Volunteers Week - Thursday

Thank you for taking the lead, our volunteers need you and Scouting needs you.

The managers section of the UK Member Resources area gives you easy access to a wide range of resources to help you with the challenging aspects of your vital role, from carrying out reviews to dealing with disputes, and from developing your Group Executive to recruiting new volunteers.

As a manager, your role is to provide direction and to help people see the bigger picture by providing great leadership for the future.

During the current period where Scouting cannot happen face to face there are a number of additional considerations, risks and financial impacts to consider

The Coronavirus area on our website will help navigate through the key areas that have been affected. You’ll find a button to this area in the bottom right of the screen, wherever you are on our website at the moment but the first reference is always the government advice and Scouts UK direction.


In the Scouts member emails you will have seen a request to make sure members are up to date with Mandatory Training.  Safety and Safeguarding of all our members remains our number one priority. Any of your team members who have overdue mandatory training on their compass record should complete this and submit their certificate for validation as soon as possible. You can read the request from Chief Commissioner Tim Kidd here and read more about the reasons why here.

One key change that will happen at the start of June is that you and your deputies will be able to validate a member's safety and safeguarding training on Compass. To validate a member, they’ll need to share their completed e-learning certificate with you, and you can then update their record for their safety or safeguarding mandatory ongoing learning. This will help support our great local training teams and the central pool of volunteers to get members’ records validated as quickly as possible helping to increase the rate of compliance. If you need guidance on how to update records, find support here.

Some of our members will be key workers who are unable to undertake their training right now because of their work demands. If this is the case they should identify this and HQ will not send reminders until after the Coronavirus crisis has passed.

Also, if you notice anyone in the list above who is no longer involved with Scouts, please can I ask that you remove them from Compass. This helps us to make sure they’re not affecting the overall compliance data.

It may be likely some of these members have multiple roles and report to different line managers, if so, then they will also appear in other managers lists.

You can provide reassurance to members that there will be an extension of six months to their First Aid Training. This extension starts from the date that face to face scouting resumes. While face-to-face Scouting is suspended, trainers will be keen to use the opportunity of volunteers being at home to undertake the theory elements of the training so as to make face-to-face courses shorter. This is absolutely fine, but all First Response validation will still need to take place face-to-face, as will the practical elements of the training (for example CPR).


If you are not receiving Member Emails and details of calls please check your contact details are up to date on Compass. If you are not able to log in to Compass please speak with your line manager who will help you access your record. Especially in this difficult time. The next member call will take place on 24th June.


At the moment DBS checks cannot be completed for Scouts.

It is still possible for your teams to recruit, just make sure that a non DBS adult is not left alone online with the young people

You maybe have received recently, or will soon receive, an email from the Scout Association advising you that DBS checks are overdue and non-completion could lead to your members being suspended.

Please disregard this message and any subsequent reminders. You will not be suspended, even though your DBS has expired.

Early in March the decision was made to stop DBS checking to relieve the pressure on the local Police service and Scout Association staff who are working from home. No members will be suspended in the current situation.

Unfortunately, it was not possible to reprogram the membership admin system to stop sending these emails but you are assured membership status is secure.

Once checks begin again, the tentative arrangements are that everyone with an out of date DBS will be invited to renew it when normal face to face Scouting activity resumes and you will have 90 days from that date to arrange a renewal before suspension is considered. It may be worth keeping a note of those you need to contact first.

Current volunteers whose disclosures expire can continue to meet digitally, following the advice and guidance issued on holding virtual meetings to make sure we keep everyone safe.

Recruitment is possible during the period where we can’t scout face to face. The staged indoor activity badge is for members and non-members for the first time in history and what better time to offer scouting opportunities to young people on waiting lists or those who have siblings at home.

Families and carers who are getting involved now are starting to see so much more of what Scouting can offer them as well as their young people so start having conversations about the bits they might enjoy continuing with in future.

Even when we can meet face to face it is likely that a large amount of digital scouting can and will continue. Finding those who might want to continue online rather than face to face may offer a whole new way of scouting opportunities.

Holding meetings is possible using a number of Digital Support tools. Facebook messenger is already used widely for small meetings. County email has added access to Workplace for similar features but on an internal social network. For section or activity group meetings Teams provided by Lincolnshire Scouts or Zoom Pro from HQ may be more suitable.

The Zoom Pro offer has just been released from HQ. There’s one license available per Group/District/County right up until 21 November 2020. Find out more and complete the access request form. Check out the guidance on using Zoom.

If you or your teams have any issues with digital tools or have suggestions on how we can offer greater support to members, please register and submit a request or suggestion on the servicedesk.

Looking out for your young people. Life right now feels very different to what we’re all used to. It’s amazing that despite this so many leaders are still running their programmes virtually, with 4 out of 5 Groups able to run regular online activities. If you’re not already doing so, please keep a record of attendance at each session to track who is joining you. This will help your Group to identify if there are any young people who have not been in touch since face-to face-Scouting stopped and if there’s other support we can give to those young people.

Safeguarding processes can still be carried out locally. The Safeguarding Team are aiming to keep their service 'business as usual' as far as possible. They recognise that there may be individuals who await outcomes to remove them from suspension and in these uncertain times delays may cause further anxiety. The Safeguarding team will work as hard as they can to resolve issues, but there may be delays.

Do you have questions about what your insurance covers when doing Scouts at home? Check out our latest guidance.

During our Scouting activities we find out a whole lot of useful information. Some of it is from the things that go really well and some is from the things that could have gone better. To gain all we need to know for ourselves would take a lifetime but collectively we can pool that experience and every day become a little better than we were before. The new Shared Experience area on the website will give you some neutral statements based on leader learning that can help you expect the unexpected and boost your risk assessments.

Why not join the Managers in Scouting Facebook group? The group is an online space to share ideas and best practice. It also functions as a mutual form of support for managers.