In Wales the process is different from England, but they're basically part of the refereeing team. They have to take a LOTG exam every season, and keep up with the new law changes. They're there to help us with development, so criticism is very unusual.
We have a different scoring method too, we use a 6.0-10.0 scale. Our "Standard expected" as you call it in England, is a mark of 8.4.
My limited understanding is that they have an observer team, and they work with the RDO. Observer reports get sent to the RDO who signs them off to us. Mistakes are rare, everything is fairly uniform as the marking system has been in place for several years now (this year they changed the marks, before an 8.3 was standard expected, but it's up to 8.4 now).
I think, in all the observations I've had under the new system I've only unofficially raised an issue with one point across 14 observations (if my counting is right), which I think is excellent.
So, yeah, basically they're pretty sound, they're all keen to see us go through the ranks and to see us improve and they're always receptive to questions, in fact, I find most of them love it if you ask questions and are interested. The only time I've ever had an observer shoot off is when he was drenched as we had a game on in a storm, and I couldn't blame him!!!
Some of them are regular attendees at society meetings too, so you're never far from advice.
That's how it used to be in the old days. I remember getting pulled up because I wore black socks that didn't have white trims as per the Regulations of the day (this was many years ago), it was silly and I almost felt like they were an enemy that I had to appease.
Can you imagine that? A brand new referee, and being told off because your socks didn't have white tops? Nonsense.
Now it is so much better, they're more part of the team, so we're constantly in dialogue.