Pause and pause.
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Out of interest in the hypothetical situation:
I’m a Sqn OC, i parade Tuesday and Thursday and have an event on this weekend. I do not keep an eye on ACC (i know, weird right but go with me) nor even know it exists.
I’m diligent and although can access emails on my phone have all notifications off not to feel “attached” I’m sitting down with my wife ready to enjoy a light beer and Friday night telly knowing the kids are asleep upstairs
How am i made aware of this?
Not only is Friday afternoon pants but the day before the “hot period” is shocking given the attitude 9 months ago re RIAT and Nijmegen surrounding heat…one canx, the other not which saw record heat “injuries”
HQAC you’ve had the data from last year for 6+ months, and the best part of a lifetime’s warning climate change is taking place.
If you really took the safety of the Cadets and CFAVs seriously you’d have issued this requirement 3-4 months ago having had chance to determine the learning points from last summer and created suitable, adequate and practical control measures in good time.
Issuing not only on a Friday afternoon but so close to the hot season doesn’t inspire confidence in your leadership, forethought or indicate you’ve respect for CFAVs or Cadets but are panicking like headless chickens running around from one policy to the next pause in the hope those on the ground take notice and no one kicks up a fuss
Quite frankly I’m appalled by this attitude and is the best example HQAC have shown for 11th hour thinking; not only seeing the horse in the stable but eying up the escape with one foot out the door…
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I do wonder whether the RAFAC as an org has been looked down upon badly from that incident. Those in the DAIB suddenly getting a whole bunch of Heat Injuries come though would not make us look good. Problem is, that’s not our norm. If it was any other event it would have been cancelled.
Are we now dealing with over-burdensome rules because of an event that went ahead that really shouldn’t have?
It was a quite spectacular failing at the very top of the organisation, so if I was DAIB I would definitely be looking at us very closely.
This, I guess, is exactly my point. It wasn’t a general failing at a lower level. There was no wide-spread issues that led to it. It was a high-level decision to carry on, ignoring all the warning signs.
Why is the whole organisation being required to stick to such strict policy when it was fine before. The issue was a high-level decision to ignore the policy that already existed…
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The simple reason is that the MOD in general take heat illness very seriously and that we as an organisation have now had the spotlight shone on us.
Once your in the spotlight it doesn’t matter what the reason was.
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Lets see what happens should anything happen and a CFAV ends up in court for no folllowing guidelines/policy!
You forgot the dinosaurs being revived from millennia old DNA then running amok
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The rules have not changed from last year, the same RA’s are required, the same Commanders Guide, the same Individual Guide, the same Work/Rest tables from the same JSP as last year.
The only thing we do have is a forecasting tool providing a forecast WBGT for various locations around the country.
If you think this is new I suggest perhaps you didn’t do as required last year, otherwise you would be grateful for the additional tool, I am.
If we are talking Risk to Life, this is it. There is no knee jerk pause or stop this time, just make sure you are assessing the risks and putting suitable control measures in place. The end result, we all get to go back to work/school on Monday.
They have. The guidelines are all based on the same stuff. But fundamentally the rules have changed. Before this came out WBGT was something we knew we couldn’t do, (at a local level with specific devices) and worked around it as it wasn’t required for most things. We’ve now been given a list of sample activities that are considered EAL, all of which we now require the use of a local and specific WBGT. Also any activity during a heat wave is EAL so also has this requirement.
Before, this was a nice to have. Now it is a must. Yes it says if WBGT is unavailable we can use MOMIDS readings, but that should be the exception, not the rule.
Funnily enough, you say this is the new bit, but in fact we have had access to this tool for a while now. The HQRAFAC login details have been available for us since at least August. Probably earlier, but that’s when I first used them. So, if you think this is (not) new I suggest perhaps you didn’t do as required last year, as otherwise how were you getting all you WBGT for all your EAL activities, as is now required, but you claim not to be new?
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Also, if nothing has changed, why the IBN and two new policy documents? The start of the IBN literally states “Changes to RAFAC policy and guidance to ensure compliance with JSP375 and AP8000”
My bold.
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Im telling you its “Mitigate, Deteroriate”
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JSP 375 states a QT34 is required, how many do the RAFAC hold at various wings for loan?
Considering DSTL produce their data predicated against adults of a given fitness standard, are cadets having immature physiology at a higher risk of heat/cold stress, one presumes so as the head is relatively larger compared to an adult and as a high percentage is through the head.
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Yes, our policy even states this. It makes clear the WRTs are for adults, not children. That’s what makes this whole thing silly. We’re applying very specific rules/policy, like needing readings at the specific location, and then just making it up after that as the guides aren’t aimed at children.
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And at that point if anything happens, try to defend it when a barrister asks why did you use an adult system for children, because the CFAV on scene are the ones who will be in court.
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But it doesn’t, that’s part of the point isn’t it? It is fine for activities carried out by service personnel on DTE. but CFAVs do not carry these things with them. Fortunately, there are hundreds of weather stations across the UK that measure current conditions for you.
Remember there are other organisations like Scouts and schools who are doing DofE expeditions without the use of a WBGT, and they are managing just fine.
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Yeah, this is the point.
I do believe heat related illnesses are a big risk, and one that we can avoid. I just think we are going about it in the wrong way entirely. We’re trying to work to a generic MOD system that was designed for adults. More than just adults, but designed for service personnel! Those who have a presumed level of fitness, and supervisors who have access to certain equipment.
If we want to properly manage this risk across the organisation, we need a system/policy that works for children, and is specific for them.
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I’m unsurprised.
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It does seem odd to wait until it’s hot to issue instructions about what to do when it’s hot, when it was also hot last year (hotter) and you screwed the pooch that time and knew that you did almost immediately after it was hot.
You’d think summer wasn’t an annual occurrence…
Precisely this. The organisation is being run by knee-jerk bureaucracrats who can’t see past the computer monitor they sit in front of. They don’t know the “front line”, have no idea of the practical effects of anything they say nor the skills or experience of those on the ground.
Yet again, instead of practical advice that can actually be followed by those who know what they’re doing, we have a half baked, sounds good on paper, doomsday prevention policy.
I could spot early signs of heat illness. I could manage an event to try as best as is possible to prevent that presentation. I wouldn’t trust the commandant to do the same if he was an activity IC.
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For me, the biggest problem is that I read that IBN yesterday and I’m no wiser as to what I actually have to do. It’s written in a really complicated way and I’ll have to spend more time going through it to try and work out in layman’s terms if anything I’m doing needs to change. It feels like it’s written in MOD legalese rather than being a useful instructional document to help us help keep children safe.
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