Focus MAXIMUM IMPACT scouts.org.uk The magazine for volunteer managers in Scouting October/ November 2011 Development focus How youth involvement can take Scouting forwards The way ahead The first article in a new series on leadership and management A new report shows the wider effects of Scouting
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Scouting Magazine - Focus Supplement, October November 2011
A new report shows the wider effects of Scouting The way ahead Development focus The first article in a new series on leadership and management How youth involvement can take Scouting forwards The magazine for volunteer managers in Scouting October/ November 2011 scouts.org.uk
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FocusFocus
MAXIMUM IMPACT
scouts.org.uk
The magazine for
volunteer managers in Scouting
October/November 2011
Development focusHow youth involvement
can take Scouting forwards
The way aheadThe first article in a new
series on leadership and management
MAXIMUM IMPACTA new report shows the wider effects of Scouting
ContributorsElizabeth Fraser, Tim Kidd, Rob Lyon, David Mackenzie, Laura McManus, Mike Prudom, Mark Tarry, Gordon Weston
County: Although in some parts of the British Isles Scout Counties are known as Areas or Islands – and in one case Bailiwick – for ease of reading this publication simply refers to County/Counties. In Scotland there is no direct equivalent to County or Area. In Scotland, Scouting is organised into Districts and Regions, each with distinct responsibilities. Some ‘County’ functions are the responsibility of Scottish Regions, whilst others lie with Scottish Districts. The focus of responsibility is outlined in Scottish variations from POR.
Adult Support TeamThe Scout Association, Gilwell Park, Chingford;London E4 7QW; Tel: 0845 300 1818 email [email protected]
Mackenzie, Laura McManus, Mike Prudom,
County: Although in some parts of the British
Islands – and in one case Bailiwick – for ease
Scotland, Scouting is organised into Districts
responsibilities. Some ‘County’ functions are
Download all section supplements at www.scouts.org.uk/magazine
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Help Beaver Scout Leaders with their residential experiencesEarlier this year, rules governing Beaver Scout residential experiences were updated. One major change is the requirement that each Beaver is given the opportunity to attend at least one residential experience each year. A few leaders have contacted us with concerns that their Colony would be closed if they didn’t meet the standard.
An important point we made on announcing this is that it does not have to be the Beaver Scout Leader who organises the residential experience. It could be a Group camp, or it could be a joint activity with the Cub Pack or another Colony in the District. It could also be something organised at District or County level.
If Counties and Districts organise residential experiences it enables those leaders who have never organised a residential experience to get some experience in a safe environment whilst allowing their Colony to take part.
Full information on residential experiences can be found on the Member resources area of www.scouts.org.uk
Scout Community Week 2012After the success of this year’s pilot, Scout
Community Week will be taking place across the
UK on 14-20 May 2012. A full report is in the
main magazine, but to find out more, please visit
www.scouts.org.uk/scoutcommunityweek
New impact of Scouting videoAt the Association’s AGM, we showed a brand new video on the impact of Scouting. If you would like to download this and show it at your own AGMs, the full video is available at www.scouts.org.uk/impact
adventures, with step-by-step guides to get them out and
about. The pack will provide an adventure workbook with
tips and advice for every stage to complement
their advancing skill and adventure levels.
To find out more visit
www.scouts.org.uk/cotswold
Cotswold OutdoorCotswold Outdoor provide expert knowledge and
advice to help you with planning and navigation. Their
impartial advice will ensure the correct clothing and best
kit are available to keep every young person and leader
comfortable and safe.
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Make sense of moneyThe Scout Association and NatWest are in the process of launching a brand new series of activity packs to teach young people all about money management
Five different activity
packs have so far been
produced for the Scout
section, with detailed
accompanying resources for
leaders. Each pack covers a
specific area of looking after
money and is full of exciting ideas
to help Scouts learn about
managing their own finances.
There are also lots of Scouting-
specific activities to give young
people a taste of what it’s like to
organise a camp, run a fundraising
campaign or be a treasurer.
More packs are currently being
produced for the other sections.
