National service
How Serco went from scandal to a key role training RAF pilots
AMID the historic surrounds of the officers’ mess at RAF Cranwell, a clutch of people in civilian dress mix easily with their counterparts in light blue uniforms.
Here, luminaries from the legendary legless Battle of Britain fighter pilot Douglas Bader to the incoming Chief of the Defence Staff, Sir Stuart Peach, would once have sat down to eat.
Cranwell is at the very heart of the Royal Air Force’s heritage; home of the service’s officer training college as well as a raft of other units turning raw volunteers into the airmen and women needed on the front
lines of today’s conflict zones. The civilians are private sector workers, many employed by FTSE 250 outsourcing giant Serco, the largest contractor on site. They provide everything from engineering support to graphic design and photography skills and even aptitude testing for potential RAF recruits.
Serco has endured a series of highprofile problems from overcharging for monitoring criminals to mismanaging an out-of-hours medical call centre. The group has recently offloaded an Indian business processing centre and now wants to refocus on what chief executive Rupert Soames ( pictured) has called its ‘sweet spots’ – largely this means work for the Ministry of Defence.
One such example is the company’s work with the RAF’s 45 Squadron, which trains all the pilots and aircrew who will go on to fly multi-engine aircraft from the venerable C-130 Hercules and more modern A400m military transporters to the RC-135W Rivet Joint gathering intelligence in the Middle East.
Soon Boeing’s new P-8 Poseidon will be added to this list, having been chosen by the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) to plug the maritime patrol gap left by the scrapping of the Nimrod in 2010. The RAF received a big boost from SDSR with a raft of new aircraft ordered. But now it must f i nd, recruit and train the necessary crews to man these aeroplanes in combat. And it is not just pilots but systems operators, the people who load vehicles and equipment on to transport planes and those who will search for enemy submarines on the P-8.
WING C o mmander David Catlow, commanding officer of 45 Squadron, explains that his unit has one of the most complex jobs in the RAF’s training group because it runs so many different courses: ‘We offer world class training here and what the f ront l i ne wants f rom us. Although we are a training unit, we have a strong operational ethos.’
The course includes some 80 hours of flying training and 45 to 55 hours of simulator time. Serco provides the seven King Air aircraft ( above) the squadron operates and is contracted to provide 4,500 hours a year of training time.
That is split into more than 3,000 separate flights or four waves of five aircraft each day. Providing the aircraft i s achieved through Serco’s engineering and maintenance support work. Each flying hour requires an average of 2.3 to 2.5 hours of preparatory work on the ground. To do this, Serco must provide sufficient engineers and the right mix of people with the right licences to cover all the potential maintenance requirements on any given day. Although primarily covered by military regulations, the group is also fully compliant with civilian rules too.
Catlow explains that with outsourcing to companies such as Serco – known as the Whole Force concept at the MoD – he views the relationship as one of ‘older brother versus sibling – they are going to be around whatever happens so you’d better get used to it’.
He says the RAF personnel have made it work thanks to communication and understanding. The contracts are, after all, not written by the people who work at the coalface, he notes.
‘We are at the point where we understand what the limitations are, and having a regular flow of information means we have delivered what we are doing. It is about planning but also accepting that there will be some friction.
‘I am very comfortable with our relationship with Serco and they do not hide behind a contract. They are not limiting at all and can go beyond it if possible, such as the number of available aircraft.’
Serco’s contract manager at Cranwell, Becky Talbot Young, says it works thanks to the maturity of the relationship.
‘Serco is a key part of the situation and we attend key meetings,’ she says. Talbot Young admits there are occasional complaints but these are dealt with sensibly. ‘There is no blame culture. We are providing a key service. If one of those things breaks the station cannot function.’
Defence engineering is facing a raft of changes as all flying training shifts to a new Military Flying Training System (MFTS) contract – estimated to be worth about £9bn in total – which is being overseen by Ascent, a consortium between Babcock and Lockheed Martin.
As MFTS takes over, Serco’s work with 45 Squadron will eventually cease, probably in 2018. But for now the company and its employees are committed to their vital tasks. Talbot Young says: ‘Our people are part of Cranwell and are integrated very well. They do not just work for Serco but for the MoD and for Cranwell.’