The number of times I’ve seen a senior officer in the military simultaneously publicly grapple with recruitment and retention issues while telling someone who was critical of the way the institution treats its people to “leave if they don’t like it”…
I don’t know enough to know if it’s in a death spiral, but I can tell you that’s a sure fire way to guarantee it’s demise.
Looking at this from a different prospective. Who would choose to take on the poison chalice after the current boss 
It will take years for RAFAC CFAVs, and a number of Perm Sec, plus RAF to rebuild to a variable level.
The damage has been done, it’s now damage limitation until those in the organisation can turn it around.
Someone looking for an FTRS contract for 3 to 6 years, anybody who is a regular would have to be ordered to take it and all the potential career limiting factors as well.
Yes this is the point I’m making.
Given the low salary offered what kind of person would still find the role attractive?
Answer: the person you identified (i simply implied it)
According to ACP20, civil servants (even in uniform with a different rank) are paid at the equivalent of Squadron Leader rank.
If a CFAV were to become a staff member, I’d expect they’d be defined as being a civil servant (though this is an assumption).
The lowest pay band for Sqn Ldr is £56k.
As a side note, CAC is on at least £113,470.
WExOs are not on nearly that much AFAIK.
Correct - I am sure someone shared a WExO job advert on here in the past and was closer to £33k i seem to remember
I think historically it was RAFR officers so it was half pay officers.
Now it’s the civil service pay band that determines as you don’t have to be in uniform to be a WEXO. I think it’s circa 32k when I’ve looked.
Looking at this on the basis that WExO is an “EO” (Executive Officer) or D Grade looks like ~£30k is about right
(with the Admin assistants E1/2 topping out at £20k)
Source: Civil service pay | Institute for Government
source Grade structures of the civil service | Institute for Government
Wouldnt get out of bed for what they pay some of the WEXOs
Especially considering some of the people they have to deal with.
Thats it…its a good salary for a office manager role…but the scope of their job exceeds 30kish
I know an E1 whos topped out at just over 25k and they are close to 30 years service, they are happy to do it for an easy life, compared to private sector, and pension. produces the same amount of output in their 35 hour week as what my average part timers do in 20-25hrs.
I get not all civil servants will be this way but from when I have also met their colleagues from their department for drinks/socially they do not seem to be in the minority.
WEXO is C2 so circa 32k
But you get the CS pension so the overall package is quite good. CS at that grade is likely my plan once the mortgage is paid off.
However if they exercise the option to also be a CFC CFAV then they are ranked as a Sqn Ldr and I assume would be eligible to claim VA for any CFAV duties they undertook.
I did see a G6 role with the home office that was very similar to what I do in the private sector and when digging into the detail of it with a possible 15 years in role it just wasn’t worth it as time served has a major influence.
It would have meant at least 25% pay cut for 15 years and about 5k a year less in overall pension compared to continuing in the private sector.
When I went into the civil service I was very early in my career, straight to G7 and it was a slight increase. That coupled with the pension, work life balance and a level of work I’d need another 10 years experience to touch in private practice meant it made sense.
However, once you’ve got that experience it really isn’t worth it. I wouldn’t have ever considered a G6 or SCS role as the pay increase didn’t cover the extra work required.
A disproportionate number of new joiners were women coming back from maternity leave/extended childcare breaks as the legal sector isn’t great at treating women well if they take time off for kids. That’s one thing my department was good at.
As Alex says above, it’s good pay for a normal office/admin sort of job, but not good for the breadth of responsibility a WExO has.
Yeah, my WExO is a CFAV as well as WExO and is a Sqn Ldr as such. He was already a Sqn Ldr before becoming WExO though, but held onto the rank as he dropped his primary role when becoming WExO.
Grade C2 / HEO is considered ‘equivalent’ to sqn ldr but it’s never been clear to me what this equivalence is founded on. C2s appear to be paid a corporal’s salary and none of the ones I know manage anybody other than themselves and do the same jobs as AS1s and cpls. Some of them are ex-AS1s and cpls who left the Service to come back to do the same job as a civil servant.
Everyone’s going on about salary. Actually a C2/HEO MOD post is paid more than other CS Depts and the difference between C2 and Sqn Ldr salaries is down to the ‘X factor’ added to military salaries.
Also remember that the ARC/COS at Region is also a C2/HEO post!!
Does an AS1 and/or Cpl cover the breadth of subjects as a WExO and have impact across a Wing of probably 1000 cdts and 250/300 CFAVs, doubt it. As ever, down to your WExO, the calibre and knowledge thy bring to the party
I was talking about MOD C2s / HEOs in general rather than Wg XOs. A Wg XO clearly is equivalent to a sqn ldr and should be paid accordingly.
Edit to add: Actually, ATC ‘wings’ are so much larger than RAF wings (which are usually no more than two or three squadrons) that they should probably be commanded by a gp capt with a wg cdr as XO.