This is developing into another ill-thought through HQAC clusterfertle, and now they are starting to panic, now the shower of smelly detritus is going to fall on CFAVs from a great height, firstly from cadets and then their parents, and this starting just after the holiday period. Far better to pull this idea, move it back to 1st of Jan and publicise it widely what will happen in the future.
What a way to recruit and retain people the organisation needs, when they see this they may well think why bother, they donāt really care about me!
Decision made by HQ will be to the benefit of HQ & the organisation as a whole not the individual squadron.
Sqns will just be expected to adapt whatever the decision is.
What I would take from the delay though is that there is behind the scenes lobbying from RCs against the proposal due to increase risk and/or legal implications. If I was the DDH I would want assurances that the new policy is practical, lawful and thought out .
But, realistically, would they dash the hopes and dreams of 17 year-old cadets with staff cadet applications in progress? Of course they would: but at this short notice?
I am a Organisational Change Project Manager in my day job. Organisational Change within RAFAC is, in my professional opinion, delivered atrociously. The big thing thatās missing is what we would call the āVoice of the Customerā
The customer of this change is every Squadron OC up and down the land. Now itās perfectly reasonable to have a selective sample, rather than every OC, but Iām yet to see any evidence that this has been attempted, let alone managed.
We also appear to have no Benefits Management system in place, to identify what we hope our changes will achieve, any unintended positive outcomes and any potential negative outcomes on unrelated subjects to the project.
If this change is being managed correctly, HQ would have no issue sharing their business cases, project plans and RAID Logs with us. The lack of these documents, as well as the lack of suitable comms, just goes to demonstrate that the people managing these changes lack the minimum level of competence to do so.
Current staff cadets stay the same as they are now until they age out. Simple.
Cadets approaching 18 now get a choice, become sudo-staff, like our current staff cadets are, but maybe with new advantages like claiming fuel etc. This will require already being a FS or something similar?
Or, stay as a ācadetā where you canāt act in a staff role, and can just focus on doing things for you, rather than being a staff member.
This is just a guess, and if itās correct, I can already foresee many many issues, so hopefully they have another plan that has been well thought out. But I find that unlikely.
unfortunately there is a proportion of Staff at HQ who adopt the RAF/MOD way of thinking - it is an order from above
as such it isnāt questioned or needs justification.
I am not suggesting it it right, or correct and given the CFAVs and Cadets (+ everyone else, parents, CivCom etc) are not MOD they should adopt a more āprofessionalā business style approach you describe
And itās not right. Those at the top are used to being in the MOD/CS way of working. But we are volunteers, and this is a youth service. Justification helps break down barriers.
Another indication that itās simply not been thought through from a Sqn perspective - would anyone actually want a 19yo who has explicitly rejected a leadership/responsibility/adult role hanging around their Sqn?
If Iāve got a space, and that space is either 19yo Cdt Blogs who doesnāt want to be treated like an adult, and only wants the shinies, or 15yo Cpl Jones whoās desperate to be better, and to lead, and for more responsibility, old āBloggs the Nonceā isnāt even getting onto the bottom of the listā¦
Nope and this is exactly why OCās should have as they do at the moment the choice over who stays over 18.
I have had plenty of 17 year old cadets who want to stay over 18 who I have binned off as they wouldnāt be suitable in a role that carries responsibility and/or I wouldnāt trust them around younger cadets.
Is it lawful? policy requires all over 18s cadets & staff to have an EDBS, BPSS & have safe guarding training, whilst some may see this as excessive I would be confident it delivers against the minimum legal requirements.
is it practical?* Well BPSS is a ball lake but since going on to electronic dbs itās all a lot simpler. Provided people process the paperwork ok then itās fine but as a policy itās simple to understand, simple(ish) to follow & people know where they stand with it even if itās a bit brutal.
is it thought out? well due to its blunt policy whilst simple itās not complex or nuanced leaving oddities. Itās treated asa tick box list of obstacles to be over come rather than a proper thought out process. But it does whatās itās meant to which is ensure the organisation is working within a legal structure.
If we can apply the above thought process to the new policy then it will be fine. If we canāt then it will be an unholy mess that will fail quickly probably resulting in no over 18cadets.
All really excellent points, & as others have said your dealing with the MoD change process rather than something that is used in the wider world.
However the biggest issue is change in volunteer organisation that are service based (I.e. donāt focus on raising funds or delivering a product) you are dealing more with philosophy & ideology rather than practicality.
Change in a volunteer organisation often means you are attempting to change doctrine & that means more political, factions & a slower change process than you would expect in a practical military organisation. Change can not be dictated successfully in a volunteer organisation it must be negotiated which will jam up the world & you will always have a faction trying to turn the clock āback to their day when things were goodā.
This is the biggest drag to the ATC that prevents it moving forward & avoiding stagnation.
Not ITK at all like most. I could see us going down the route of ACF/Sea Cadets where the time-out age is 18 with staff roles starting at 18. Looks like they want to keep CWO which is great but I wonder if they will lower the age of application. āā¦remove any unconscious bias in the appointment of Staff Cadets.ā part could be scrapping it all together
Again be interesting to follow but be some big comms on this soon.
