F e d e r a t i o n N e w s Official Insight
T
here are many Government departments, outside the MOD who, in some ways support RAF
personnel and their families. But just how much do they actually know about RAF life? Deputy Chairman of the RAF FF, Chris Taylor was invited to a special day at Marham.
I had the very good fortune to represent the Federation at the Armed Forces Advocates visit to Marham, the RAF’s representative Station. The Advocates are two-star Civil Servants from Government Departments, other than the MOD, whose purpose is to identify and resolve policy or legislative issues that may affect Service personnel, their families or veterans.
To give you some idea of the Advocates and why their support is critical, just look at the government departments represented at Marham on this visit: Work and Pensions; Health; Transport; Communities and Local Government; Innovation Universities and Skills; and Her Majesty’s Treasury. This is very good news and the importance of the visit was reinforced by the presence of Air Marshal Simon Bryant, Air Member for Personnel (AMP). As part of a broader programme,
Advocates have already visited the Royal Navy and will see the Army in due course.
AMP opened the proceedings by giving the Advocates an insight to the RAF and current operations in addition to ‘The People Picture’; all of which highlighted the extraordinary and successful work that the RAF carries out every day, while not shying away from describing the challenges that face RAF personnel and their families as a result.
The Station Commander then briefed in similar style on the role of RAF Marham, before the Advocates set off to visit elements of the Station. A guided tour of the Combined Maintenance Unit revealed the collaborative and innovative work being carried out by the RAF, British Aerospace and Rolls Royce with the opportunity to meet RAF engineers who explained their roles. At one of XIII Squadron’s Hardened Aircraft Shelter’s the Advocates had the opportunity to climb aboard a Tornado aircraft and meet both aircrew and ground crew who showed us around the aircraft and its associated equipment and armaments. It was not lost on any of us on that beautiful and temperate morning just how challenging it must be for all RAF personnel to carry out
their work when the temperature could be a further 30 degrees hotter!
We then travelled to both the Junior Ranks’ Mess and Sergeants’ Mess and met personnel from a broad cross-section of ranks and trades who explained both the positive and negative side of military life, just as families in the excellent Rainbow Centre were equally forthright in explaining the pressures on families.
While the many issues raised by both personnel and families were familiar to us as your Federation, the important point is that the Advocates have now seen at first hand how the RAF operate and live, in addition to hearing the many issues which we sincerely hope the Service Personnel Command Paper will redress. Our role will be to continue to highlight where disadvantage still exists while promoting progress as we find it. Do visit our website at www.raf-families-federation.
org.uk to see how we get on.
www.raf-families-federation.org.uk
Summer 2009
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