County Newsletter

Transformation Updates

We’re continuing to roll out changes to improve our volunteer's experience in Scouts. Find out how we’re transforming volunteering in Scouts.

The first three areas changing are: 

1. Embedding a positive volunteering culture

We want Our Volunteering Culture to be something we're all proud of. It's there to help our new & existing volunteers thrive, giving them clear expectations and a shared understanding of what it really means to be a volunteer in Scouts.

2. Taking a more teams based approach to volunteering, including changes to role names and how we share tasks

Our new principles are:

• We volunteer flexibly as part of a team with a shared purpose.

• Our teams and titles are easier to understand and more appealing to new volunteers.

• Teams agree how to share tasks between them and this can change over time.
  To find out what this means for you and your teams visit the Volunteering Together pages of scouts.org.uk.

3. Executive Committees are becoming Trustee Boards to make their role as Scouts Trustees clearer and more focused

From April 2023, Executive Committees and Executive Committee Members became Trustee Boards and Trustees respectively.

Trustee Boards will focus on governance activities. Support activities (such as fundraising, premises management or administration) currently led by Executive Committees will move to other teams in the Group, District or County.

Being clear about Trustee Boards' governance purpose helps trustees to understand their responsibilities and carry these out in an effective way. 
Separating governance and operational tasks will also help as we recruit new volunteers - and to retain those already part of our teams. For example, the person who's great at managing the hall or running fundraising events might not have the skills, interests or time to be a trustee - but they can still be involved, as part of the Leadership Team or Support Team.

More information can be found on the Moving to Trustee Boards section on scouts.org.uk.

We can also share that development of the new Membership and Learning systems is progressing well. Testing is underway with feedback and suggestions from volunteers being incorporated along the way.

If you want to get involved, there are currently opportunities to provide feedback on some of the new Learning via the Testing Hub.