We wouldn’t get cadets to any activities if we didn’t.
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Which is why the SOV rule is stupid. HQAC are asking staff to break good safeguarding practice and put themselves at risk of accusations.
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Transporting cadetS has never been seen as a safeguarding issue. Transporting A Cadet is a potential safeguarding issue.
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I’ve held off commenting on this - mostly because I’ve not had access to a laptop for a few days and didn’t fancy typing this on a keyboard the size of a Lego brick! There have been some amazing and hugely insightful comments here which largely mirror my own , so I’m not going to repeat them. But i will try and put a slightly different spin on things.
Is RAFAC in a death spiral? No; we are doomed to succeed for as long as the RAF have a vested interest in us.
The RAF as a whole won’t let RAFAC fail. They’ll tweak it and change it and adjust it and meddle with it - but they won’t let it fail because it forms part of the Youth Engagement agenda - they see a return on investment. And because, we’re one of the “RAF family” - albeit, sometimes feelings like a very distant relation who’s parents determine our direction of travel without actually responding to our own needs.
Furthermore, the RAF won’t let RAFAC fall on it’s backside whilst the ACF and SCC continue -the loss of face in Whitehall would be too much. The others cadet forces are, by all accounts, experiencing some similar flux as well. They too have lost experienced CFAVs at the coalface - but they’ve lost them because of covid in isolation, rather than covid PLUS the issues we’re currently experiencing.
BUT.
I do think we’re at a point where there are a swathe of CFAVs questioning their relationship with RAFAC. I don’t believe it will be a critical mass of CFAVs leaving that many think; but any staff member leaving will be impactful - it might only be to their Squadron, or their Wing, but it will undoubtedly have wider impacts. One of impacts maybe to sew seeds of doubt in those who remain.
Given the passion, commitment, investment and sacrifices people have made in pursuit of their hobby, leaving is always going to be difficult and an emotive issue. To dismiss these feelings and emotions as “it’s time for you to go”, or, as I’ve heard recently “you volunteered for this - you can unvolunteer at any time” - is crass, insensitive and devalues everything they have given to the organisation. It is also the final validation some people need to cement their decision - and they leave with bitterness and resentment.
However, those comments - and this whole subject has - has reminded me of a poem I first heard on ACC around 20 years ago - probably from Oz or Incubus (RIP). Maybe from MikeWhiskey or 10tacphantom. It isn’t pleasant reading; but it does go someway to explaining why CFAV leaving isn’t necessarily the death spiral some feel it is…
There Is No Indispensable Man - Saxon White Kessinger
Sometime when you’re feeling important;
Sometime when your ego’s in bloom
Sometime when you take it for granted
You’re the best qualified in the room,Sometime when you feel that your going
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow these simple instructions
And see how they humble your soul;Take a bucket and fill it with water,
Put your hand in it up to the wrist,
Pull it out and the hole that’s remaining
Is a measure of how you will be missed.You can splash all you wish when you enter,
You may stir up the water galore,
But stop and you’ll find that in no time
It looks quite the same as before.The moral of this quaint example
Is do just the best that you can,
Be proud of yourself but remember,
There’s no indispensable man.
This poem is sad and humbling. The CFAV will read this poem differently to HQAC - but it’s a sad truth that RAFAC will endure; irrespective of the passionate CFAV leaving their squadron.
The poem does remind me of the attitudes I’ve seen in some of our “leaders” - mostly those with a different mindset from the Armed Forces or Civil Service backgrounds. Paid staff will always have a very different outlook from those making a conscious decision to volunteer. The CFAV brings a different outlook and perspective; they will have different values and prioritize things differently - and it’s these things which, i fear, are being overlooked at the moment.
Very few of us volunteer to sit in an office doing 3 hours of administration to make a 90mins climbing session happen. Or gather evidence of assurance so as to take cadets to a museum for half a day. Or to drive our SOVs to a garage during a working day for a new assurance check. Or to put in an extra days bag packing every year (and associated paperwork!) just to fundraise enough money to put the SOV through those extra checks.
A Squadron dropping from 5 CFAVs to 4 CFAVs immediately increases the workload (and pressure) on those that remain. Then consider the the skills, knowledge and experiences that have gone with them - perhaps they were a Shootists type, the only RCO or WI. Perhaps they were the only BEL and delivered DofE on Squadron. Maybe they were the one who always used to do Flying/Gliding allocations. Or the only one who really got AirNav. Were they the staff member who you could guarantee that would be there through the Winter just as a body so the squadron could open its doors? Or the one who couldn’t teach effectively, but could Adj the hell out of the squadron and were there when the Contractors came knocking?
