Welsh units pride themselves on their close
bonds with their communities so preserving
all existing links with Lord Lieutenants, who
provide a vital connection between the ACF and
local business and social groups, was essential.
Major Carter hopes to see these local ties go from
strength to strength under the new arrangement.
“Since we now have much larger county groups,
they will be able to exert a greater influence on
society,” explains Major Carter, “from working
with community groups and local government,
all the way up to lobbying the Welsh Assembly.
A large number of young people with a substantial
organisation behind it can be very persuasive in
affecting change.”
Teething problems
The true test of any merger is how well it works
on the ground, and while most of the large-scale
changes were administrative and therefore didn’t
affect the cadets or adult volunteers, inevitably
everyone had their concerns. For adult volunteers
there were worries about the impact on their
workload, and interaction with new colleagues.
“Something like this takes a lot of getting used
to,” says Sergeant Angela Jacovelli, an instructor
in Clwyd & Gwynedd ACF. “I was in Clwyd ACF
and knew that Gwynedd had fewer adults than
us. So would the merger mean extra work for us?
Also, Gwynedd had lots of cadets who speak
Welsh as their first language so I thought there
might be an issue of communication.”
But in all three new counties, both sets of adult
volunteers were introduced to one another
A LOOK AT BEDS AND
HERTS, ONE YEAR ON
The Welsh counties aren’t the first to merge – last year
Beds and Herts ACF was about to step into the unknown
Twelve months on from the merger, how far has the new
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire AFC come, and what
lessons can the Welsh counties learn from their experience?
“It’s gone well so far. The merger meant we doubled in
strength – we’re a lot stronger now,” says Major Peter
Barlow, Beds and Herts ACF’s Chief Executive Officer. “As
two counties we used to be quite insignificant, but now we
can really punch our weight as the eighth largest county
group,” he says. “We have a bigger pool of adults, and
we’ve been well supported by the RFCA in our recruitment
activity, so we’re starting to see a further increase in
numbers of cadets,” he says.
But something as big as a county merger is not likely to
happen in the blink of an eye, without a hitch. “The process
has had its ups and downs, but we’ve worked through it,’
says Peter. “Unfortunately we have lost two or three senior
officers who weren’t happy with the merger,” he reveals.
“But something like this is always going to be a little bit
stop/start. It can’t happen overnight. We think it will take
two years for the two counties to knit together fully.”
Overall, though, Maj Barlow is a great believer in the
benefits of the merger. “Do I think we’re stronger for it?
Definitely. I’m convinced it has been a success. There
have been teething troubles but we’re looking to the future
and we think it looks very bright,” he says.
20 ARMYCADET I SUMMER 2009
NEW POST GIVES MORE SUPPORT
The new county groups will all have Cadet Support Officers
The mergers were not driven by the
need to save money on salaries but
by the opportunity to create a new
structure that would provide better
support to adult volunteers. Integral
to that structure is the creation of two
new full-time Cadet Support Officer
(CSO) posts in each region.
“CSOs will provide support
across the board,” explains Major
Peter Mullings MBE, Deputy Chief
several times before the official merger date. Each
occasion was a success, with adults and cadets
alike getting on well and looking forward to
working and training together.
“I’m really positive about the merger,” Angela
says. “We’ll have better training facilities and
equipment, and we’ll have adults with a greater
range of experience to give the cadets more sport
and adventurous training opportunities.” But the
really important issue is that throughout Welsh
regions there will now be a set of unified
standards. “We’ve previously found that when
we’ve been away with other counties on, say,
a drumming weekend, that their cadets and
ours had different rules, such as ‘lights-out’
times. Now everyone knows where they stand
– cadets included,” says Angela.
The counties officially merged on 1 April 2009.
Now only time – and a two-year audit – will
tell whether it has been been a success, both in
Executive RFCA for Wales. “They
will handle important issues such
as managing health and safety, the
administration of training such as
booking ranges, transport and
courses, and working with RFCA
in the delivery of regular briefing
programmes,” he says.
CSOs will reduce the workload on
adult volunteers and allow them to
focus on the most important thing –
instructing cadets and delivering
high standards of training and
experience at detachment level.
terms of the administrative burden on ACF staff
and the opportunities for instructors and cadets.
With just one previous merger in recent years
as an example (Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire
ACF – see panel below) the new Welsh counties
are blazing their own trail through many of the
inevitable teething problems. And a number of
other UK counties may well be watching closely
as they decide whether amalgamation is the right
choice for them.
“Behind every decision we considered how
best to deliver the ACF Charter to the greatest
number of cadets in the most effective way,” says
Major Carter. “We genuinely believe that these
mergers will make the ACF in Wales more
efficient and allow more cadets to benefit.”
The RFCA’s Colonel Beard agrees. “It’s been a
very exciting process and everyone has worked
together. They’ve been driven by the common
goal of giving the cadets a better experience.” ■
Beds & Herts ACF first
came together as a county
at annual camp 2008
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