I dare bet that the majority of the upper management involved know that a lifeboat is a nice shade of orange but apart from that know absoloutely nothing about how it is used and the hazards associated with that use.
I think that is rather hyperbole really. I agree that people at the top of organisations frequently do have a poor grasp of what is going on at the grassroots, I have suffered from it enough times myself. I also agree that there have been some unfortunate instances of friction between RNLI management and lifeboat crew in the recent past. However I would hesitate to automatically apply the general to the particular in specific instances.
I do read all the posts about the RNLI on this and on other threads and from various other sources and it does seem to me that at the root of some of this is the changing nature of the organisation. Up until not mamy years ago lifeboat crew were often local professional seafarers, often fishermen,with an immense amount of practical experience, particularly of local conditions. This source of crew appears to be reducing and many crew now come from non seafaring backgrounds but undergo stringent training to compensate for lack of practical experience. Coupled together with modern boats and equipment this seems to have generally paid off as rescues still seem to be pretty effective although perhaps there is more reliance on 'doing things by the book' relying on training. This approach probably doesn't sit too well with traditional seafarers who prefer to work more flexibly on the basis of experience and instinct and maybe find themselves stifled by all the new rules and regulations. Inevitably in such situations there can easily be friction which requires goodwill on both sides to resolve both at local level and between local and HQ levels. People are people and from differing backgrounds and this doesn't always happen which may be the case here. Not everyone has the ability to see things from the other person's point of view and make due allowances.
However, changes do happen and are happening and the RNLI and its volunteers will need to keep working through them to keep the Institution on top of its job.
I had a look at the Safeguarding job profile (starts at £35.6k actually). Personally I think that the whole issue has been blown out of proportion in its blanket coverage but the RNLI have to comply with legislation in place, like it or not. Whether the job is worth that money is a moot point but the salary seems to be comparable with similar jobs in organisations of comparable sizes.
Colin