Whenever a CFAV leaves the Squadron - and takes their skills with them - the squadron as a whole will make adjustments and survive. Maybe they just don’t do the stuff they did anymore. Maybe another CFAV will step up and fill the breach instead. Maybe the Sector commander will help and support instead. But the hole left will - in time - be filled. New CFAV bring in fresh insights without the baggaging and burdens that I - and others carry. The new cadets that come through the door post-covid will know no different - they will accept the organisation as it stands now.
In organisational development theory, Tuckman would suggested that Squadrons after a change in CFAV or even post-covid - will be moving back a few steps - perhaps to Forming or Storming or Norming but they will, with time move forwards to Performing again. The downside is of this cycle is that is tiring and time consuming for those that are left - and the cycle takes its toll on squadrons, CFAVs and leaders.
One of my personal frustrations is that we as a collective identified many years ago this organisation has a retention issue - and until these are addressed, any recruitment simply keeps squadrons on tick over. It doesn’t allow for effective staff development as everybody is fighting to catchup all the time. How many young officers or new comers to the organisation are thrust into Command without full appreciation of what they are getting into, burn out and leave? How many Squadron commanders are effectively supported at the moment? How many Squadron Commanders are able to effectively mentor their new staff? And are adding more safety administrative burdens to the mix helping to do this? Until we address retention effectively, we will keep on tick over.
As a CFAV I take absolute pride in delivering activities to cadets. Whilst my hand remains in that RAFAC shaped bucket, I will strive for excellence in that delivery. My reward is that little a buzz of a “thank you”. Or seeing a shy cadet lead a team in a drill competition 3 years later. I thrive in providing young people these incredible experiences.
But I’m also a realist - and a cynic with it - I’ve been to enough Squadron reunions to know that I won’t be here forever. I’m a temporary custodian - and my time will pass. I have had the privilege of having met our forefathers - “the old guard”; cadets from the 1940s and 1950s. If I leave today, next week, a few months or a few years time, I just hope that the cadets I teach today will reflect on me in the same way the old guard hold their CFAVs - with such reverence, esteem and value. If they don’t, so be it, i tried my hardest to make a difference and to live up to the values of the organisation whilst I was here.
I think that RAFAC will endure and survive irrespective of many CFAV at this juncture. Thinking back to the Indispensable man, I’d prefer that those CFAVs who do chose to leave do so on good terms; that the water left in that bucket carries a legacy where we can reflect on and celebrate their achievements. The hole will be filled - but what’s left is a little bit better than before.
My fear is that the bucket is currently being tainted by bitterness and resentment, brought about by poor leadership, flawed decision making and mismanagement of the volunteer. People are leaving, and the holes are being filled, but what remains isn’t as healthy as it should be. Until that’s addressed, we’ll continue to have these issues.
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A death spiral?
I wouldn’t go that far – the situation the organisation is in now, compared to pre pandemic, or even from 5 or 10 years ago I would not describe as “potentially fatal”.
To maintain the aviation theme analogy, I see it more as an classic, yet aging, aircraft which many have a lot of fondness for, and look back on with much delight, yet now finds itself despite having tanks full of fuel (interested Cadets), with a spluttering engine struggling to, but just about maintaining altitude.
While HQAC seem to keep applying more Wings and control surfaces to the aircraft (ie policy) in the hope it will create more lift and balance, they are not only adding more weight to the aircraft overloading it (ie admin burden) but ignoring the problem that the aircraft has – namely the engine which keeps the aircraft flying.
The engine is over worked, with the extra weight of additional wings, now finding itself overloaded, and is stretched to its limits. The engine is plucky, but it has been poorly serviced for too long, with little thought or care into its long-term maintenance
For those who haven’t worked it out yet – the engine is the CFAVs. Despite our moaning on here, elsewhere on SM, and indeed in Whatsapp groups and during canteen breaks, we’re a dedicated bunch (plucky engine), very much over-worked and over-loaded and sooner or later we’re going to hit breaking point and give up, and then the whole aircraft will end up gliding to a forced landed (closure – be it on a local/individual Sqn scale or nationally).
CFAVs keep the organisation going, we’re the ones at the coal face, we’re the one who turn up even when we don’t want to, we’re the ones who stay that bit extra to complete a “necessary” item of admin, we’re the ones who once broken, find a Squadron crumbles in on itself (without the engine, there is a one way journey to the crash site)
If the barrage of admin continues to increase with little to no benefit to the Cadets (do they notice that we’re now using the updated RA form, or have completed our fire training in the last 12 months?) people will begin to wonder why continue with this dance?
What hurts me most is the lack of need behind the admin. Yes I accept RAs need to be in place, but the recent news on the management of SOVs for example, or managing the fire evacuation/alarm system is great in an employed environment with unlimited resource if above and beyond is your chosen route…but “good enough” is always going to be “good enough” – so if we meet the basic DVSA or HSE requirements stop adding to it.
