Honestly, that’s not our problem.
I’ve seen CS IT roles get advertised at much much better rates than 35k, so it’s possible. Also, we have a GPF that could be used. Or we could get it contracted out through a tendering process.
Many options, I’m sure they’re not all ideal. But this constant “We can’t because CS pay/budget etc etc” get’s quite old.
Paying say, £100k, for 2 full time developers for 12-18 months would make a pretty big dent in the workflow, I’d imagine.
Kind of agree, would need to look at external contracting really for this type of work.
Would be better employing a program manager.
Because there are civil service recruitment freezes on. As much as we might want to employ someone, i don’t think we can.
Another reason to go down the independence from the RAF route.
But at what grade? As stated there is a recruitment freeze at present 
As a CS I know the pain, we are trying to operate with 5 places vacant out of a team of 12, does work get done, yes but within what we can do. More mundane work is left until later, which never gets sorted.
That’s the world the CS has to live in, and that impacts on the outputs of the permanent staff.
Until CFAVs wake up and smell the coffee, and understand the situation, all the baulking about CS at HQAC isn’t going to change anything.
And that’s why I left. Fed up of workload increasing and resources reducing.
Counter point:
Until HQAC realise there are other options then just employing CS, CFAVs are going to carry on baulking.
Why can’t we use the GPF? We must have spend a fair few £000s on getting new badges made. Pretty sure that initial spend was GPF? We have a whole charity pillar of the organisation. Lets use it!
Happy to admit I don’t fully understand this CS recruitment freeze thing, when there are plenty of jobs going still? I assume you are allowed to back fill but not create new roles?
Not even backfill! A few of the guys I know have depleted teams but cannot backfill the posts as they are (just about) keeping their heads above water. Some are performing Statutory functions - just at a far slower pace; and there’s a backlog developing - but no significant enough to justify the expense of bringing their team back to full strength.
Some are working in non-Stat improvement programmes - and they’ve got it even worse as their teams are under resourced - but as they are non-statutory functions, they don’t even get a look in for recruitment. The programmes and projects they are working on are just taking longer to complete - and timescales are slipping - as a result, costs are rising - but within acceptable thresholds against bringing another couple of people onboard the project teams. Perversely, they are largely working on invest-to-save work; streamlining things to reduce costs long term… But instead find themselves costing more over a longer time window!!
Some have successfully recruited for pressure bids - where workload due to under resourcing is having a significant and detrimental impact on health and wellbeing of those that are left… But it takes a very supportive management structure to stand up and be counted in that regard!
It’s backwards!!!
HQ staffing decisions are very much above my pay grade however I do know from conversation with RC North, the Commandant and SO1 Digital that a number of discussions have taken place regarding the urgent need for additional permanent staff capacity, either Civil Servants, or using contractor resource.
Unfortunately decisions relating to Civil Service staffing numbers sit outside of HQ control and as such they have yet to have had the desired results, especially in the current financial climate and the central government push to reduce Civil Service numbers overall.
Recruiting low grade civil servants was never going to be the right answer anyway. We need IT professionals, either through our existing volunteer cohort (as I gather is happening?) or by contracting out to an IT consultancy.
There was talk of the Army using Reserves to do project work. I don’t know if that would be an option for the RAF.
Was it not the RAF who made the myRAFAC app?
The MyRAFAC App front end functionality was built by a team in the RAF, RAFAC Digital permanent staff and volunteers built the back end that services the data to the app.
The RAF has established a Digital Reserve unit this year, it is in its early stages but I’m attending an event later this year to find out what if any opportunity there is for us to use this as a supplementary resource for work we need completing. There is a huge appetite for digital functionality across the RAF currently and they are trying to adapt to fulfil the need.
That’s good to know
Interesting that the Army is promoting their work in the space but the RAF isn’t so much. Maybe that will come.
There has been some limited promotion by individuals on LinkedIn but they are currently spending time to properly understand the journey the Army have been on as the Army now has a team of circa 100 digital reserves operating in consultancy style roles.
That makes a lot of sense.
Maybe Digital Reserves needs a thread of its own. I can see it appealing to quite a few
Cadets.
ETA I have created new thread if a Mod could move posts across?
I swear they are making the system harder, not easier. The budget is tight? Make it hard enough to claim that people just don’t.
Also, RE the business bit, it is not always required. We require “adequate insurance cover” (per ACP 300), This is further defined as:
Adequate insurance cover . It is the personal responsibility of an individual using his/her private motor vehicle (para 7 above refers) in respect of authorised RAF Air Cadets activities to ensure that the vehicle insurance policy covers the risks and is insured for business use (which, notwithstanding the voluntary nature of the RAF Air Cadets, will require insurance for occasional business use or as advised by the individual’s insurer) along with a valid Road Tax and current MoT, and that all are valid on the date the journey is undertaken.
My bold.
The vast majority if insurance companies do not require business cover for voluntary activities. Yes, you need to check to make sure, as it certainly isn’t a given, but it annoys me when people state that we must have business cover, when that is just not the case. And yes, this get’s a bit tricky for those in uniform who claim VA…
More information can be found from the ABI. Specifically, this document will tell you if you’re insurance covers you, and give details as to whether you need to inform them or not. For example, I am with Admiral, and even if I just had SD&P, I would still be fully covered for cadets, and don’t need to inform them. (I happen to have business anyway, for, well, business, but that’s beside the point!
I find the new process slightly easier and they are not asking for anything new. It should have been always included. The insurance bit has bee around for a while. My work is now doing something similar.
The PITA bit is the formatting of the file.name and one claim per e-mail. That is so they can find a claim easier. Just do a search on pers number.
I find it more interesting that they ask for proof of road tax.
Such a tax hasn’t existed since 1937…
I think if they referred to it as Vehicle Excise Duty very few people would know what that is 
