Refining Our Offer

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why are we having to make these changes now?

On 10 November 2023 we launched our ‘Refining our Offer’ initiative to best balance three factors:

• Lightening the Load: Responding to the pressures upon our amazing volunteers and employees by slowing down or slightly reducing elements of the Sea Cadets Experience (SCE). This may even improve the quality of our offer and will certainly help make it more consistently available.
   
• Cutting our Cloth: Identifying possible cost savings and additional income potential to meet the considerable pressures upon our finances likely for the next few years. This is as a result of recent inflation, as we share part of the inevitable funding squeeze upon our key sponsor, the Royal Navy, plus a need to continue to invest in maintaining essential support and assurance processes.
   
• Focussing our Strategic Delivery: Setting the best conditions to deliver our recently launched Future Ready strategy, driving the cultural changes at the heart of the strategy, namely: becoming more youth centred, urgent for growth, serious about cadet voice, fully inclusive and embracing flexible volunteering.

2. How much did we need to save? And why?

Nearly two million pounds in total. Our approach has been to try to find the savings from across the budget to strike a good balance and preserve an overall quality experience for Sea Cadets and volunteers. The funding gap has been created by the steep rise in inflation, a reduction in our Grant in Aid, a need to find the increased cost for Class I & II and Blues uniforms and essential resourcing for Safeguarding, Safety and Offshore.

3. Did you pay any attention to the consultation?

Yes – the four areas of priority highlighted in the consultation were not to remove – No1/2 uniforms, Volunteer Allowances, Unit Grants and Competitions. We listened and all of these have been retained, albeit, again guided by the consultations they have each been restricted in some way to be affordable.

4. What does this mean for our cadets?

For our cadets this means simplifying the Sea Cadets Experience a little and slowing some things down slightly. This in turn allows volunteers and employees to deliver more effectively within their capacity. It means we can focus on great delivery, continuing to provide a wide range of excellent opportunities for our cadets.

In practice this means, focussing specialisations and proficiencies offered more locally, fewer annual competitions at Area and National levels (some becoming biennial), removal of the requirement to do two specialisations and proficiencies to one (in two years) and reducing promotion boards from two days to one day face-to-face courses.

For junior cadets, this means keeping the Junior Cadet programme focussed on the unit level supported by Junior District residential or day-run weekend activity.

5. What does this mean for our volunteers?

Volunteers will have more time to focus on the great delivery of the Sea Cadets Experience. Cadets will typically not require so many cadet training days for progression and fewer days will be required to run promotion boards for cadets. We hope to reduce the time volunteers need to complete courses, so we make better use of their time.

6. What does this mean for our employees?

In realising a balanced budget, we have had to look at proposals to remove some roles within the employed staff.

In addition, some colleagues will be taking on additional or slightly amended responsibilities as well as looking at what else we do not do, to balance workload. Others, such as our offshore team, will be getting us back to a full voyage programme.

Please be aware that some of our colleagues will be going through a consultation about their roles at MSSC and we need to be sensitive to this.

7. If you knew this cut was likely in October – why has it taken you four months to do something about it?

Refining our Offer is not just about cutting costs. Yes, we have had to address a massive funding gap, but we have also responded to calls to slow things down. This has required careful work to review the Sea Cadet Experience, our policies, as well as consulting more than 1000 volunteers, employees and cadets, whose views have helped shape our approach. Of course, as we are a charity, all of this then had to be built into a plan and budget and get approved by our Trustees.

8. Why can’t you just use your reserves to plug the gap?

The national charity does have some reserves. However, many are either restricted (given to us for a specific purpose) or endowments (which are not able to be spent without agreement by the Charity Commission). Regardless, this would only be a short-term solution as we rely heavily on the investment income from these funds towards our operational budget. So, if we spent the reserves, we would have less investment income in future years. This would simply increase the cuts we would have to make in future years.