The packs for Scouts are:• Money and your life• Staying on budget• Bringing the fun into fundraising• Running your own event• Running your own business
Fun and financeAs well as teaching Scouts important life skills, some of the things in the packs can also count towards badges and challenge awards. A number of the fun activities can be done in a meeting place, while others will give Scouts the opportunity to get out and about.
In addition to the activity packs, NatWest has also produced various online tools to help Scouts and leaders alike with their finances, including a budgeting tool that can be used for planning camps and events.
Direct Scout Leaders to www.scouts.org.uk/natwest to download their packs today.
There’s no single blanket approach to development because of the different needs and requirements of each RegionIn the East of England we’ve got some very urban areas
like Southend, Peterborough, Luton, as well as village
Groups. Inevitably the support Scouting needs to operate
within these communities will be different.
Where the development planning process comes to the
fore is that it helps you and the team you’re working with
to agree which are the priorities that need to be
addressed. It gives you a focus of where you’re heading,
and how you’re going to get there from where you are
now. I see my role in ensuring that people are supported
and work cooperatively.
I rely heavily on my Regional Development ManagerDavid Walsh and I work in tandem. We are a definite
partnership where he is responsible for the management
of staff and the projects they are working on and I’m
responsible for ensuring that the volunteers are best
utilising the resource available. The professional insight he
brings to the table is invaluable in assisting me in my role
and the development of Scouting across the Region.
If you want to create something, we can help you do itIn my mind a Development Plan can be between three
and five key things that you want to achieve in the next
12 months. It doesn’t have to be a document that some
large corporate body is proud of. Not quite on the back
of an envelope either, but it can be as simple as a sheet
of A4 paper saying these are the things we want to
achieve, how we are going to do it and which of
us is responsible for managing it.
Covering the ‘Growing the Movement’ modules is something I enjoy doingI quite often deliver modules 13 and 21, which are the
Growing the Movement Modules. Hopefully I do it in an
interesting, entertaining and informative way and I make
the point we all have a duty to grow and develop
Scouting. Besides, why would we not want to? Everybody
goes away from the session with a ‘Development Promise’
– three things they’re going to do in the next six months,
and that’s the start of a development plan. It’s not as
sophisticated as the Association’s, but if we can get more
people thinking along these lines then we’ve achieved
something.
We’ve had loads of success starting up new Groups or sectionsTake for example Hinchingbrooke District in
Cambridgeshire. The Regional Development Service have
used Grand Charity grant money to open Beaver Colonies,
and they’ve done a fantastic job. Some people said,
CONTACT YOUR COMMISSIONERFor more information and to find your Regional Commissioner, speak to your County Commissioner or contact the Scout Information Centre on 0845 300 1818.
‘You can’t do it like that,’ but actually they’ve achieved real
results. That model is one we’ve used throughout the
Region in various places. These new Colonies have got
a leadership team that role share, where not everybody
can attend every week the leaders work on a rota system
of a different leader taking responsibility for each week.
This presents challenges, but like the rest of us volunteers
these are good people giving up their time to support
growing Beaver Scouting. There are lots of ideas about
flexible volunteering floating around the Region.
In every County there are still things there to be doneWherever I go, people are telling me ‘We need more
adults’ or ‘We don’t have enough training advisers’, or
‘The Young Leader Scheme isn’t as good as it could be’,
and this is good. If we felt we’d done everything there’d
be something wrong.
Among my other roles, I was an acting Group Scout LeaderIt was a really interesting time, because it brought me back
to what it’s actually all about. If what I, or the County, or
District Commissioner does doesn’t make it better for
people in Groups and what they are doing then we must
ask why are we doing it?
If I have one piece of advice, it’s don’t take yourself too seriouslyThis is our hobby and if we can’t have a laugh and enjoy
what we’re doing then we shouldn’t be doing it. It’s a
relief from what we do the rest of the time. When you
stop enjoying it then you’re in the wrong role. This doesn’t
mean to say you’re doing the wrong things, you just need
Gordon Weston, Chair of the Youth Involvement Working Group and
Regional Commissioner from the South West, considers how we can try
to encourage youth involvement within Scouting
One of the six principles of Scouting leadership
and management is ‘Working with people. As
an effective manager in Scouting you will
create a team spirit and work effectively with
people in your area based on trust and the fundamentals
of Scouting.’
