Defence Review

Would you care to elaborate on this?

What difference does this make financially compared to just Sqns?

So if I run a successful Sqn, I can take on a couple of detached flights as well? I can feel the nervous breakdown building already :frowning:

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Wow exciting.

A sustainably sourced hemp badge for the cadets to wear no doubt.

Why are we worried about sustainability… jesus if they want to sort that, make it so I dont have to have electric heaters on full all winter 24/7 just so the pipes dont freeze!

Gets very cold here in winter and the building has square root of zero insulation.

Or stop us having to print so much stuff all the time. Forms after forms.

Or tell you what.
Just close the Corps down.

The savings and environmental benefit would be massive.

All hail project ASTRA.

give me a break!

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The idea of hub and spoke is to cut down duplication of all the paperwork, shared activities, shared staff coverage, shared kit. Imagine one squadron instead of four, but operating in different locations. The spokes will be mainly school based with infra spend and equipment effort going into hubs.

There is some concern that some inappropriate behaviours are being hidden in plain sight under the banner of the ‘uniform and drill police’. We could all name names in our wing if we are honest.

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Sure, but why / how would a hub & spoke approach stop that? If a WSC / sector SNCO / WWO doesn’t do anything at the moment, why would a lower ranking Sector Cdr with much more responsibility than they potentially had before, do anything to fix it?

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I can’t see hub and spoke being necessary. Behavioural changes should be all it need for units to ‘share equipment’ etc. In fact, is this not already practice?

Hubs and spokes are just the same as having individual units. You will still need staff to run that spoke.

I don’t think the idea of squadron mergers is necessarily a bad one, as I’ve said on here before, I’d rather merge if the cadets got a better experience out of it. It’s staggering the difference between some squadrons that may only be a couple of miles apart.

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I agree, the benefits of hub and spoke sound like a well run sector. The disadvantages sound like 1 volunteer OC running 4 Sqns/DFs. The role of OC is hugely unattractive already. This idea doesn’t improve that.

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Yep, I was once at one unit, where there were at least 3 other units within a 15 min drive, and 2 of them were basically unviable

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This was the point of Sectors and placing the Sector Commander into the chain of Command (opposed to the old style WSO who wasn’t). One of the issues with making it run as they would like is that it requires wholesale changes to the CWC stream and the funding that they provide, which is much harder to make happen than changes to the Uniform side.

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I’m pleased to hear this. The rest of the world has had to change, adapt and develop in the last 12 months, why should we be immune.

Granted, hub and spoke units is going to need some work, and will probably need a few iterations and certainly time to get right for all, but should make the Cadet experience better.

Don’t like the sound of the dark alley Gliding is staring down, but let’s hope there is some light at the end.

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I can’t really see how “hub and spoke” Sqn and Flights are going to be any different to the existing format of Sector and Sqns. All that’s different are the names.
No matter how it looks on paper, it is still going to require staff on each of the units working to keep their house in order, and one commander working to ensure that not only is their own house in order but that the Flight Commanders are doing their jobs too.

Most of us already share events and staff for events. How much duplicate paperwork is there which will be removed by renaming “Sqns” to “Flts”?
They’ll still need the same RAs as they currently do… They’ll still need to put together an SMS events for off unit activities…
Shared kit? Between units who are geographically separate? That’s not going to improve the average parade night any more than units loaning kit to each other as they do now.

I’m sorry… I just cant see it.

How on earth is wearing MTP more regularly going to “solve” some “inappropriate behaviour”?

If there are bullies out there on a power trip the solution is administrative/disciplinary action.
I’ve known a couple… in 26 years.
Using words like “growing concern”, “culture”, and “ethos” carries a heavy implication that this is a widespread, deeply rooted problem and that people are turning a blind eye to unacceptable behaviour.
Frankly, that doesn’t tie in with my own experiences and I’ll go out on a limb and say that I suspect it doesn’t tie in with a lot of other people’s either.

I reckon that someone has either found a small, nasty, exception to the norm or they’ve chosen their words very poorly indeed.

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This, completely.

Those in ivory towers with limited relevant experience of volunteering should listen to wdimagineer2b and other volunteers.

Well it’s the inevitable fall out from the wider atmospherics of a particular case. There are those on here who can guess which one. The investigation outcome post suspension etc has been delayed because of COVID.

And the anonymised summary of the issue for those of us who don’t know what you’re on about is…?

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Well that’s really gotten worse in my opinion since we got a cacwo…
with WWOs wandering around looking to put people off parades or events if their uniform wasn’t good enough

As said previously most and I mean the vast
Majority won’t be involved but the small number of SNCOs who think they are above the normal
chain or rank system and only report to the cacwo seems to be a starting point for this.

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I think we are starting to find out what draining the swamps axe is that they want to grind.

Most of the posts from the user seem to know intricate knowledge of high level discussions and new policy at AEF/VGS regarding future use and where the organisation is going with it. In the same posts seem to lack any real understanding of how squadrons work.

Now they seem to know of some massive issue that is at this moment at command level within the ATC that is going to change how the whole organisation fundamentally is going to work.

I would bet 50p that the person behind the persona left under a cloud whilst putting an official complaint in and seems to think that anyone will take any real notice of it. Or the poster is our commandant.

I pick the former

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This is an interesting proposal but, I suggest, will need a lot of thinking through. The school based units that have been opened as part of the govt expansion initiative are not, as far as I am aware, equally geographically spread. In addition they only come with start up funding and are part of the CCF network with the Headteachers nominally the responsible adult ( unless things have changed) . Is the suggestion that a volunteer from the community based element of the RAFAC should have some command authority/ responsibility over an organisation that operates on school premises some of which are in the public sector but many within independent schools? (remembering that the RAF section may only be one of four).
Lastly, for now, when things go wrong within the school units I assume the Headteachers will retain primacy?
If this is a serious suggestion let’s hope it has been fully thought through

To be fair, I don’t think any Wg WOs are out looking to put staff off parades… In fact, they want as many people on parade as they can muster - otherwise it ends up being a pretty poor parade.
But certainly, if individuals look like a sack of potatoes in their uniform then they need to get themselves squared away. Not only before they go out in the public eye, but also to set a proper example to cadets and junior staff.
Having someone responsible to the CoC for making sure that improvements are made where necessary is not a bad thing.
The Wg WO’s job is not to dish out judgement and pull people off parade willy-nilly - it’s to highlight where improvements are needed and assist if required… But if J Bloggs can’t/won’t fix their appearance to an acceptable level then nobody should be surprised if that person isn’t put out as an example to others.

I’m sorry, that really doesn’t answer the question.

I’m having to make some assumptions because, like Baldrick, I have no idea of the details of this case you’re talking about.
I’m going to assume that some SNCO was bullying cadets, perhaps playing a bit too much ‘Bad Lads Army’, and that they’ve been dealt with through the disciplinary system.
If that assumption is wrong do please let me know.

If it’s possible to be a little less generic and vague in your explanations please that would be greatly appreciated. “This will solve the thing, which happened in the case that we can all guess about, because of behaviours…” when the rest of us have no idea what the thing or the case or the specific behaviour is makes reasoned discussion particularly difficult.

If I may ask again - how is wearing MTP more often than blues (or whatever a “hybrid” uniform would look like) going to “solve” the very few instances of such bullying?