In terms of separated service, 50% of respondents said that the separati on was manageable and had an acceptable impact on family life. This was a 4% rise on the 2012 response to the same questi on. Some 60% of respondents stated that the amount of separati on they have experienced in the last 5 years is higher, a 5% increase since 2012. Nevertheless, the comments received indicate that separati on has a signifi cant impact on many.
50% 52%
How would you describe any separati on you and your family have experienced as a result of RAF duti es in the last 12 months?
34% 34%
Serving Non-Serving
Figure 16
8%
Manageable and has an acceptable impact on family life
Too high and has an unacceptable impact on family life
7% We have not
experienced any separati on
8% 7% Does not apply
“My husband is in one of the areas of the RAF that frequently deploys; I am also a sponsored reserve. In the last 12 months, we have had 7 months when one/both of us have been overseas on operati onal deployments and/or exercises. This isn't unusual. This clearly has an impact on our family life. We rarely have a ‘steady-state’ life; there is always the next deployment on the horizon to be thinking about. It eff ects how we plan leave and also eff ects how we do our jobs, when we are the one at home. We could leave though.”
“In the last 18 months, because of posti ngs, detachments and deployments my husband and I have lived together for a grand total of 5 months. Thank goodness our child is in boarding school.”
“We all accept the demands of service life. The increase in workload with fewer people to carry out the tasking over the last 15 years is unsustainable. I have witnessed many divorces in my staff s that were largely aff ected (but obviously not enti rely) by the demands of frequent short-noti ce operati onal deployments. We have no choice where we go or when we go there. When it gets too much, the only opti on is to leave. This results in highly qualifi ed and experienced operators being replaced by inexperienced personnel and degradati on in service output. This is a natural part of development process, but the rate at which it occurs is the key factor in service effi ciency. New people must be given experience, but they must be guided by those they will replace. In my opinion, the RAF has been forced to accelerate the rate beyond a sustainable limit and we are failing NOW”.
26
Pay, Allowances & Quality of Life
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