Programme

Our aim: A fun, high-quality programme, consistently delivered and supported by simple digital tools.

Progress a year on

Our Activity Finder continues to go from strength to strength. There’re now 1,500 activities to find, and 200 were added over the last 12 months. Around 50,000 volunteers use the Activity Finder every month, and give it a Net Promoter Score. A Net Promoter Score measures volunteers’ satisfaction with the Activity Finder, by asking if they’d recommend it to another volunteer. At the moment, the resources scores 34 out of a possible –100 to +100, which is considered ‘favourable’.

The movement has also delivered some fantastic campaigns, kindly supported by partnerships:

• Our new Money Skills activity badge, supported by HSBC, has been awarded to over 56,000 Beavers and Cubs. Media coverage of the badge has reached 29 million people.
• For the Paddle the Amazon event, supported by Jaffa and British Canoeing, 4,200 Scouts collectively paddled 7,400 miles.
• Hundreds of Explorers have completed their Leadership activity badge with the support of the British Army. 200 Explorers visited the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and hundreds more attended webinars and accessed tailored videos.
• We provided a range of activities for Remembrance Day, in partnership with the Royal British Legion.
• As a member of the Generation Green consortium, funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, we launched a suite of activities and day/residential experiences. These inspire over 57,000 young people to become ‘Green Champions,’ by connecting with nature and taking action to preserve it.
• At the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis, we shared guidance and resources about talking to young people about international crises.
• We’ve supported a strong recovery for Duke of Edinburgh Award participation – there’s been a 170% increase in award completions.

We still have a long way to go to make programme delivery as easy as possible for adult volunteers. The Scout Experience Survey found that:

• While 47% of Section Leaders use HQ programme resources occasionally, only 20% use them ‘regularly’ or ‘always.’ This is up from 44% and 17% respectively in 2018.
• We’re slowly improving, but Section Leaders only give HQ programme resources a Net Promoter Score of –33 out of a possible –100 to +100. This rates whether they’d recommend the resources to other volunteers, and has increased from –44 in 2018. To improve these results, we plan to invest more in the user-centered approach that has slowly increased our popularity since 2018. 

What’s next

With our new UK Commissioner for Programme, we’ve prioritised:

• Improving the support we give to Section Leader teams and line managers who help deliver programmes.
• Embedding our Squirrels and Community Impact projects into regular programme delivery.
• Increasing the number of young people taking part in nights away from home, and the Duke of Edinburgh Award.

We hope this’ll increase the number of young people achieving our Top Awards – the Chief Scout and Queen’s Scout Awards.

In the 20th anniversary of Explorer Scouts (14-18 year olds) and Scout Network (18-24 year olds), we’ll also start reviewing our programme for 14 to 24-year-olds. We’ll consider what the next 20 years will look like for older sections, and make sure our programme is impactful, relevant, and fun.

We’ll continue to partner with charities and businesses to create brilliant programme materials, alongside young people, volunteers and external experts.

We’ll:

• Develop our Activity Finder and Programme Planning Tool, allowing volunteers and young leaders to rate content, access “off the shelf” programmes, and promote activities they (and our partners) love.
• Support over 200 volunteers from HSBC to deliver the Money Skills badge in Beaver Colonies and Cub Packs.
• Review how we talk and act on disability within our programme, making sure it’s in line with wider society.
• Train adult volunteers to deliver the Digital Maker staged activity badge, thanks to help from Raspberry Pi Foundation. There’ll also be opportunities for Scouts to enter national competitions.
• Deliver a range of science-based activities by working with Global Action Plan. This’ll help young people better understand and act on air pollution.
• Provide local Scout Groups with 20,000 free Warhammer kits to support the Model Maker badge. They’ll also go towards a new skills programme for Explorer Scouts to achieve their Creative Arts activity badge, Chief Scouts Award, and Duke of Edinburgh Award.

