RAF Families Survey September 2002/March 2003
Accommodation
The majority of respondents were living in Service Families Accommodation (SFA). The aspect of living in SFA that achieved the greatest level of satisfaction was the rent paid for it. Almost all felt that family situations should be taken into account when allocating SFA. When assessing local facilities, the HIVEs and Messes were the only areas which the majority rated as good. As in previous surveys the vast majority considered the standard of teenage entertainment available near their SFA to be poor.
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The majority had children, with just over half having two children living at home at the time of the surveys. Of those reporting problems with finding school places, most related to the infant school age groups. It was generally agreed that postings should be timed to coincide with school holidays and indeed the months in which most moves occurred were July and August.
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The majority were in employment, whether full-time, part-time or self employed. Of those who were not employed, most stated that they would work outside the home if they had the opportunity to do so. The majority of spouses felt that they needed to work for their own fulfilment and for financial reasons. However, there was the feeling that pursuing a career was difficult when one's spouse was in the RAF and the majority had had to leave a civilian job due to their spouse being posted.
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The area of greatest dissatisfaction in this section related to the information available to spouses about RAF allowances. This was also highlighted as being the information that people wanted to see on the RAFCOM website.
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Consistently the issue of most concern in the area of health care was finding NHS dentists when moving to new areas.
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This section of the questionnaire covered a wide range of issues. Although a small minority of people indicated that they did not like their life being married to a member of the RAF, for the majority, the RAF lifestyle had met their expectations. The Mar 03 survey showed a significant increase in the positive responses to items related to support offered to those whose partners were away, which may indicate an increase in support offered during Op Telic.
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If their partner were to leave the RAF, the aspects of their family life most respondents felt would change for the better were their own career prospects and general family life.
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