In my 20-cough-something years in the organisation there has been a lot of positives for the organisation.
The EWOW we now see with the BADER platform, which has increased from just email and sharepoint to include SMS, CP and VP – perhaps now finally what it should have looked like at the start?
We have seen the introduction of the SNCOs ranks for adults, celebrity Ambassadors, a close alignment to the RAF certainly with regards uniform both in regulations and what we actually wear (the adoption of PCS and hair length recent examples), but also with our joint branding (logo) and perhaps with OASC offering the commissioned CFAVs more credibility.
But there has also been less positive changes,
the change of Commission from VRT to CFC which although deep down can see the why this was justified, was poorly handled and still leaves a bitter taste
Despite greater communication channels via the BADER platform (both Sharepoint and email) communication remains slow, clunky and disjointed often hearing via “official” accounts via SM rather than through an internal CoC distribution.
The effort to not only recruit staff but appoint them, taking months yet we’re an organisation not flush with Staff.
Getting Cadets airborne, be it via AEF, VGS or now no longer ACTO 035, not vastly only vastly reduced but a massive cultural shift from what we knew 10 years ago*
A cultural shift to more lesson based subjects (Space/Cyber) and despite the potential “hands on” topic of STEM, don’t see the same engagement with the Cadets as the bread and butter activities.
The admin burden – and that isn’t simply more paperwork, but a systematic change to policy to make things harder - as others identify there are dozens of IBNs released so far this year, and none of them make the life of a CFAV easier or quicker, few will be noticed by the Cadets and likewise will have any positive influence on safety or risk (other than those that remove them altogether)
So are we in a death spiral? I don’t think so
Are we flying straight and level? I am not convinced. Every so often we hit some turbulence, the aircraft is rocked, the engine coughs, splutters some more and carries on, trying to regain the lost height, there remains fuel in the tank and for as long as it remains explosive and hasn’t gone stale the engine will keep trying, but I really think someone needs to spend some time with the engine sooner rather than later before components start cracking and giving up.
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*going off topic slightly, but to highlight why my engine has been spluttering.
Ignore the cliché of “back in my day” old war stories, lets look at the what is written in black and white.
This gliding review available from here, written in 2012 has in my opinion three interesting lines,
Paragraph 7
Flying and aviation studies are at the heart of both the Air Cadet Organisation (ACO) and of each Cadet’s ore experience; it is what distinguishes the ACO from other uniformed youth organisation such as he Army Cadets or the Scouts…this was identified as an element to be preserved in the recent Defence Youth Engagement Review (DYER). Gliding, in particular, is a key aviation experience for cadets, providing low cost access to quality structured and challenging flying. Gliding is the key ACO motivator both to attract young people to join the ACO and to retain th,; AEF is a close second.
my bold
Para 11a
There are 3 elements to the AEF Requirement
1 – the provision of one 25-minute air experience flight to each Cadet per annum.
Para13
The current provision of 25 minutes per Cadet each year remains a realistic target.
Para 12
There are 3 elements to the ACO Gliding Requirement
…this will allow each eligible Cadet to undertake a GIC every 3 years
TL:DL Combined this identifies that getting cadets in the air is our raison d’etre at least in terms of USP. The “average Cadets” should after 3 years have been offered 4 flights in either an AEF or GIC environment.
This was written in 2012……has the RAFAC/HQAC/RAF/MOD…the world changed so much that what makes the Air Cadets the Air Cadets 10 years ago as an achievable “realistic” target but pure fantasy today?
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All VGS and AEF slots to go on an online bidding platform. Squadrons apply for air experience slots directly and cadets apply for training scholarships directly. All comms direct via online email via the platform. Bid parameters set in the platform. Would increase utilisation of current resource and parity of allocation dramatically overnight.
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I remember when I was a Cadet between 2009 and 2016 and one flight a year per Cadet (assuming they wanted to) was a given. Luckily my squadron was close to 7AEF.
IIRC in my 6/7 years, I went AEF flying 10 times.
It it a sad sight to see Cadet SNCOs who have never been flying.
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The question has to be, do those plonked into senior positions care enough or have enough “power” to make change (outside extra admin) happen.
The last 20 odd years would say no on both counts.
They are happy collecting very nice salaries in jobs where there is no consequence for perpetual failure. What this says about the RAF I don’t know, but I have seen people in well paid jobs, lose their jobs for not meeting business expectations. However they can do this as we the volunteers struggle through their BS, to ensure the youngsters who join have a reason to stay.
