How we operate

The Scout Association exists by authority of a Royal Charter granted by King George V in 1912 and supplemented by further Charters granted by King George VI and HM Queen Elizabeth II. These Charters give authority to the Bye-Laws of the Association, which are approved by His Majesty’s Privy Council. The Bye-Laws, in turn, authorise the making of rules for the regulation of the Association’s affairs. The rules are laid out in the Association’s Policy, Organisation and Rules.

This report and financial statements cover the activities directly controlled by the Association – charity numbers 306101 (England and Wales) and SCO38437 (Scotland). This includes its five wholly owned subsidiary companies – Scout Shops Limited, Scout Insurance Services Limited, Scout Services Limited, Scout Products Limited and World Scout Shop Limited (see note 12 to the financial statements for further information on these companies).

The activities of the Scout Councils of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales together with Scout Counties, Areas, Regions (Scotland), Districts and Groups are not reflected in this report and accounts. These bodies are autonomous charities affiliated to the Association, which together form the Scout movement in the United Kingdom.

The Board of Trustees

The Board of Trustees manage the Association’s business. The Board has 20 members:

• 12 members nominated and elected by the Council of The Scout Association at the AGM: nine elected members and three elected youth members.
• 5 members appointed by the Council at the AGM on the recommendation of the Board: the Chair of the Board, the Treasurer and up to three others.
• 3 Ex-Officio Members: the Chief Executive, UK Chief Commissioner, and the UK Youth Commissioner.

We give an induction for all new Trustees. All Trustees take part in training and development opportunities throughout the year.

In 2022–23, Trustees took part in training and development sessions, which focused on one or more areas related to the Association’s business, including:

1. People and Culture
2. Safeguarding
3. Data Insights

The Board’s responsibility includes policy making and overseeing risk management. It delegates the day-to-day management of the Association to the Chief Executive and UK Chief Commissioner, who work with the UK Chief Commissioner’s Team (UK Leadership Team), the UK Youth Commissioner and her team, and the Executive Leadership Team.

The Board has six Committees which report to it and delegates certain functions to them (Strategy and Delivery, Finance, People and Culture, Nominations and Governance, Safeguarding, and Safety). The Board appoints Trustees to serve on these Committees annually. Trustees have a three-year term, subject to performance and their continuation as a member of the movement. The Board met six times formally during 2022/23.

Policies and rules

At The Scout Association, we have a comprehensive set of policies and rules applicable to the movement. These policies and rules are regularly reviewed by senior volunteers, senior management and staff employed across the UK.

We’re committed to giving young people and adult volunteers the best possible experience in Scouts. To help us do this, we follow a number of key policies, so we can make sure Scouts keeps growing in a way that’s safe, accessible, and free from discrimination.

Our key policies include:

• Equal opportunities policy
• Privacy and data protection policy
• Religious policy
• Safeguarding policy
• Safety policy
• Vetting policy
• Youth member anti-bullying policy

Risk management

The Board of Trustees is responsible for identifying, assessing and managing the risks of The Scout Association and its subsidiaries. The Board of Trustees and its committees operate a comprehensive risk management process to make sure that appropriate steps are taken to manage and mitigate governance, external, operational including safety and safeguarding, legal/regulatory, data and financial risks. The undertaking of Scouts activities requires risk identification and its reasonable mitigation, to make sure our charitable objectives are achieved.

The process involves the identification and grouping of the risks that the Association faces, both directly and indirectly, and through the activities of the movement more generally. It includes evaluating the risks in terms of their potential impact and likelihood to occur, as well as considering the Association’s appetite for those risks, and identifying means whereby they can be mitigated and managed.

Ultimately the Board of Trustees is accountable for overseeing risk management at the Association. During the year the Board and committees took part in risk horizon scanning sessions to identify any emerging risks to the Association. This is now a planned annual process to ensure that any significant risks are allocated to the appropriate committee by the Board.

Responsibility for risk management is assigned to members of the Executive Leadership Team, UK Leadership Team (senior volunteers) and the Board’s reporting committees, as well as the Boards of its subsidiaries.

The safety and safeguarding of young people involved in Scouts are our highest priorities. Other risks to the organisation include:

• Public trust
• Growth
• Data security
• Digital delivery and adoption
• Equity, diversity and inclusion
• Management and oversight of our federated structure
• Ensuring a sustainable operating model
• Maintaining the value of our balance sheet
• Ensuring we have the right working culture and employer offer

Risk Appetite

The risk appetite of each corporate level risk is agreed at committee level which the Board reviews and approves annually. While accepting risk in Scouting activities can never be entirely eliminated, given the nature of the activities undertaken, we minimise the potential for serious harm to be caused to young people and members to the greatest extent feasible. However, The Scout Association has a high appetite for opportunities for membership growth, and would be comfortable taking more risk in this area through our investment and new models of delivery. Done well, this will increase opportunities to make our movement more diverse and inclusive.

Fundraising: our approach

We’re incredibly grateful to the donors and partners who give so generously to Scouts. It’s thanks to fundraising that we can bring skills for life to so many young people, and it’s vital to our future success.

Following legislation

We’re registered with the Fundraising Regulator and follow its Code of Fundraising Practice, and we’re a member of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising.

We make all staff involved in fundraising aware of the need to follow relevant fundraising legislation and codes of practice. We’re not aware of any failure to comply during the year, by our staff, or by our Commercial Participators.

Personal data and privacy

We take the protection of our donors’ personal data very seriously.
We only use personal data in a way they’re happy with and our privacy policy is available on our website.

We give donors the opportunity to change their minds if they’d like to stop getting our communications.

We never share or sell their data.

We don’t contact anyone if we know they don’t want us to.

We make sure no one’s ever pressured to leave us a legacy or to donate.

We take steps to make sure vulnerable people are protected if a concern is raised.

We welcome legacies, grant funding and donations, which appear in our accounts as ‘voluntary income.’

Corporate partners

We have Commercial Participator Agreements with corporate partners who sponsor our programmes.

We monitor any fundraising activities by our partners on our behalf, and there’s a provision in all contracts for doing so. This is usually through regular meetings and feedback, and agreeing to give access to more information if it’s needed.

Where Commercial Participators are sponsors, but not taking part in any direct public fundraising, access to further information isn’t always necessary.

In all of our Commercial Participator Agreements, our partners agree to protect vulnerable people from any intrusion of their privacy, and not to make any unreasonable approaches to, or put pressure on, any vulnerable person to give money. This is included, even if they’re not undertaking any direct public fundraising.

We’ve received no complaints about our fundraising activity this year, but should they arise, we’re committed to investigating complaints and resolving them with the complainant.