As managers in Scouting, we work with teams of adults
on a regular basis and make decisions that affect the
experiences of many young people in Scouting.
Youth involvement is essential if we are to keep
Scouting relevant to young people and thereby ensure
that we continue to grow as we have done over recent
years.
I would be surprised if anyone reading this article
disagreed that delivering what young people want is
the secret to our success – young people will encourage
their friends to join if they truly believe that they are
getting something different and inspiring from their
Scouting experience.
Working in partnershipWe have a vision that Scouting will be a Movement
shaped by young people in partnership with adults, and
make no mistake, this is a tough aim. So how is it possible
to include young people in your leadership team? It
requires more than just giving young people input into the
programme that we are running, rather it requires us to
ensure that the views of young people are at the heart of
everything that we do, though that in itself doesn’t mean
that they need to make all of the decisions.
Setting up Group/District/County forums to clearly
understand what young people want is a good start, and
can lead in turn to other opportunities for greater youth
involvement. These forums will need to be run by
someone who clearly relates to the age group of those
attending the forum, and who can help them explore
and understand some of the concepts of Scouting outside
of their weekly programme.
Putting it into practiceA really good example of this happened at a forum that
I attended in April. As we conducted a discussion with the
older Scouts and Explorers in attendance it became clear
that they didn’t believe that their section leaders had
a true understanding of diversity in the 21st century,
and they felt that more could be done to help leaders
understand the challenges young people face. More
important, they thought, was how society looks from
a young person’s perspective (which is often different
to the perspective of adults).
Their County Commissioner has taken up the challenge,
and will be delivering training on diversity across the
County, to try and help all adults understand society from
a youth perspective. They are also getting some young
people involved in helping to deliver the message –
undoubtedly this will have an effect on the decisions that
some of those adults will subsequently make – this
outcome will be the result of adults working in partnership
with young people.
Gordon Weston is the Chair of the Youth Involvement Working Group
For more information about how you can contribute to youth involvement, contact [email protected], or contact your local Nominated Youth Representative to see how they could help you improve Youth Involvement in your area.
find out more
A youth-led movementA youth-led movementA youth-led
Yea or nay?County Training Manager David Mackenzie and joint County Commissioners Elizabeth Fraser and Mike Prudom put forward the arguments over whether managers in Scouting should share their volunteering roles...
Nay:Yea: David Mackenzie, County Training Manager
The usual model of role-sharing suggests two or more
people doing much the same job. This can work well if
tasks are clearly defined. I am not convinced though that
this approach translates easily to Scou ting roles such as
County Commissioner, District Commissioner or Group
Scout Leader.
People prefer to know to whom they are accountable.
The smart leader has that enviable knack of identifying,
inspiring and genuinely leading the right people to help
deliver the vision. Consider how effective a Barack Obama
or indeed a Winston Churchill would be if they had a job
share partner to consult before making a decision.
Genuine delegation of responsibilities and an ability to
share the vision are key to making Scouting work
effectively. In short, the tried and tested method of having
one leader identifying the jobs which need to be done and
the right people to do them is essential if the overall plan is
to come together. That is not the same as splitting core
responsibilities in half.
Elizabeth Fraser and Mike Prudom, joint County
Commissioners for HumbersideWhen we each applied for the role as County
Commissioner of Humberside, neither of us imagined that
we would be asked to perform the role jointly, because it
had never been done before. In truth, we were a little
relieved as the reality and enormity of the role was just
beginning to dawn on both of us.
While we each possessed a range of skills, neither one
had the complete set required of a County Commissioner.
One of us was firmly rooted in the uniformed sections,
working with the various challenges which arise in
sections, Groups and Districts, while the other was used to
managing adult volunteers, and formulating and
implementing policies and strategies.
So it was that we were ‘married’ together in our new
role. A joint appointment was something new, not
envisaged by the membership database or by the
members of our County and Scouting in general.
Three years on, the support that we have been able to
give each other continues to sustain us in the role. We
work to each other’s strengths and allocate tasks
accordingly. Almost every day we speak about issues
within the County, agreeing a joint way forward and who
will handle the matter. We are able to be in many places
• Scouting develops the leaders of today and tomorrow.
