Have MOD CS officially moved over to the standardised CS grades now then? We still see titles like C2 dotted about.
Most departments have “local” names for their grades, these are mostly historical but are used more often than not. For MOD, these include C2, E1 etc etc.
AO/EO/HEO/SEO/G7/G6 and then SCS are the govt wide grades, which each department’s grades should in theory link to. Thats how civil servants seeking transfer figure out what jobs are appropriate for them, and a rough hierarchy can appear beyond departmental boundaries.
The Institute for Government explain it really well here: Grade structures of the civil service | Institute for Government
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going off topic now but it GMG a bit that there is a “grade 6” and “Grade 7” but it stops there…
i get that SCS4 is the “highest” so why not maintain one system
SCS4 = Grade 1
or Grade 7 = SCS1, G6 = SCS5, G5 = SCS4…etc
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I’ll give some credit to the DWP and MoJ for looking like some kind of unorthodox 7-string tuning, but at the same time let’s not get too far away from RAFAC Pillars current and future…
One of my main concerns prior to the roll-out in SW was the loss of local knowledge and rapport within the PS AORs. Also, from a volunteer management perspective (on the volunteer side), there’s a big difference between receiving a “this is wrong” email from someone you’ve met and spoken to and perhaps had the opportunity to be less formal and business-focused with and the same email more coldly from someone you couldn’t recognise in a line-up of 2.
That’s something that to a degree can be overcome with time, but perhaps there could be some acceleration by providing better introductions to our new HEOs, AOs, and AAs (or C2s, E1s, E2s, if you prefer).
More worryingly, the situation in the SW highlights some potential resiliency problems through increased levels of siloing and specialism, especially while other Regions are not yet structured the same way.
But this makes me wonder as well: the original justification to expedite the transition was lack of resource, which has ultimately caused a collapse. But did this transition make it more difficult to borrow from other RAFAC HQs (especially those not aligned to this system) to prevent the worsening that we experienced? Surely the highest priority of individual wings’ workload is easier to share out than an entire region?
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The MOD has gone back to using the more standardised CS grades, although not bringing back the specialist grade titles like HPTO, HTTO, HIO etc and just keeing with HEO.
My understanding is that due to staffing the SW have gone with a 3 pillar system as opposed to the 4 pillar system in LaSER and I assume will be rolled out across the organisation. I wonder if once staffed SW will go to the 4 pillar model, or remain a inconsistency with 3.
Ah my bad, but I’m sure there has been some comment made that they couldn’t do the number of pillars they originally planned because of staffing.
That is what was said in the SW Town Hall. I suspect that the reason 4 are planned is to do with less gapping in other regions that will be moving across?
I have no idea though what the staffing is like in other regions.
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I think the RAFAC is currently suffereing from being ‘one brick thick’ ina lot of areas. Take the WExO for example. You may have a good one, or a rubbish one, or a mediocre one, but you still only have one. If something happens to them you lose that whole ‘brick’ in the wall and there is a gap which can’t easily or quickly be filled. This may be due to them being ill, on leave, resigining, getting promoted etc. By bringing in the three pillars, generally you can have two WExOs in each ‘area of reposonsibility’ therefore they can cover each other. Coupled with the fact they become much more expert in their area, depth of knowledge of one area rather than breadth of knowledge over a lot of areas. The same for the E1 and E2s. I do think the downside of the new structure is the current grade of the COS being the same as the WExO and therefore the Gp Capt having to line manage all of them - it would be better to make the COS a Senior Executive Officer and they line manage the WExOs properly.
And there’s your problem. COC reluctant to re-evaluate the COS to uplift the grade to SEO for a couple of reasons: the cost, getting through the unions and the recruitment process.
What happens if the current COS incumbent does not get the job, where do they go 
Well right now she’d just go back to leading her pillar, afaik she is only acting COS with temporary cover from another region leading her pillar in the interim.
Fixed that for you…
We are also missing EOs from the WHQ/RHQs establishment so no progression from E1 (AO) to WExO without skipping a grade. There are some at HQ RAFAC though.
I think the poor amount EOs are paid they could easily re-grade the job role from AO and AA to EO without too much issue. Then we could have the promotion prospects within the structure.
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I have found the pillar system quite impersonal. I’m currently dealing with significant building issues - but instead of dealing with someone local who knows where my building is and what it looks like, I’m dealing with someone a significant distance away who has never seen my building so has no real appreciation of the issues. It leaves me with no confidence the issues will be addressed.
While I agree some things can be centralised, there are some things that need local knowledge and the ability to attend local meetings.
so would you prefer one person, who goes on leave for two weeks and therefore nothing gets progressed? Unfortunately the RAFAC is not really ‘local’ anymore and centralisation will be required to move things on.
At present we have the pillar system and a suspension of ALL external activities, excluding national, in the words of the RC to allow the pillars to clear the back log of admin, with NO Travel, HTD an VA being processed in April it will be interesting to see how quickly the claims will be processed and paid.
It’s the same number of staff in a pillar as it was in a WHQ - except pers which has a couple of extra E grades. So there’s no real difference. If the C2 goes on leave - as is currently the case - you still have to wait for most things till they get back.