Y o u a n d t h e R A F You and the RAF
RAF Community Support Team Squadron Leader T
What ever happens to the Families Survey?
E
very year, a considerable amount of effort goes into producing the RAF Families Survey and more, then, goes into completing it. But
what is it for and what happens to it?
(For those people who haven’t seen it, the survey is delivered to your door and comprises about 30 pages, but not every household gets one every year.)
The questions are wide-ranging and it takes a reasonable amount of thought and time to fill one in. Not surprisingly then, many people have expressed their frustration over the years at not knowing what happens to the surveys.
The surveys are written by psychologists and are of great worth in providing feedback to the policy makers from RAF Families.
At Community Support (CS), we have identified a few areas which have been greatly improved our thinking over the last 12 months. Hopefully, the proposed updates to future surveys will reassure you that we really value your responses.
Information available to spouses whose partners are away As a direct result of the survey, CS staffs are currently re-writing the CS Handbook to focus more on deployment issues. The new issue will bring together general issues, deployment guidance and return and reunion. Additionally, this will then be uploaded to the RAFCOM website for people to browse online or print off their own copy of individual pages.
Update of the RAFCOM Website The RAFCOM website has recently undergone an overhaul both in presentation and content with more up-to-date pages added, better navigation through the site, an expansion of the Kids Zone and on-line polls. There are also publications, signposting to charities/ organisations and contact details enhancing the ability of RAFCOM to deliver quality information
to personnel and their families. Information is continually updated and RAF Community Support staffs are easily contactable by email providing support and information.
Enhancement of communication with deployed personnel Staff are focussed on providing information to families to assist with communication to deployed personnel. The ‘Hello from Home’ booklet has been distributed throughout the RAF and a follow-up, the Kids Activity Book, will follow shortly. A series of posters were released in August 07 to advertise the simple methods of communicating with deployed personnel through blueys, e-blueys and signposting to the BFPO website for postal advice.
Information about RAF Allowances. In the revamp of RAFCOM website we have retained the section on allowances. Each has a short description of what each allowance is for and is cross-referenced with the Joint Service Publication. Access to the Joint Service Publication can be obtained through any HIVE or RAF Intranet. We have also uploaded the JSP to RAFCOM to enable family access.
Teenage Entertainment. CS staffs are actively promoting the availability of non-public funds to Stations to fund teenage entertainment and working hard with Service charities to release more funds for other projects on Stations. In the last 12 months the RAF Benevolent Fund, RAFA, RAF Charitable Fund, Central Fund & Nuffield Trust have donated £1M in grants. Listed are some of the teenage initiatives funded:
RAF Linton-on-Ouse – Refurbishment of Station youth facility - £24k. RAF Lyneham – Upgrade of Youth Club - £18k. RAF High Wycombe – MUGA and Youth Shelter - £29.9k. RAF Cranwell – Refurbishment of Youth Club - £34k. RAF Leuchars – Creation of a Kids Zone - £5.93k. RAF Lyneham – Play Park development - £15k. RAF Cosford – Youth Shelter - £5.5k.
oni Gillespie Community Support (Communications and Information) gives an update
RAF Digby – Youth Shelter - £4.8k. RAF Honington – Youth Activities Centre - £191k (pending award). RAF Marham – Play park and youth centre - £221k (pending award).
Dissatisfaction with maintenance of Service Families Accommodation (SFA) CS staffs have repeatedly chased DE and raised the concerns of RAF families regarding the maintenance to SFA. The upgrade programme from DE has now been changed to ensure that work is carried out on a ‘worst first’ basis.
Monthly statistics are forwarded to CS showing achievement rates of DE against targets. CS staffs scrutinise these statistics and press for further explanations and feedback when achievement rates are too low. We continue to advise all SFA stakeholders that the HICs and maintenance must deliver a quality service in order to retain the confidence of the residents.
Executive Summary of the Families Survey
A copy of the executive summary from the last Families Survey is now available to view on the RAFCOM website.
For those of you selected to take part in the survey this year, please complete the questionnaire and return it in the envelope provided. The more responses we receive, the more accurate our analysis can be and the better outcome for families.
Chairman’s note: In order to facilitate the design of the new Families Survey, the RAF FF organised a joint workshop with the Air Command psychologist responsible for the survey at RAF Halton in October. We hope to organise more in 2008, and will use these to provide feedback on the survey.
For more information go to the RAFCOM website at:
www.rafcom.co.uk.
Winter 2007 39
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