9. Why can’t you just raise more fundraised income?

It would be easy to just plug the gap in the budget by increasing our fundraised income. However, this would need to be consistently raised over time and if not delivered would require significant in-year cuts. We are focussing our fundraising on specific projects – Offshore, Adventure Training Centres, Cadet Bursaries and Unit Grants.

10. When will the Sea Cadets Portal be updated to reflect the changes brought about by the ‘Refining Our Offer’ initiative?

We will be working to update Sea Cadets Portal over the coming weeks, please bear with us while we make these updates.

11. What competitions will be funded?

To maintain annual competitions at the National level the following Sea Cadets Experience (SCE) core skills and activities will continue annually:

• Drill and Piping
• Sailing
• Gibraltar Cup
• First Aid
• Shooting

To help manage the budget we want to maintain the following annual competitions at Area level, with alternate year National competitions:

• Combined Regatta (FY25/26)
• Band (FY24/25)

Reflecting the popularity of five-a-side football, whilst recognising that it is not a core skill within the SCE, annual competitions at District only will continue, but with no Area or National competition.

There will no longer be a swimming competition, although we recognise that swimming is a life skill, cadets need to be able to swim to take part in the competitions and this is not something we are able to support or fund. You can still take cadets swimming as part of the unit activity, however, this only is authorised if it is supported by qualified instructors or with a third-party operator with adequate insurance in place, as per the authorised activity list.

12. What are the cadet contributions going up to? & what does it cover?

From 01 April 2024, all courses are subject to the following Cadet contributions to courses:

• Basic: £12 per day (currently £10 per day)
• Intermediate: £17 per day (currently £15.50 per day)
• Advanced: £20 per day (currently £18.50 per day)

These have gone up to help us achieve a balanced budget.

The contribution goes to support some of the costs associated with running courses including volunteer allowance, travel costs and venue and consumables where required. It is a flat contribution for the course at each level. It therefore does not cover the costs of one specific course. Some courses therefore cost more than others to run depending on the number of volunteers required, the venue etc. needed to run the courses. This is why it is a contribution not a course fee. MSSC subsidises the course costs. For most courses, the course contribution covers only about 20% of the total cost to the charity (slightly higher for offshore voyages).

13. When will the overnight contribution apply and for what activity?

From 1 May 2024, all overnight stays on district, area and national courses, activities, competitions and events will be subject to the £8 residential contribution. The only exceptions to this is offshore voyages (where the contribution is already built in), some specific activity including First Sea Lord events and the Cadet to Volunteer (C2V) training.

This addition is a way of reflecting the higher cost of providing overnight activity without putting up the contribution for day run courses.

All activity – events & competitions as well as courses – will be managed through the cadet portal, allowing parental consent and their contributions to be administered digitally.

14. How do these changes affect our training centre and regional boat station activity?

The changes will increase opportunities for cadet training to be held at our training centres and regional boat stations, with a focus on the refined offer. Where we have accommodation, weekend courses and school holiday camps will continue.

15. Will there be a National Junior Summer Camp this year, or in future years?

With the increased cost of travel, food and accommodation, we have taken the decision not to run the National Juniors Summer Camp again this year. Unless the cost can be significantly reduced, we do not anticipate this being re-introduced to our programme of activities in the future. Instead, we are looking to support the delivery of additional junior district camps or activity weekends, bringing the experience to more junior sea cadets, closer to their home and unit.

16. What are the plans for the replacement of HMS Bristol?

The Royal Navy is working via ‘Programme Powerful’ to deliver a long-term alternative to HMS Bristol, which until 2020 provided Sea Cadets with around 12k cadet bed nights on a ship per year. Current plans are to seek to deliver a mix of an alongside ship experience and/or an accommodation solution. The project is currently within an ‘options’ phase, including considering various locations and further updates will be provided as things develop.

17. When will the International Exchange opportunities be advertised?

We are ceasing the nationally funded provision of an outbound international exchange programme, though volunteers can organise for units and districts self-funded and delivered activities as long as they adhere to our Unit and District Overseas Visits & Exchanges Operating Standard which can be found here.

