A year of achievement

If 2021–22 was a year of recovery, then this was a year of achievement.

Who’d have thought we’d go from the huge challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, to becoming Charity of the Year in the Charity Times Awards?

That’s down to one thing: the incredible dedication of our volunteer and staff team. It’s so true that ‘together, we can do so much.’
But this award only tells one part of the story. Every part of our team is helping deliver our Skills for Life strategy.

Delivering strategy and transformation

Basecamp 22, our gathering of adult volunteers and youth commissioners in Manchester back in May 2022, set the tone. We refocused and recalibrated, identifying how to deliver our strategy to 2025.

It became clear that our future growth relies on a relentless focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. The key to this is making volunteering easier, more accessible and rewarding. Since Basecamp 22, we’ve surged ahead with transforming our volunteer experience, with local leadership teams and Transformation Leads planning and championing the benefits this’ll bring. My thanks to these teams driving this work with energy.

We agreed to never lose sight of our ‘North Star’: helping more young people from all backgrounds gain skills for life. Our core purpose remains to inspire young people to brighter futures, and we mustn’t be distracted from this mission.

Supporting better programmes

That’s why we’ve put so much energy into our programme: the heart of young people’s Scouts experience. Thanks to our imaginative team, we’re constantly replenishing our pool of programme ideas and making them more accessible to our hardworking volunteers. They’ve accessed over a million programme activities, making their weekly meetings more rewarding and enjoyable.

Innovative partnerships have played their part. For example, groundbreaking partnerships with HSBC helped young people build their financial confidence and earn their Money Skills badges.

Our commercial activities have contributed greatly as well, with Scout Store and our insurance company, Unity, delivering strong profits that go directly back into Scouts. They both offer an outstanding service to our members.

Promoting inclusive growth

We’re still growing, especially in areas of deprivation where Scouts is underrepresented. We’re proud that nearly a third of our Squirrel Dreys are delivering skills for life to young people in lower income areas. Meanwhile, our Regional Services Team helped open 53 sections as part of our project to attract young Muslims to Scouts.

We’re especially pleased to have successfully bid for £6.3 million from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)’s Uniformed Youth Fund, unlocking our ability to scale up inclusive growth. Over the next two years, the fund’s intending to create 7,200 new places for Scouts and Explorers, and help us welcome 1,080 more volunteers. Huge thanks to the DCMS for this transformational funding.

We must remember the extraordinary impact we have on young people in their teenage years too, at a time when mental wellbeing remains a huge issue. We’ve begun addressing the challenges of what 14–25 year olds need from Scouts for the future.

Excellence together

This year, we’ve retained our Investors in People (Gold) status, a powerful indicator of our strength as a staff team in supporting our volunteers. I’m delighted, because it’ll make it easier to retain talented people and support recruitment.

I’m proud that our values are deeply embedded in our culture. They’re being lived out every day – from the teams supporting the UK Contingent to the 25th World Scout Jamboree in Korea, to those who step up and deliver big projects like our Race Equity Review and transforming our volunteer experience. Supporting all of this, we’re proud to be a digital first organisation, thanks to strategic investment and exemplary digital leadership.

As we’re entering the next phase of our strategy delivery, we’ve got lots to look forward to. Volunteering’s not only vital to Scouts, but it’s key to a more cohesive and kinder society. This was underlined by our leading role in The Big Help Out, inspired by HM King Charles III’s lifetime of service.

We’re fortunate to be powered not just by the dedication and talent of our volunteer and staff teams, but by their kindness too.