I had a call on Friday I assumed was spam. I answered out of curiosity and it was a dentist telling me I’d made it to the top of their NHS waiting list and would I like a check up. That’s the good news, the bad news is the soonest they could book was June 
.
You know the system is broken when you wait so long to get a dentist you forget you even registered in the first place!
GMG:
To CACE or not to CACE, that is the question.
GMG. Manflu has me.
Please send thoughts and prayers.
So, the warning order for the LaSER Ypres trip has just gone out, except this year it has this:
The cost per cadet will be £185.00.
I am also looking for staff to attend, specifically; 1 x Adult Warrant Officer, and 1 x SNCO or CI to join my core team. Unfortunately; in order to gain approval for this trip, we must be fully self funded, therefore VA will not be available. In addition, staff will be required to pay a higher cost than the cadets, as I have only been able to arrange funding for cadet places. Cost for staff will be £240.00.
Are we really expecting CFAVs to fork out £240 to go an look after cadets for 4 days? That seems completely unviable, and in the long term, will surely lead to more opportunities like this disappearing. Is this not where non-public funding should be coming in to cover the costs? I’d certainly never be able to warrant doing that as a CFAV.
I’d happily go supervise, even without VA, but I’d expect my costs to be met or mostly met.
Yeah, this. I don’t need to be paid, but I shouldn’t be considerably out of pocket…
I was debating it. But my lack of volunteering in recent months makes it seem a bit jack.
I wouldn’t be paid either.
I am hearing a lot of this recently. It doesn’t help there there is no clear comms on the issue. The CACE form has come out but no explanation of what we will be allowed to claim or not claim in 2024-25.
The document does cover what can/can’t be claimed, but what is missing is the limits of what can be claimed. Get your days on now before they cap it…
How on earth can such a trip (historically significant, WW1 memorials, generation learning experience) not attract VA.
I would also suggest that is it a “higher level” duty of care based on travel abroad, etc.
The “no VA” decision needs challenging right up the CoC. Otherwise, no staff = no trip.
the above = No risk = happy HQ.
Not sure the challenge will go the way that you may expect.
We had a SNCO last year told by HQAC she must use her VA days more effectively when they asked for additional days to cover the SSDIC (what ever the Drill course is now). She had used her whole allocation on Wing business, shooting and AT.
i have done a trip to war graves etc in Europe, i don’t recall claiming VA for it, but i do recall paying “my share” which was no more and no less than the Cadets which I feel is the most appropriate (this was a Squadron organised event and so didn’t attract attention from Wing and thus financial support.
While I am in no immediate rush to repeat it (due to personal circumstances) I would not expect to be paying more than the cadets to make an event happen
trouble is as an organisation we’ve not neccessarily been using VA correctly.
JSP 814 Ch 11.1
Cadet Forces are voluntary youth organisations and most CFAV attendance at cadet training is unremunerated. However, the Cadet Forces may remunerate CFAV for some training days, courses and camps
From the above, I’d interpret VA as being for mandatory training (such as CIC, SSDIC, SCC, MoI and First Aid), and other training courses or CPD courses you attend, rather than for running X, Y or Z event for cadets.
7 working day - we work 2 days a week at sqn, therefore 3 1/2 weeks to respond. Not that bad
Unforntunatley that’s only your intrepretation, and has never been the interpretation of the RAFAC. A training day is any day where training is provided, to us, or to the cadets
I mean, let me put a bit in bold for you:
JSP 814 Ch 11.1
Cadet Forces are voluntary youth organisations and most CFAV attendance at cadet training is unremunerated. However, the Cadet Forces may remunerate CFAV for some training days, courses and camps
Therefore
is just not correct per the JSP. as @mprentice1, the way VA has been used up to now does not really follow what the JSP is saying. It’s just ‘how it’s always been’.
My view is it’s suggesting we can use VA for upskilling CFAVs. The actual delivering an activity is the volunteering bit.
Yeah, but, that’s got to worth it to be able to have a glass of Belgium beer at the end of the day…oh, hang on a minute.
This isn’t new - VA has always been a bit iffy for overseas trips (we’ve done a fair few of them now and for years it’s always been a coin toss on whether we get VA or not, sometimes it was they’ll do 2 people or X amount split how you want)
And for our overseas trips it’s always been we pay the same amount as the Cadets, never known it to be anything different. As a group we choose to fundraise towards it but it’s split equally.
Feeling old.
Shaun of the Dead is 20 today