And I know this is going to sound bad to some but I genuinely think there are far too many ‘officers’ in all the cadet forces as well as the air cadets who love collecting more and more rings on their sleeves and who think they are iactually in the real RAF. Thsse people are totally detached from reality. The recruitment process needs a radical overhaul where adults are processed quicker, got into uniform sooner and those who are a waste of space got rid of.
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We need more uniformed staff across the board. You are right we need an over haul. There are Squadrons with one uniformed staff member who is trying to keep it together. With 50 odd cadets, they cant seem to get uniformed staff and are struggling. They have CIs but they do some uniformed roles. There needs to be more training for staff, possibly nearer in their wing.
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Stick us CI’s in greens with a snazzy Civilian Instructor arm band 
Careful or you’ll be stuck in the coveralls with the probationers!
or a green nursery staff polo to math the old blue ones
A gave up on the whole thing and I cancelled the application. I have never come accross such an organisation that is not only disjointed but that treats applicants so poorly. I was never kept informed and when I tried to chase up any information I was told off. This may be a contentious thing to say but from what I experienced personally the whole recruitment process is not fit for purpose. They need to provide a more proactive recruitment process especially for those who want to go into uniform. You just cant expect applicants to be left sitting for months with no contact…
As has been alluded to across this thread, this is very much a postcode lottery with there not even being a consistent experience within wings. Although this is exactly the kind of thing the ‘Join’ process was supposed to ameliorate (total guess at that spelling) we have too many points of failure across the process. Whether HQ misplace your application, your wing don’t run regular BPSS clinics (or equivalent) or in at least two cases I know of, OCs are unsure/unaware of how the process works and forget to send out links/emails (luddites) having just assumed HQ takes care of it all now “on that app thing”.
All of this could be automated standardised proceez except for BPSS and DBS which Sqn OCs are permitted to deal with both in policy.
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fill out a form online.
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invited to Sqn for chat do BPSS and DBS. Click a button to approve.
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wait for bpss and DBS to come back, now this could take months, but thats out the RAFACs hands
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Join RAFAC.
All dealt with at the lowest level, Sqn
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All fine but where I am OCs can’t approve new adult volunteers, the interview is done by the sector commander / WSO.
So the Squadron OC has the initial chat, then the next stage is clearances followed by the Wing interview.
That sounds like common sense. So many people whom I have come accross go for the initial chat with the squadron and put their application in and they get left hanging for months at a time with no updates or any other contact so basically they say and they join the ACF or the CCF instead. From experience every cadet force is in dire need of new adult recruits, so there needs to be weekly or fortnightly updates, even if there is nothing new. The air cadets need to take a leaf out of the ACF’s recruitment policy and conduct potential adult instructors weekends even if their clearance hasnt come through yet. Their also needs to be a SNCO fastrack program so that those who want to be in uniform are not sat around frustrated for three or more months being a civillian when that’s not what they jooined for.
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Again an issue, how often to you see your Sector Commander? Our is around every 4-6 weeks, but even that could build in a delay 
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Again. If we cant trust OCs to judge a persons character, should they be running a Sqn
The sector commander thing should get scrubbed with the exceptions of newly appointed OCs for the first 6 months
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I’ve had multiple WSOs come down to “board” a new applicant CI before. Or maybe WSOs just hunt in packs?
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There should be a fast track joining up course for adults to go straight in as a uniformed sargeant.
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I don’t think I agree that there should be a fast-track option for going into uniform, unless you have significant, recent experience. There’s a lot to learn when you join the organisation and it’s only 6 months as a CI before you can apply for uniform anyway. In practice there is very little difference between being a CI or in uniform, so while I appreciate we want more uniformed staff, I would question an individual’s motivations if they can’t see value in being a CI and just wait until they can apply.
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There’s a difference between ‘Be a CI for 6 months then you can go into Uniform’ and ‘Be a CI for 6 months then you can start the process’
Delays tend to compound. It took me just under two and a half years from starting the joining process to being told I’d passed OASC, and that was considered quick for my Wing.
ETA I think you can no longer start the uniform process until the 6 months probation is up (it was 3) then you have another probation period as a new uniformed volunteer, which seems slightly illogical.
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Wasn’t this change due to actual real world issues?
OC 1234 Squadron basically a one man band, new potential CI turns up “oh thank god” new CI “I’ve got loads of friends in my ring who are interested in kids, I mean who want to work with young people”.
The Sector Commander check was brought in so that someone seperate from the unit was taking a look at new joiners.
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Yep.
My missus took 3½ years to get her CI paperwork through, which was then 2 years after she left as after 18 months she got sick of waiting on the paperwork.
So not only did the wing take that long to process it, they took the time to continue to process it after she said she’s wasn’t going to continue it.
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That’s certainly a plausible worst case scenario 
Yep. We got married and moved in together 2016, started the process that year. Got the approval in tail end of 2019…