I know WEXOs get issued MOD iPhones ( I would suggest therefore it’s likely PS SMT does as well) so those text messages would I assume be releasable under FOIA.
Assuming that they haven’t breached MOD rules and used personnel phones.
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They are.
Pretty sure if you use your personal phones for official business you are still obliged to share under an FOI, certainly that was part of the rationale at work for giving everyone work phones.
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This is correct. Colleague of mine told a Special Adviser this - said Spad then proceeded to delete their entire WhatsApp history on the spot
Can confirm it did not. I was the organiser and originator of that email.
Good news though, strong connections with the council owned campsite, we have moved the booking without loss of monies.
Windsor have given dispensation and extension for our soon to be 25 year olds, so they can still complete.
Good customer service from tracker hire company and cancelled with zero incurred cost.
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Thank god some are sensible and helpful as opposed to others we could mention!
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Precisely this, if my event were to go ahead, then why not others…
At the end of the day initial comms had a few gaping holes/room for questions. Therefore I asked.
I was prepared for a no, but also needed a swift no in order to action accordingly.
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Thats because the “leak” allegedly came from SW, however moderators are doingvtheir bit tontry and stem it.
But if they txt on an official phone isnt that that subject to FOI?
It is I believe, but look at the politicians and handlers, will be deleted.
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But the HQ Digital Team is certainly digitally competent enough to get event data off Bader . . . but then again I guess they are too busy developing the next iteration of Bader. 
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For the 2 seconds that I held a wing role, I could identify all events under my remit within about 5 mins.
Someone, be it at Wing level or be it TK, has lied about the difficulty in gaining such a list list.
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I reckon SW never volunteered the information as part of their proposal because, well, who would?, TK never asked for it - because it’s not something he’s remotely interested in - and then when @Cab asked for it TK wouldn’t (because he’s thin-skinned and their working relationship obviously isn’t that great…) wouldn’t fess up that he’s got no idea, and can’t use BADER, so he stuck with the ‘i’m protecting my people’ thing.
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Didn’t they actually tell us in the townhall that there was 438 approved one cancelled 
(I may have misheard!) if they can get that it can’t be much more for one to include elements that were in draft waiting for final bits for approval (particularly August - appreciate majority of July would have already been approved)
The Digital team does have a Data Analyst who creates reports in Power BI for the Commanders’ Dashboard and fully verse in SQL queries. Still relies on user requests asking for the right information.
It’s also worth pointing out that the team’s remit isn’t just to develop the Bader web apps that CFAVs use. They do things like data protection, information management, cyber security, physical networking at WHQs etc., as well as ad hoc queries in response to FOIs…
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Had some time to digest this FOI response my biggest takeaway is that @Cab your PSO is awesome and their comms to you I feel are better than the comms that came to us.
BLUF: RAFAC have been unable to resolve workforce pressure in the SW Region which now necessitates a pause in off-unit activities from 29 Jul—31 Aug 24 inclusive, except for National Camps.
Detail
• The SW Region has two of six C grades occupied and no Regional Chief of Staff, overall staff levels around 50% of liability.
• This pause will allow staff time to reset by clearing backlogs of work, completing new SOPs, and upskill so that the functional model can achieve Full Operating Capacity. The intent is to recommence the full suite of cadet activities with effect from 1 Sep 24.
• The attached message has been crafted locally, agreed in the National HQ and sent by SW Regional Commandant to all CFAV.
• There may be some frictional cost impact, more likely from Sqn funds for which they may seek refund. Comdt RAFAC does not intend to put a burden on HQ staff chasing by chasing, assessing that these costs will surface overtime.The So What?
• I am predicting a flurry FOls on this topic.
• You may get approached at RIAT tomorrow by a cadet or CFAV.
• In the future this may also be required in other regions given the current CS workforce recruitment restrictions.
In relation to the list of activities to be suspended, super easy to filter the Events list on SMS for the required date range, copy/paste to excel and filter by Status, obviously tricky to do after the event as local CFAVs would have started to mark as cancelled, but these would still display, including any that had been cancelled pre-stop.
On reflection, SW is supposed to have the following staffing:
In WHQs
6 x WeXOs (HEO / C2)
6 x E1
6 x E2
At RHQ
1 x COS (HEO / C2)
1 x E1
1 x HSA
1 x TSA (FTRS WO)
But currently they have the following based on ACP 8…
2 x HEOs (Missing 5)
6 x E1s (Missing 1)
5 x E2s (Missing 1)
1 x HSA
1 x TSA
1 x Logs Support (Other regions do not have this)
In another thread someone posted about CS grades, E1/E2’s are paid a minimum of £23,286 - £23,811, while HEO’s start at £32,136, (values might be different on a DEFRA v MOD element)
National Minimum Wage is £11.44 at 38.5 hours a week for 52 weeks that is a legal baseline of £22,902.88 (if they are doing 40 hours a week it goes to £23,795), our E2/E1s are barely earning above this and all that I have come across all try to do the best they can to facilitate us,.
I’d be very surprised if any of the Perm Staff within SW are jumping for joy and laughing at the CFAVs for the wasted planning & effort we have put in, but are keen to getting this model to work.
They certainly do not deserve to be close to “burn out”, nor any abuse they have received from CFAVs, and I’ll finish with a quote from what I think is the RC to one of the remaining HEO’s.
I hope you are ok and not on the receiving end already
Please remember, they are people too
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In LASER, what do the other HEOs do? Under the pillar model I can see three HEOs for each pillar, and Rgn COS, but where do the other two HEOs (presuming they actually have them) go?
My understanding was the move to FOM Pillars was a tacit acknowledgment that we are not getting back the HEOs we’ve lost, even after the recruitment controls eventually get released.
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I have passed on your positive comments which I agree with.
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I feel that TK should staple this FOI to every one of this furture job applications to show exactly the kind of person he is to work with, especially when the he has the data at his finger tips.
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PS and of course those CFAV who had to go to external events that units where assisting in running, that they could no longer assist, and in some cases with only a few day’s notice.
I am a member of a club where we use to us cadets, we was lucky another young organisation stepped up at 10 days notice, I fully suspect when the event committee have a post event wash up, we will highly likely stay with the group that bailed us out this time.
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So, hypothetically speaking, if SWR were to go (citing the pillars/staff situation as the reason), what would happen next???