EDITOR/DIRECTOR
EDITOR’S words A
s Spring makes itself evident around us we look with enthusiasm to the year ahead. We are all in a state of continual
change, sometimes we embrace the new and sometimes we just have to roll with the punches – or not!
As the Air Force continues on its path of change we are being asked to voice your opinions more and more and on an increasing number of subjects. The New
Good reading. From the Director T
here’s so much going on at the moment that I thought it would be useful to let you know what your Federation
expects to be doing in the coming twelve months or so. Our remit is to report to the RAF, to MoD and to ministers the issues that are causing you concern or interest: We help to paint a picture and to provide a sort of temperature gauge. That’s what the RAF pays us to do but, in order to gather that information, we obviously need to ask you for your views.
We do this in lots of ways but our surveys are probably the most important method and in 2014 we will be concentrating our survey effort on: Pay & Allowances, the emerging detail of the New Employment Model (NEM) and some of the issues coming from the Armed Forces Covenant work that affect everybody. We’ll run a couple (I promise no more than a couple!) of full surveys but we are also having great success with our short, snappy ‘Quick 6 Surveys’, on quite specific topics of the moment. Keep an eye on the website for these – we’ll be running them regularly throughout the year.
We have been tasked by the RAF to make sure we include in our evidence the views gathered from single personnel and from reservists and their families and we will be seeking evidence on some specific issues that affect you directly, such as Single Living Accommodation (SLA) and access to support services. So, be you serving, regular or reservist, single, married or in a partnership we need to hear from you. We need to hear from family members too, including
4 Envoy Spring 2014
children and young people, parents and siblings, so that we can make sure your views are also made known to the hierarchy.
In fact the only part of the RAF Family we don’t actively seek help from is the veterans community but that does not mean we’ll ignore you if you are a veteran and want to get in touch with your views on how it wasn’t all like this when you were ‘in’ (you can tell we have an old and bold ex-Warrant Officer on our team!). Details of how to contact us are on the Contents page.
Surveys are all well and good but the whole team also very much enjoys getting out and about to meet you face to face. We hope to visit as many major units as we can throughout 2014 – either to run our workshops to gather hard evidence, or just to have a chat with you all. Your comments are always valuable and add great colour and interest to our reports. We also hope to be able to attend as many unit Families Days as we can – look out for our new whizz-bang tent! – and we now have a regular presence at RAF Halton Graduation days to meet the new arrivals into the Service and their families.
So what? I hear you ask. We run about gathering all this evidence, briefing important people and writing reports: So what’s the result? Well, I think we’d be the first to acknowledge that we cannot change the world but none of us would be doing this if we did not think that we can help to influence change and to make sure that your views are heard. And if we are not doing it, who is?
We have had success in persuading DIO to adapt some of its processes (on how they approach damp and mould issues in SFA, for example) and I certainly think we have been
successful in
keeping their toes to the fire in terms of customer service and performance. We have worked hard with local authorities to help them implement Armed Forces Covenant initiatives and projects, to spread the word between them on good practice and to point out to them examples of where our people are being disadvantaged just because they are either serving or are a family member. We have even been able to turn around some big businesses and change their view of you as customers.
I know that the AFPRB greatly value our input to them each year and we continue to be invited to submit evidence to the House of Commons Defence Select Committee on your behalf. We meet ministers regularly to discuss your issues and the fact that we can lay evidence in front of them, rather than just saying “we think that our people think” has a real impact. We also work closely with several MoD work strands and meet with RAF senior personnel regularly as well – sometimes I wonder if I’ve actually left the RAF at all! So I cannot complain that we don’t get access to the top of the shop. My challenge is to make sure it listens – and to do that your Federation needs your input. So please complete the surveys when you see them and do contact us direct with your views and experiences – good and not so good. We can’t make any promises but if ‘they’ don’t know about it, ‘they’ can’t do anything.
Enjoy the magazine.
www.raf-ff.org.uk
Employment Model will touch everyone and I would urge you to engage with us. Plans are being crafted and decisions are being made. So please, please feed your thoughts to us, either directly or in response to the surveys that appear on our website. It is your time…
In this issue there are inspirational features, facts and fun.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64