South East Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Association (SERFCA) is one of 13 RFCAs UK-wide, SERFCA is a Ministry of Defence (MOD) Arms’ Length Body, responsible to the Defence Council, but separate from military chains-of-command. SERFCA supports the Reserve Forces and Cadets from the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force in the Counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey, and East and West Sussex. SERFCA also helps connect Defence with Society.
The majority of the Association comprises volunteers, presided over by the Lord-Lieutenant of each County, ranging from high-ranking serving and retired military Officers, through local Councillors to enthusiastic locals, with no military experience, but with a will to support the Armed Forces and Cadets; so it can be seen that the Association has close links with the Community because it is part of that Community. In short, the main roles of SERFCA are:
‘Providing the best place to work and train.’
Managing the volunteer estate, Reserve and Cadet buildings. This includes maintaining sites to the required legal standards and ensuring that all locations are kept in good order, fit for purpose and secure; where resources allow, enhancements and even new builds occur. SERFCA aims to provide an attractive environment in which to recruit and train. SERFCA is responsible for the upkeep of 30 Army Reserve Centre’s, 3 Careers Offices and University Officer Training Units (which are tri-service), 297 Cadet Centres including 58 Joint Cadet Centres, 7 Cadet Training Centres all on behalf of the MOD. SERFCA also has its own training camp; Jersey Camp on the Isle of Wight.
‘Encouraging support from employers and the community for the Reserves and Cadets.’
Encouraging support for the Reserves and Cadets through engagement events, briefings, awards evenings, social media and other publicity, influencing key stakeholders across the region. This includes encouraging organisations to sign the Armed Forces’ Covenant and to join the Employer Recognition Scheme.
‘Promoting the Cadet experience.’
Supporting the Combined Cadet Force, Volunteer Cadet Corps, Sea Cadet Corps, Army Cadet Force and Royal Air Force Air Cadets, facilitating thousands of Cadets and Cadet Force Adult Volunteers to develop their qualifications, soft skills, a good work ethic and a positive outlook on both life and work. SERFCA provides the Army Cadet Force’s Professional Support Staff and promotes the Cadet Experience for both the Combined cadet Force and the Community Cadets. SERFCA also helps encourage and sustain the Cadet Expansion Programme in state schools.
‘A supportive and independent perspective’
SERFCA contributes to the Council of RFCAs requirement to produce an annual External Scrutiny Team report on the Reserves and an annual Cadet Health Check. These comments on the state of the Reserves and Cadets are independent of the chains of command.
To be an enduring and essential pillar in the delivery of support for the well-being of the Reserves and Cadets and, through our effectiveness and our position in the regions, to be the independent body that represents their interests and promotes understanding between the Armed Forces and civil society.
We are a Central Government Body with Crown status, set up by statute.
We are a manifestation of the volunteer ethos.
Our Voluntary membership bring with it an unparalleled breadth of expertise and experience.
We are tri-Service.
We are the regions, operating thought the United Kingdom.
We are a not-for-profit organisation.
We are demonstrable value for money.
We promote the interests of the Armed Forces.
We champion the volunteer ethos both within and outside the Services.
We are apolitical.
Through our collegiate behavior, we have national responsibility, influence and recognition, while being independent ( from the MOD and the chains of command ) and autonomous ( from each other ).
We support the work of third sector organisations which also contribute to the well-being of Service personnel & dependents, veterans and youth.
We supplement government funding through income generation for our dependencies.
Address: Seely House
Shoe Lane
Aldershot
Hampshire
GU11 2HJ
Phone: 01252 357606
E-Mail: se-info@rfca.mod.uk
Accessibility statement for serfca.org
This accessibility statement applies to the website of The South East Reserve Forces and Cadets Association: serfca.org
This website is run by our in-house Communications team. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website.
How accessible this website is
We know a small amount of content on this website is not fully accessible:
* Your screen reader may not be able to read some of the older PDF documents still stored on our website.
* Some older images may not have alternative text descriptions.
* We have on occasion embedded videos from YouTube, produced by other organisations, into articles on our website, to which subtitles were not added and for which there is little description in the accompanying text.
Feedback and contact information
If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:
* email us at se-info@rfca.mod.uk
* call us on 01252 357604
Enforcement procedure
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).
Non-accessible content
Disproportionate burden
Non-text content (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1)
Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information.
Any images which do not contain alternative text descriptions are from past news articles, which are not essential for users to access our services and serve only to illustrate the text. It would be a disproportionate burden to our small team, at the current time, to add alternative text descriptions to all images.
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
PDFs and other documents
Some of our older PDFs and Word documents may not work with screen readers.
The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.
Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.
Live video
We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
When we publish new content, we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards, and will begin a process of continuous improvement to add alternative text descriptions to all images on our website.
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