Kent County Council gives extra leave to staff who volunteer as cadet instructors

The leader of Kent County Council has changed council policy to give employees who volunteer as cadet instructors additional leave, announcing the move at an annual armed forces conference in Maidstone.

Kent County Council staff who give their time as Cadet Force Adult Volunteers — the uniformed and non-uniformed adults who run training sessions, meetings and activities for cadet units — will now be entitled to extra leave. The council’s leader made the announcement at the Kent and Medway Armed Forces Covenant Conference, held at Mid-Kent College in Maidstone in June 2025.

No previous military experience needed. The Ministry of Defence is clear on that. The role takes in everything from weekly parade nights to accompanying cadets on camps and trips away — and the policy change follows a recommendation in KCC’s 2025 annual report that the council should look at offering paid time off for employees who volunteer in this way.

The exact number of additional leave days hasn’t been confirmed from official published material, and nor has who qualifies or when the policy kicks in. For context, the Government’s National Cadets Week employers’ toolkit recommends five days of paid volunteering leave for Cadet Force Adult Volunteers — though whether KCC has matched that figure isn’t yet clear.

The numbers behind all this are worth a moment. Nationally, more than 28,000 adults volunteer with Ministry of Defence-sponsored cadet forces. As of 1 April 2026, over 137,000 young people were involved across the UK. Not a small operation.

The conference itself is organised annually by the Kent and Medway Civilian-Military Partnership Board, which oversees how the Kent and Medway Armed Forces Covenants are put into practice. This year’s was the board’s 11th.

The council leader’s full post sets out the thinking behind the change.

KCC will need to publish the formal policy wording before the precise entitlement and eligibility rules are confirmed.

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Source: @LeaderofKCC

Published: 29 September 2026