The only relaxation is to enable basic parade night training.
Requirement for a valid FA qual stands for any normal off unit events to my knowledge. I believe that position is under review, but haven’t heard anything more.
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Thanks! That’s what I assumed but even my Wg FAO didn’t know what the current guidance was…
I knew I’d seen it somewhere, it’s in Annex A of the latest guide where it discusses mandatory training (Serial 31)
Due to the lack of opportunity to qualify / requalify, the ACTO99 requirement for a valid FA qualification (incl Heartstart) is waived for a period of 6 months from the date that F2F training is re-authorised. This waiver does NOT remove the need for suitable levels of FA cover for an activity, which remains a normal requirement
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Well found! I had looked again for it but I did ctrl+F for ‘first aid’ and that didn’t come up as they used FA in that one place…
Had our ‘Return to Squadron’ briefing tonight - our most highly attended VPN to date!
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Guttingly this time last year we had 60 on the books with about 45 parading a night… Its now 10 
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It’s going to be a massive rebuilding job across the board. CFAV and cadet numbers are down. Access to big ticket items are limited, so retention for the older cadets motivated by such things will be a struggle, and with Sept just around the corner (one of those natural leaving points) numbers are likely to get hammered again.
Recruitment over the summer is always a challenge for to normal pauses in operations. Probably more so since CFAVs and cadets alike will probably want to catch up with friends and family.
I’d look to focus on retention for those that remain and tackle recruitment from Sept. Some assurances/timelines from HQAC around the “national campaign” would be useful so as to tailor it into our plans and maximise impact… But I’ll not hold my breathe in fear if RAFAC losing another staff member; albeit via asphyxiation.
The biggest thing I’m dreading is building from scratch. The squadrons ethos, traditions, culture and values has been crafted and sculpted over years and years. Generations of cadets passing on the baton so to speak. Whilst the life span for most cadets remains 18-36 months, having a 12 month break in that period will have a huge impact on the squadron and cadets. Loss of staff compounds this. Trying to bring all this back will be graft, re-establishing those unwritten rules and modelling practice will be a challenge.
On the plus side, despite fewer cadets, the number of serviceable gliders has increased during covid. In terms of the percentage of overall RAFAC cadets getting flying/gliding experiences, it could be the highest number in years!!
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A story repeated across the Corps…
Plus side… had 4 new cadets join over last 2 weeks, another next week and 2 on the waiting list for September so far.
Now if I could multiply that by 4 we would be back to where we were…
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The good thing is young people have not disappeared. They do want to do stuff we might have a lot of units with mostly newbies - maybe they won’t have the cynicism of some of the older ones!
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Most Sqns are cyclical anyway…
Numbers go up, numbers go down
Staff join, staff leave
Good times, bad times
It is just that we are all in the same boat at the same time but it will improve - just need to do the best with what we have
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We have had 3 parades now. Squadron split in half. We have 3 new cadets already started with a further 11 attending an open evening.
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We have been open for three weeks now and had two new joiners last night.
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On sharepoint now is a latest commandants update - it mentions a national recruitment campaign being underpinned by the Northampton University report into the benefits of Cadet Forces… So maybe when this is released we will see more?
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Today the government are expected to confirm what changes will happen on 17 May. I assume our policy won’t change until the National Youth Agency publish their updated guidance. Anyone know when the next NYA briefing!on COVID measures is?
I’m hoping for an increase in bubble sizes. With recruitment starting to pick up, the limit of 15 is becoming a real constraint on running parade nights and training.
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The NYA have already removed all bubble size limits for U18, as staff cadets fall into the “staff” bucket we’re mostly ok with that.
However, our guidelines remain with bubbles for indoor activity capped at 15 +staff
I’ve just had a look at the guidelines and I think they’ve been revised recently again. I’m not sure 15 is a hard limit anymore, as per NYA guidelines:
But later it says under the Jurisdiction specific guidance that the 15 limit remains, but it’s out of date and takes you to an old NYA page.
It also says cadets must be at least 2m apart, but my squadron was approved on the basis that cadets could be 1m apart with additional precautions.
Basically RAFAC guidance is a cluster as its trying to stay matched to NYA but only updated sporadically.
Why cant the guidance simply say…
‘For bubble sizes, follow current NYA guidance at www. …’
I’m not able to reopen as I was told 2m is mandatory, which means I can only really use 1 room and then only fit about 8 people in.
It’s an absolute joke that some can and some can’t. No consistency between regions yet again.
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The last NYA update still has 15 as guidance (think indoors only) but it has no legal status. For England.
In the last webinar their CEO said he was hopeful of increasing the limit to to 20 or 30 IIRC.
That would require our HQ to update our regs or explicitly incorporate the NYA text.
There is nothing scheduled from NYA yet, but we’ll see what the PM says this afternoon
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