a sometimes strenuous period of duty.
I guess the reason I’m quite relaxed about this is that I work in a boarding school. This sort of thing is bread and butter for us. Activity ratios are nothing to do with boarding supervision - 1:30 is more like it for overnight anyway. But I do appreciate most ATC officers (OK, for the pedants, VR(T) officers posted to ATC sqns) aren’t, and don’t have much experience of this apart from annual camp.
Take it from me, therefore, that when the Stn Cdr (or OC Spt) writes the camp standing orders, and mandates a Camp Orderly Officer or similar as the only duty staff from end of activities one day to start of the next, that’s because they have done the risk assessment and consider that level of supervision appropriate and adequate. So does OFSTED. The other officers are OFF DUTY and can drink, as long as they are sober and able to perform their duties in the morning.
Our Wing normally has the policy that if on camp and a cadet requires being RTU’d (whether it be medical or disciplinary) it is the parent/guardian’s responsibility to come and collect them.
pretty ill thought out policy - if its a disipline problem serious enough for them to warrant being thrown off camp (and probably out of the ACO), its probably serious enough that the CC (not to mention the station hiarchy…) want the cadet off camp ASAP, not as and when the parent can be bothered to drive from Exeter to RAF Lossiemouth and back…
same with medical…
if its a compassionate job, say cadet X’s little sister gets taken into hospital with leukemia - at what point in the critical care plan would the parents have the time (or be in a fit state) to pop down from Yorkhill hospital in Glasgow to pick up Cadet X from RAF Odiham?
Cyprus camp?
i’ve only two experiences of cadets leaving camps - both as a cadet: the first was a 15yo cadet who’s brother was killed on active service overseas, and the second was an 18+ cadet deciding ‘sod this, i’m off’, resigning from the ACO, handing his kit to the DO one evening and walking out. i’d be intrigued to see how your wings idiot conceived policy would have survived contact with either of these situations…
[quote=“angus” post=16491]and the second was an 18+ cadet deciding ‘sod this, i’m off’, resigning from the ACO, handing his kit to the DO one evening and walking out. [/quote]That one is easy: you escort them off the station and wave them goodbye while calling wing to tell them to cancel them on SMS
We’ve had a few who needed to be sent home but not for a while. One of the most notable was a family of sisters who ended up black-listed by wing as despite all assurances to the contrary, whined about being homesick on the first night and when they spoke to mummy and daddy were thoroughly coddled and were worse than before . The first sister was taken home (Linton to Aberdeen) on the first night and I think she did the same on another camp. The second sister (the year afterwards, again at Linton) was collected from the gate after parents were read the riot act.
I’ve experienced this situation twice, one cadet up in North Wales being returned to Kent, and another being returned from “way oop norf” down to the west country. These incidents involved different wings, and on both occasions the cadets were collected at the gate by a parent. With both incidents, the relevant wings did nothing to help matters. I can speak with authority as I was partly involved with getting these two cadets home. To be honest, the entire ACO was no help whatsoever during those two incidents, we (the camp staff) were on our own!
Where medical assistance is needed the new crisis unit as part of the RAF should be used and would cooordinate any welfare requirments. For Disip yep its usually down to the staff on the camp. CC’s are normally picked as people with the experience and common sense. As has been seen, issues should be dealt with at the lowest level as usually its best for all concerned. Ive orgainsed rail warrents from camps and wings for cadets on camps, and moved cadets to parents. I dont see as an issue, just part of organising a camp and Duty of care for the cadets.
If the parents cant pick up little jonny/jane then I dont see any reason why they shouldnt, especially if the issue is discip/homesickness etc.
Along with our duty of care for the individual, is duty of care for the rest of the cadets who stay on camp. Whilst there is a little redundancy built into staffing of camps, losing 2 members of staff to take 1 cadet home is a little much, IF there are reasonable alternatives.
[quote=“Perry Mason” post=16521]If the parents cant pick up little jonny/jane then I dont see any reason why they shouldnt, especially if the issue is discip/homesickness etc.
Along with our duty of care for the individual, is duty of care for the rest of the cadets who stay on camp. Whilst there is a little redundancy built into staffing of camps, losing 2 members of staff to take 1 cadet home is a little much, IF there are reasonable alternatives.[/quote]
Like a train. Simple.
Personally, when I’m CC I nominate a Duty Officer, who sleeps in the cadet block as usual, and a duty driver / chaperone, opposite sex to the duty officer, who stays in the mess, but sober. The idea being that if little Johnny needs to go to A&E, there is a suitable member of staff to take him, and someone else to take over the duty.
Anything more than a back of the car A&E job and the Station Orderly Officer will need waking up anyway, so the whole Station system will kick in just as it would in any other emergency. CC should be kept informed of course, but no need to attend in person necessarily, if you’ve been in the bar. That is what Duty Staff are for.
I think we forget that we are in Britain, on RAF Stations, where there is a strong military welfare system as well as a civilian one. If the block catches fire, DO needs to get the kids out and call 222. We’re not going to get all the staff over there to try to put it out ourselves!
I think in most cases, a strong line about either parents or Squadron OCs being responsible for getting cadets home from camp is mainly about dissauding them from sending cadets to camp with existing problems or issues.
I know our wing strengthened their line on this after a cadet arriving for a week on our Greens Fieldcraft and AT camp was seen getting off the coach already on crutches!
When push comes to shove, I would expect the duty of care to kick in and sensible measures to be taken that are in the best interests of the camp, and the cadet.
I have personally seen all three ‘variants’ OC turning up to cart johnny away, Parents doing so, or Camp staff driving them home.
The reason, Cadet themselves being sick, Family Crisis at home, or disciplinary issue, to me simply affects the amount of sympathy and expediency required.
eg A Cadet being returned home due to family crisis, will get sympathy and the most expedient return possible. One going home for disciplinary reasons will have to wait until it is convenient for others, be that OC, Parents or Camp staff as last resort.
For disciplinary returns, I absolutely will not ask my staff to drive them home. Either the parents come and get them or they get stuck on the nearest train at their own expense.
However, as MW says, we’ll pull out all the stops to get medical or welfare cases home. We even once had an aeromedical flight for a cadet from Cranwell to Wales (circa 1995)!
I think this is where it gets tricky. We still have a duty of care to our cadets, even if they decide to be little Sh**s, so dumping them on a train is probably not going to be wise, especially as being booted of camp is a potentially traumatic experience even if they have brought it entirely on themselves.
I would want to know that a responsible adult was handing them off to their parents directly, entirely for my own peace of mind if nothing else.
It’s not something I would do without parental consent. With consent, it’s no different to sending an unaccompanied cadet by train for any other reason, which we do reasonably regularly.
You have got to be joking! An individual gives up there own time (probably for a bit longer than the rest of the camp staff), put their families and jobs on hold for the duration of the camp, and take on the highest responsibility of any staff member at said camp, and you begrudge them having drink now and then?