Is it a spiral no, worse than that it a slow decay caused by HQACs dry rot and one day it will start crumbling. As said you lose people with 20, 30, 40 years and longer experience who have tolerated the ineptitude of HQAC, you do not replace that overnight. Will the new people coming in be as tolerant? If not, the future is not bright. There is a small group (7) of us with around 250 years staff experience between us, who have joked about becoming CIs when we decide we have enough of the uniform and going out of the air cadets feet first. When we got together for a meal a few weeks ago, only one was still contemplating it. A mate of ours left last year as she could not see HQAC doing anything positive, she came to the meal and was a different person as the strain and stress caused by running a sqn was gone. She and her husband are planning a number of 2-3 day breaks and holidays, which they’ve not been able to do because she would be doing some cadet thing. Her hubby never got involved in the cadet stuff after meeting a few uniformed staff who in his words were too much up themselves and he has his own interests.
Not much more I can add to the sentiment here, but I will say it isn’t just long-term CFAV feeling bad about this. I’ve been 7 years, five of those in uniform, and the admin (and dare I say it, BS) load is just breaking me. The contrast to my day job is so stark too - so much better run by ensuring the paperwork stays with the paperwork people, and everything else is with the people who do their bit well. I know I can deliver stuff to cadets effectively, but there isn’t a single day some new piece of crap doesn’t appear in my inbox to deliver “urgently” or firefight.
Going back to CI is an option, but that’s not why I went to OASC and told them the reason I wanted to be an officer was because the RAF then showed they had confidence in me to inspire and lead others. I can volunteer in many places as a “civilian” (and with a whole lot less hassle) but the reason I went to the Air Cadets was because it was a step up. The problem is, OASC didn’t have a “health and safety and admin BS” aptitude test to warn me off, which is what the truth turned out to be.
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I’m sure we could write a planex that covers it?
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- Set aside 3 days for admin for a 4 hour activity.
- After day 2. Go to pc world and buy new laptop after smashing it to bits in frustration.
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My opinion, and some others is that the perceived distancing of the RAF from the Corps (and yes, I will call us the ‘Corps’ as I joined the ATC not the CCF) and the demolition of the major connection to the parent service, the abolition of the RAFVR(T)…
This is due in no small part by the then complete apathy of HQAC to deal with complaints from staff and cadets alike until the RAF decided that a possible major cause of ‘issues’ was that connection… I saw this at first hand, and know definitively that a service complaint (JSP’s) I initiated and took 7 years to complete had some bearing on that disconnect… Do I feel responsible, No! Are those that I complained about responsible, in part yes! Were HQAC and the then Commandant(s) complicit, HELL YES!
Getting back to where the RAFAC (oh how I detest that moniker) is at and where they are going… During the height of the Covid lockdown, friends and former colleagues in the Cadet Forces speculated that they would never recover or at least would never be the same again. A generation of cadets lost altogether as they time-ex’d during lockdown. Staff decided to leave the cadets because of re-evaluating priorities.
We are told that looking back at the ‘good old days’ is negative, complaining that 6 hours of admin for a 30 minute activity is negativity… Harking back to the days when AEF, AEG, and Gliding Scholarships were commonplace is verboten!
We ‘were’ the Air Training Corps for goodness sake, not the Ground Training Corps!
The RAFAC has an attitude that pervaids a lot of British society and companies… Experience, knowledge, and service is not valued as it should be, it is discarded as old fashioned…
Rant over… FOR NOW!
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Simple answer to the original question No.
Will it be different size in the future? Yes
Will the cadet offering be different? Yes
Will the cadet offering be any more relevant? Jury is out.
Will the CFAV cadre be different? Yes
Will the admin support structure change? Yes
Will the parent service continue to change? Yes
Will those whose experiences were gained in another era (like mine were) continue to think that things are just not as good as they used to be? Probably
Given all the constraints, could there be more constructive dialogue at all levels of the organisation to make the cadet experience as good as it possibly can be? Undoubtedly YES
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One interesting thing to consider …could it be a single entity in the future ATC/CCF/SCC/CCF become one…say called the ‘UK Cadet Corps’
It would surely be more cost effective…but not popular obviously!
Activities would be as available and regionally based…take it or leave it!
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The issue would be inter-service rivalry that would be the issue, can’t see the single services being happy losing control.
Where’s the blockage or lack of desire/action for this?
It’s not at the bottom.
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Thats been rumoured for years!
Under what uniform.
Which set of rules
Which traditions
Etc etc etx.
RN doesn’t have control of the SCC, so they’d lose nothing.
It would end up being a willy waving contest between the Army and the RAF, which the Army would win because, Army.
We’d wear mtp and do a lot more fieldcraft. Not unlike the UAS’ now with their emphasis on force protection training rather than flying.