Early Years

After a long piloting period, we’ve started a new provision for 4–6 year olds called Squirrels. We started Squirrels to help young people gain skills for life even earlier, at a time when it matters most, and where it’s most needed.

Young people’s early years are amazing. Minds are fizzing, and energy and curiosity levels are sky high. It’s the time to fill our youngest members with ‘wow’ and wonder, engage them in nature, help them climb the tree of knowledge and fun – and who knows how far they’ll reach?

With Squirrels, we’re reaching young people who’d benefit the most from Scouts. Research suggests that, the earlier a young person accesses non-formal education, the more positive the impact on their prospects. Through our newest section, we believe we’ll reach into new communities, and provide Scouts for a more diverse range of people.

We’re hoping that, by 2023:

• 940 Squirrel Dreys will open, supporting over 12,000 young people.
• 30% of Squirrel Dreys will be in low-income areas (bottom 30% of the Index Multiple Deprivation - IMD 1-3).
• More than 10% of Squirrels will be from Black, Asian and Minority ethnic communities.

Progress on Early Years

Following 18 months of piloting, the Centre for Research into Early Childhood said, ‘Participation in the Early Years Scout Programme, even over a short period of time, has had a positive and sometimes transformative impact on children’s development.’ We also consulted with over 1,400 young people, adult volunteers and parents/carers, to get their insights on our Early Years programme so far.

After receiving positive feedback, our Trustee Board agreed to create an Early Years provision in Scouts. So far, we’ve:

• Launched Squirrel Scouts in September 2021.
• Secured incredible external coverage, with 830 pieces of media reaching 226 million people. We also received letters of congratulations, including one from our Patron, HM The Queen, and praise from the Prime Minister.
• Boosted volunteer recruitment, since 45% of Squirrels volunteers are new to Scouts.
• Externally tested the appeal of our Squirrels brand with people from low-income-earning communities, and Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds. Our brand won Gold for Best Creative Strategy, and Bronze for Best Visual Identity by a Charity in the Transform Awards Europe 2022.
• We’ve created an engaging programme and badge scheme, which secured outstanding feedback from our volunteers. 90% feel the curriculum is achievable, age appropriate, relevant, and exciting. This makes session planning easy for developing a range of skills and positive outcomes.
• Recruited and trained 60 volunteer cohort coaches, who support 10 new Squirrel Dreys. They’re helping the Dreys deliver a high quality and safe programme, and capture insights and ideas for improvements.
• Created an extensive range of online tools, including guidance, workshops, peer-to-peer guidance, and webinars, to support the creation of our new provision. 2,000 adult volunteers have come along to these so far.
• Provided £100,000 of local start-up grants for new provision, reaching priority communities.
• Completed a successful merger of Northern Ireland Squirrels Association (NISA) with  Scouts. After 25 years of delivering a trailblazing, non-formal early years programme, we welcomed 80 Northern Irish Squirrel Dreys into our family of Scouts.

There’s significant demand for Squirrels, with over 23,000 young people already on local waiting lists. By recruiting more volunteers into Scouts, we can open more Dreys, and start bringing down our waiting lists.

At the moment:

• There are 560 Squirrel Dreys open.
• 28% of Squirrel Dreys are in lower income areas (IMD 1-3).
• 34% of Squirrel Dreys have 10% or more young people from Black, Asian and Minority ethnic communities.

What’s next

• By learning as we go, we’ll open another 500 sections in 2022/23.
• We’ll keep creating new resources to support the opening of Squirrels locally. We’ll still focus on extending Squirrels to our priority communities.
• We’ll carry out robust testing and evaluation of alternative models of early years delivery. By doing so, we can find out how effective they are in increasing the number of low income, Black, Asian and Minority ethnic families taking part in Squirrels.
• We’ll review the Squirrels Programme – embedding community impact, and deciding if we should include ‘Nights Away’ activities.
• By 2033, we hope to welcome another 130,000 4–6 year-olds, supported by 40,000 adult volunteers.