Don’t even get me started with the F6424 carry on. Its pretty bad when we are trying to get recruits and say welcome to ait cadets and these are our aims and things you can do but oh sorry no you and you can’t go flying or gliding at all but you can do flight sim and watch the others fly. It’s ridiculous I really hope they get a permanent solution to this sooner rather than later. So many things been stopped or taken away or just not running any. Sports at squadrons we can’t do now one of our basic activities ,lots can’t now go flying . I have every cadet that I speak to want to go shooting and there just isn’t any happening and if there is its 1 or 2 courses with hundreds applying for a tint amount of places. Now this could be more specific on my wing than others on here but the situation is awful. Then you’ve got fieldcraft impacted as they can’t do anything higher than blue without again having l98 training so that puts a hault on that now. I get fed up of advertising things we do in cadets and then having to break the news to so many cadets.
Stoking the embers of Neuro Divergence.
As others have inferred, there is an overwhelming number of young people AND staff that are very clearly on the spectrum.
Whether they have a confirmed diagnosis or not.
I can also tell you from first hand experience, that the waiting time for a young person U18 to get a formal diagnosis takes YEARS.
I would also be prepared to wager that a large proportion of serving aircrew both military and Civvie will be on the spectrum.
To explain my reasoning: Educational Psychologists and Paediatric Therapists accept that as many as 1:4 young people and 1:5 adults are on the spectrum… and that is ONLY based on assumptions drawn from the number of people that have been diagnosed; those that are waiting and extrapolating this figure…
But, they actually believe that the true figures are certainly MUCH higher.
The difficulty is every individual is different in terms of their abilities, their strengths and weaknesses, and what if any steps are being taken to support / treat.
To put a blanket halt on access to AEF, because of the lack of a CFMO is morally repugnant.
Failing to address this problem underscores my personal belief that HQAC are proactively working to put barriers in place; in order to reduce the demand for AEF slots…
I would also wager that by failing to actively offer support to cadets with ND, RAFAC are actually discriminating against a protected group.
So much for 30x30… with this line of approach to young people RAFAC wilL be lucky to avoid a 30% DROP in cadets, if they’re to be told you can’t FLY… might as well be a pongo or puddle pirate.
(Going to need to buy a lot more toys to chuck out the pram with senior officers at this rate)
Don’t know about youth, but my local adult service is quoting that they are currently seeing referrals from mid 2020.
Yeah - that’s about right.
For Adult Sevices, there are some alternatives. There is a channel whereby the patient can choose to be seen by an NHS provider in a different health authority to their own.
I believe there is also a channel whereby you can get part payment for a private diagnosis, via the NHS, under the Right to Choose. This varies enormously from one area to another.
What’s particularly frustrating is that SO many “conditions” come under Neuro Divergence.
But as anyone with even the slightest experience or understanding will know, the degree of “divergence” from what is considered “normal or typical” varies completely from one person to another - moreover yet, the individual’s requirements for assistance can vary wildly from absolutely nothing to full one to one care.
What RAFAC are ultimately doing is either trying to exponentially reduce the demand of “eligible” Cadets to go flying / gliding; trying to dissuade young people even bothering to join as a cadet or passively getting young people and their parents / guardians to keep their mouths shut and not disclose any health matters.
Every now and again, I get the inkling to want to return as a CFAV, but still I find the environment and mindset of the top brass incompatible with that of enthusiastic volunteers, wanting to inspire, enable and support young people.
If a young person wants to learn how to fly, they will be much better off joining their local gliding club; if they want to learn to target shoot, join a rifle / shooting club. If they want to be a pilot - concentrate on school, go to university, join the UAS or apply to an Airline’s training scheme.
Neuro Divegency is singly the most common factor among industry leaders, entrepreneurs, problem solvers etc…
The MOD is struggling with to meet any of its recruitment targets… and they wonder why…?!