"Cadets Welcome HMS Richmond As She Arrives In Cardiff"

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2010/05/13/cadets-drop-anchor-on-birthday-91466-26435405/

 

Out of curiosity, what is the relationship between the regular/reserve Navy and the SCC?

Serious question before the toilet brigade jump in.

 

The Sea cadets officially (their choice) are not funded directly by the RN. They are funded by being a charity. However, the MOD does add funds to the charity.

We also still oversee them i.e senior officers and visits by careers staff etc. Yearly checks by Naval staff

SM

 

The SCC is a registered charity run and maintained by the Marine Society and Sea Cadets, unlike the ACF and ATC it is not run by its parent arm. They have a Memorandum of Understanding with the RN which covers things like uniforms, stores, training, organisation and such like. The upshot is the Sea Cadets gets uniforms, stores, some boats, training packages provided at such places like Raliegh, Excellent etc. The RN alos provides us with Senior Staff such as the Captain of the Sea Cadets who is a serving captin in the RN. Each Area also has an Area Officer who is a serving Commander or Lt Col in the RM. They are responsible for orgnaising and monitoring activities and training in their own area. The Navy gets a PR tool. For instance the Battle of Trafalgar parade every year in Traf Square is put on by the SCC and is one of the high profile events of the year, currently the RN could not put on that sort of parade due to manpower commitments.

One of the prvious Sea Lords said that the SCC was one of the RN's most powerful PR tools.

Not sure what the percentage figures (Ninja any Idea?) but there is a fair percentage of recruits into the mob who are ex sea cadets, myself included.

Hope that helps, there is a lot more to the relationship, but that is it in a nutshell, well my defined nutshell. I stand by to be corrected.

 

Cheers guys. I know it's a charity and that their Officers are appointed (as opposed to commissioned like me in the ACF), i was just wondering if you shared the same support as i do with my parent unit (The Life Guards). It would seem that the SCC share a similar relationship. Good to hear.

 

I think it's safe to say that most units have an affiliation with an RN warship, normally based round their home town. My old unit's was HMS Liverpool, so units tend to get ship's visits in and short trips, think the last time the Liverpool was in port she took a party of cadets on passage to Porstmouth for 3 or 4 days, which is great for the kids. Officers are commissioned on a similar position to the ACF, they hold reserve appointments and are allowed to use RNR after their name on SCC business.

Personally I think the relationship works quite well, there will be others who disagree. The hardest thing for SCC units is running costs. When I could not commit the time anymore I left as a staff member and went onto the management committee for the unit. It's hard work trying to drum up funds for running costs, a continuous uphill battle. I suppose that is where the ACF have the edge as they are mostly in TA buildings or on camps and therefore do not have that worry.

Just as an aside the Royal Marines have just granted the Marine Cadets who are a part of the SCC, permission to rebadge to Royal Marine Cadets. It's quite an honour for the Royal Marine Cadets and shows how highly they are thought of by thier big brothers

Edited - Mong ptyping