18. How are cadets & their next of kin going to afford these increased costs?

Bursaries will be available as usual for those who need financial support. These are only contributions – and contribute only a fraction of the actual costs of delivery. Bursaries have been increased in line with the latest contribution levels, including the new overnight contribution.

19. Why are we asking cadets and volunteers to cover the cost of registration for some awards and not others? And why have these gone up?

Course materials and registration fees are a VAT charge and therefore seen as a taxable benefit to the learner, meaning we need to charge the cost to the learner. Many awarding bodies have also had to put up their costs with the pressures associated with inflation. Our costs have to reflect these – some costs are subsided and these highlighted in the Appendix C of the AEC.

20. How cost effective is Sea Cadets compared to other cadet forces?

The first chart below demonstrates how cost effective we are compared to the other cadet forces. The second chart shows the Grant in Aid from the Royal Navy by year compared to inflation. The final chart shows the extent and use of the funds spent delivering Sea Cadets.

21. When will a senior cadet get a best uniform?

In future senior cadets will be eligible for a best uniform, (called a Class II or Blues uniform), once they have been a senior cadet for 12 months or more. This does not include time as a junior sea cadet. All other senior cadets wear working dress.

22. Will a senior cadet already with a Class II or Blues uniform have to stop wearing it?

No. Provided their uniform was issued prior to the announcement of the change (20 February 2024) they may continue to wear the uniform. If however the cadet needs a replacement for any reason this will need to wait until they are eligible.

Course Payments

23. How does a cadet express interest in an activity “course”?

This is achieved via the Sea Cadets Portal at https://portal.sea-cadets.org/

24. Is there any change to course booking up to 31 March 2024?

No. There are no changes from this announcement or the planned review. Payment of the cadet contribution can still be made for course bookings up to 31 March 2024 in the normal way.

25. Will cadets with “as of today” confirmed bookings on or after 1 April 2024 remain?

Yes. Any courses booked and paid for that are on or after 1 April 2024 remain unchanged and will not be subject to any increase in cadet contribution rate. The appropriate refunds will be issued where payments have already been made and the course rate has been reduced.

No payments will be possible for courses allocated but not yet paid for until the revised course contribution rates are published. This is due by end January 2024.

26. What happens if I can no longer afford the cadet contribution for the course?

You can apply for a bursary. However if you have note already done so via Portal, please follow the process using the following Sea Cadets Application Form - cadet- bursary-form-2019v1.0.pdf. This form needs to be downloaded and opened with Adobe Reader, in order for you to complete it correctly.

If you apply for a bursary outside of Portal course booking, please inform the National Booking Centre (courses@ms-sc.org).

For Offshore Courses you can apply for a bursary through two further funding bodies, these bodies may be able to cover some of the costs of our Offshore Voyages. They are:

Cdr (Retd) Clive Carrington-Wood Grant Secretary The Seven Seas Club Baxter & Grimshaw Trust Email: grantsec@ssbgtrust.com The Baxter & Grimshaw Trust Guidance Notes can be found here

Mr Richard Western Secretary Square Rigger Club Email - bursaries@squareriggerclub.org.uk The Square Rigger Club Bursary application form can be found here

27. Can a cadet be booked on a beyond unit activity “course/offshore” after 1 April 2024?

Yes, but it will not be possible to complete payment until the new cadet contribution rates are published. This is due by the end January 2024.

28. Will senior cadet promotion boards be paused? Especially for those that might age out before 1 April 2024.

No. We do not anticipate a disruption of cadet promotion boards.

Until any changes are announced the criteria for promotion remain unchanged and all courses / promotion boards will continue as normal.

In the event of any changes to cadet promotion requirements from the review these will be well communicated before being implemented.

29. What impact will the review have on cadet’s ability to gain the skills to be promoted?

Cadet promotion is being considered as part of the review and every effort will be made to ensure any changes to the route(s) to promotion as a result of the outcome of the review are clear, well communicated and fair.

In the short term and until any changes are announced the criteria for promotion remain unchanged and all courses / promotion boards will continue as normal.