External organisations said that staff who had been
involved in Scouting were above average employees
across a range of attributes.
• Scouting is an integral community resource. Some 80%
of external organisations said that Scouting benefited
their organisation and 69% said that it benefited their
clients or service users.
Resources for local ScoutingFor Scouting to make best use of the report locally we
have created a series of impact toolkits to help managers
use the data in local situations where they may need to
provide evidence of Scouting’s impact.
The impact toolkits will offer evidence from the report
which can be used in relation to:
• Writing grant applications or bids
• Talking to parents
• Recruiting adult volunteers
• Engaging with businesses, employers and community
organisations
• Talking to MPs or local Councillors
The research shows that the impact of Scouting goes far
beyond the individual, offering social, environmental and
economic benefits to its Members and its communities
across the UK.
GET THE REPORT AND THE TOOLKITSThe executive summary and full report of the Impact Assessment is available on request after 1 November 2011 from Jenni Anderson, by emailing [email protected] The impact toolkits are available from www.scouts.org.uk/managers
Which d irection?Tim Kidd explores one of the aspects of good leadership and management in Scouting: providing direction
O ver the next six issues of Focus I will be
looking at each of the areas that we have
identified as being key to good leadership
and management in Scouting. I believe that
every one of us that manages adults in Scouting has a
responsibility to do so to the best of our ability, and to
ensure that we drive Scouting forwards.
The first area to consider is ‘providing direction’.
We need to know where we are going and what we want
to achieve. It might be a simple concept, but that doesn’t
necessarily make it easy to do. There are five main points
to consider.
1. VisionThe manager should ensure that there is a
clearly stated vision for Scouting locally. This
does not have to be grand – in fact, short
is usually best. As a Group Scout Leader,
you might want to open a second Scout
Troop, or as a District Commissioner,
it might be about helping Groups to run
more adventurous programmes. Whatever
it is, everyone should feel that they have
helped to create the vision and that they
understand it.
2. PlanOnce the vision is agreed, it is important
to plan to do something. Of course, once
there is a plan, people will want to get on
and do it, so as a manager you will need to
create a plan and ensure that you organise
people to get on with it. Review progress
regularly and make changes to your plan as
necessary.
3. LeadershipTo make anything happen requires
commitment and enthusiasm, so the manager
must provide clear leadership, inspiration and motivation.
Think about someone you know who is inspirational and
motivational. What do they do? What do they say? And,
most importantly, how do they do and say things?
Inspirational people come in all types – some are loud and
the centre of attention; others are quiet and unassuming.
There is no one correct way to do this.
4. Co- operationThe best Scouting is achieved when people
work together. So
a good manager in Scouting will
encourage co-operation in the Group,
District or County. One of the best ways
of doing this is to lead by example.
5. Policies and rulesThe manager is responsible for ensuring that everyone
they are responsible for follows the policies and rules of
The Scout Association. Simply put, it is no use rushing off
and creating a vision if to achieve it we break all the rules
and put ourselves or others at risk.
In summarySo that’s all there is to it. I think that breaking it
down into five points makes it a bit easier. My
challenge to you is to reflect on how you provide direction
for your local Scouting and consider how you might
accomplish each of the five points above to make it even
better. Good luck.
Tim Kidd is Chief Commissioner for England. Contact him at [email protected]
For more ideas please see www.scouts.org.uk/managers. You can also email [email protected] to share good ideas and examples of what you are doing. Call Unity now on 0845 0945 703
Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority, FRN 312976. Unity Insurance Services is a trading name of Scout Insurance Services Limited.
Our new minibus policies now go even further. We can cover your minibus when you lend it to other Scout Groups and Guide Units. We can even cover minibuses you hire for camps and other trips.
Call Unity now on 0845 0945 703www.scoutinsurance.co.uk Email: [email protected]
Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority, FRN 312976. Unity Insurance Services is a trading name of Scout Insurance Services Limited.
Our new minibus policies now go even further. We can cover your minibus when you lend it to other Scout Groups and Guide Units. We can even cover minibuses you hire for camps and other trips.