Even if your definition of that exemption is correct, which I’m not convinced it is, then this still causes issues with anything done off-sqn.
Where is your quote of that exemption from?
Assuming the above is all correct and there are no specific exemptions, would we potentially need to get a DBS for anyone aged 16? Or just those who instruct? Are other youth groups doing similar?
I can see some merits in doing so, but there is a cost and time burden of course.
No, AFAIK under 16s are not eligible for DBS checks at all.
I wonder if Wing/Region pillars have to resources to act to the requests and actions to ensure everyone who is effected by this are cleared in a reasonable timescale.
The above is a google search. I could not get an answer with regulated activity which we the RAFAC are. It applies to all regulated activity, whether employment or third sector. Its the teaching and supervision part which applies to us. Guidance form my RC, who is asking for further guidance from HQAC, but has looked into the guidance on line, agrees that it applies it us in RAFAC.
We have something like 5000 cadets that this applies to. There is not the capacity for that sort of figure in the short term.
There’s no money left within the RAFAC for any decent activities anymore, but here’s a suggestion.
If HQAC started selling the cans of worms they create, they’d be enough money for every cadet to have their own glider and rifle!
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while i get the sentiment you are aiming at here,
this is not a HQAC dictated policy, but change in Govt Law namely the Crime and Policing Act 2026
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But, it would appear that HQAC has failed to assess that this might effect the organisation. Putting out an IBN 12 days after the law changes, with no really answers isn’t useful. Saying that 16/17 year old cadets teaching needs to be reviewed isn’t useful.
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Also, the IBN title talks about eligibility for DBS checks: not a massive change requiring loads of additional DBS checks that were not previously required.
1sep it come out. that is 6 weeks ago not 12 days.
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Oh, good point 
Sorry, this is a massive change. A cadet taking drill, supervising leadership task or selling stuff from the canteen will fall into this group.
‘Specific areas for review”. Who’s doing the review, and why was that review not done before the changes came in?
But I agree, from reading the changes in the law basically all 16+ cadets aught to be DBSed, in the same way we used to do all 18+.
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@Baldrick How are the SCC reading this?
So with new DBS requirements, we must now DBS our senior cadets for them to do any instruction within the organisation.
Meanwhile we are ramping up our Train the Trainer courses for senior cadets with the plan for them to be able to deliver most Sqn-level activity to younger cadets.
Meanwhile, the SCD also dictates that we must also supervise those DBS’d and highly (internally) qualified cadets at all times while they instruct.
So the bottleneck is:
- For cadets to teach, they also require a CFAV who is free to sit in and supervise.
- Until that cadet has been DBS’d, they can’t teach even if they do have a full gold brassard.
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So this completely sits as HQAC level and the 2* MoD level. There is sometimes a tendency to over think these things so a clarification especially due to the changes on 1st September made sense for adults.
The question is - what happens if a cadet has an adverse DBS?
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I don’t know much about it. We kick out the cadets at 18 and DBS staff anyway.
But this appears to say 16yo cadets need DBS to teach drill, uniform upkeep, etc.
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Very good question. Do we just stop them teaching, or do we drop kick them out of the organisation?
You’d need to review it. Initially all that is returned to the organisation is ‘view the certificate’, essentially. The certificate itself has the details of any convictions.
May be absolutely nothing to it, or it could be pretty substantial. Can’t imagine there’s much you’d tolerate for a cadet being in the main body but not for teaching. On the flip side, given they’re cadets and not staff, I would expect a greater degree of leeway for cadets that made mistakes.
After all, if you looked for suggestions as to how to reform ‘yoothes’, sending them to cadets would be surely be near the top of most people’s list.
This maybe is where the policy is round peg square hole for us. Our cadets intertwine from teaching to being taught. They’re not distinct, you can’t do one without the other. Vs say a 17 year old kayak instructor teaching 15 year olds how to paddle.
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