Whenurhappy,
I do agree totally if we in the Services could guarantee that our desk officer would consider our mobility with consideration for our children's stability and education without effecting our careers.
If the RAF and the MoD continue to want me to move anywhere at the drop of a hat, without question (which my friend is happening every day across all 3 services and your nirvana of finely tuned and refined postings for families is a lovely aspiration, but not reality based upon my and many's experiences) then I want to know that my children have a stable and seamless education, with social connections that do not move every 2-3 years (and less at times). If it does not want that flexibility, and I will not be career disadvantaged by electing to stay in one location once I have a a family, then I am content with that. Let me be in no doubt, if I could see my child (ren) every night when not on ops/ex and still deliver the RAF what it wants from me as a flexible resource, then I would happily remove my child (ren) from the CEA system.
But it has not and cannot guarantee this and if anything has used CEA as an HR tool to ensure that I do move when required by the RAF to fill positions that are either unpopular or appear at short notice.
On the other side of the coin, you are assuming that the desk officer can call upon a pool of childless (or those willing to weekly/bi-monthly commute) service personnel to move around as required to fulfill the postings that I/we family serving personnel may be told that we no longer need to fulfil. Lets not forget that some of these positions require certain, specialised or experienced personnel that are not always readily available to the desk officers.
And lets not also forget, do you think that the local schools of Odiham, Lyneham, Brize, wherever could cope with a sudden influx of service personnel after their parents suddenly were told that CEA was no more and to put their roots into the 'most likely' station for the next 10-15 years - and that is without the CSR also affecting the future education budget.
My solution is very simple - keep CEA, and all of the HR and service flexibility that delivers to desk officers to get the right person in the right job in the interests of the service. However, I would ensure (as now appears to be case) that the whole CEA mobility certificate is rigorously enforced as there are those that are genuinely mobile and sacrifice seeing their kids every night to ensure that the interests of the service are met. there are others that are undoubtedly in the grey area of 'may be posted' within 3-4 years, but as we all recognise there are a number of people that have absolutely no intent of leaving their 'base' station and have demonstrated absolutely no intent to move. These people should either be 'press to test' to confirm or deny their intentions or removed from the CEA register.
That to me is the fairest way - your thoughts?