After reading the various strings on this subject - could anyone shed any light on my situation and whether I am eligible for the CFM. I was a CWO pre LASER until I was 22 where I was commissioned. I continued for five years before breaking service for 6 years.
I rejoined the Corps in 2004 direct into uniform.
My understanding is that I am eligable in 2016 - Am I right?
You’re spot on.
The Royal Warrant governing the eligibility criteria states that only a break in service of up to 6 months is permissible but you can have a break of up to 3 years for limited reasons(?).
Hi
I’m new to this site but have done a bit of research on the subject as it would appear people are using out of date regs.
The ACF Manual Annex B Chapter 7 PARA 11e that stated the following “a break of not more than 3 years between serving in a unit of the UK Volunteer Reserves, as defined in para 8d and joining a UK Cadet Force unit”, but this was written in 2005 only to be amended in May 2006.
JSP814 Sect 11 states under “Continuity of Service for award of the Medal prior to this publication…. “prior to the publication of these regulations there was a requirement for continuity of service for the award of the Cadet Forces medal. There were also a number of complicated exceptions to this requirement that invited many interpretations and led to some misunderstanding. Therefore, continuity of service will no longer be a requirement and all qualifying service in accordance with paragraph 9 above may be aggregated provided that the applicant is qualified in all other respects. The following will be relevant to those who may wish to re-apply in the light of the above.”
Basically it can be 12 years aggregated cadet/military service.
Unfortunately the medal office and most Cadet Units don’t seem to grasp para 11. JSP 814 or that in May 2006 the continuity of service was removed to be replaced with the word aggregated, and that it makes no difference when somebody left the military or whether it was regular or reserve, and/or had a break in cadet service etc.
It’s a shame that the medal office don’t take note of their own information on the matter, which says on their web site in relation to the CFM, and I quote “Service in the Reserve Forces, Regular Forces, OTC and University Air Squadrons which has not been used as qualifying service towards any other medal (e.g. LS and GCM or VRSM) may be used towards CFM up to a maximum of 3 years” unquote.
I’ve applied for mine with 9 years cadet service and 3 years Army service from years ago (a lot more than 3 that’s for sure) I’ll let you know how I progress.
Thank you for the update
JSP814 dated 31/03/2011 as found on Sharepoint paints a different picture and appears to be clear that service needs to be continuous. There are a number of exceptions which are not counted as breaks in service and these are broadly summarised, as initially stated above, as any break of no more than 6 months a specific break of up to 3 years.
Thanks for your comments I don’t have access to that can you post the para you refer to?
Here:
[attachment=201]jsp814-20110531-cfm.pdf[/attachment]
I know we’ve had the debate about CIs not being eligible for the medal before… but does time spent as a CI count towards it?
Not as far as I read the regs, however if you have periods of qualifying service broken by a short time as a CI, the periods of uniformed service should still count.
no
it needs to be “uniformed” service
Rob although you state this document was posted on to sharepoint in 2011 the end of the document you have posted states and I quote “The above regulations for the CFM are reproduced in entirety from the CFM regulations approved by the Queen in 2004.”
These are clearly out of date and as I previously posted were replaced by a later version of the document in 2006.
It beggars belief that the powers that be are using out of date guidance. Just Google JSP 814 for an up to date copy.
Regards
Please find attached the 2006 JSP 814 which clarifies my opinion
sorry cant upload as to big you’ll have to Google it
[color=#bb0044]Prior to the publication of these regulations there was a requirement for
continuity of service for the award of the Cadet Forces medal. There were
also a number of complicated exceptions to this requirement that invited
many interpretations and led to some misunderstanding. Therefore,
continuity of service will no longer be a requirement and all qualifying service
in accordance with paragraph 9 above may be aggregated provided that the
applicant is qualified in all other respects. The following will be relevant to
those who may wish to re-apply in the light of the above[/color]
My advice just apply the Medal Office are taking the …
Not sure about CI service btw, read the 2006 version of JSP814 and not the old one being used by the MOD and the medal office.
You never know and good luck B)
[quote=“steman” post=22865]Not sure about CI service btw, read the 2006 version of JSP814 and not the old one being used by the MOD and the medal office.
You never know and good luck B)[/quote]
The latest version of JSP 814 is 2011.
no
it needs to be “uniformed” service[/quote]
Why does time as a Staff Cadet count, but not as a CI?
[quote=“steman” post=22864][color=#bb0044]Prior to the publication of these regulations there was a requirement for
continuity of service for the award of the Cadet Forces medal. There were
also a number of complicated exceptions to this requirement that invited
many interpretations and led to some misunderstanding. Therefore,
continuity of service will no longer be a requirement and all qualifying service
in accordance with paragraph 9 above may be aggregated provided that the
applicant is qualified in all other respects. The following will be relevant to
those who may wish to re-apply in the light of the above[/color]
My advice just apply the Medal Office are taking the …[/quote]
That paragraph was in an early version of the JSP steman and has since been removed. The version available through Sharepoint is dated 31/03/11 and is the same one that is available through Dii and the MoD intranet.
The previous qualifying criteria, or at least that applied by HQAC, did not allow any gaps in service at all and that was why we had the daft situation of people with many year’s service moving homes, going NEP, not being able to find a new Sqn for a while and then having to ‘start their CFM clock’ again - I know of several people that happened to. I also heard that the ACF and SCC were aggregating service and we were not, how true that is I do not know. Therefore a review of the qualifying criteria was long overdue. I think that the earlier statement was included in the JSP to address issues of parity and fairness, and to get people to reapply if they felt that they were unfairly treated. The current criteria in the JSP is very specific.
Perhaps because in the eyes of the MoD, over 18-year-old cadets are the same status as WOs and SNCOs; ie uniformed civilians. If WOs and SNCOs are eligible on the grounds of ‘uniformed service in an MoD-sponsored cadet force’, over 18-year-old cadets should be too.
Whether CIs should get CFMs is another argument, which has already been discussed here; for what it’s worth, I think they should.
In other words, to the OP - you’re eligible now (but you may need to use JSP814 to argue your point due to the out-of-date regulations on Sharepoint).