Programme

Our activity finder

Our Scouts Activity Finder continues to go from strength to strength. We’ve now over 1,600 activities to help young people gain skills for life. We’ve added more than 150 activities over the past year alone.

Some of these new activities can help members celebrate specific events, from International Women’s Day, Halloween, Christmas, Hanukkah and Easter to Saint’s Days, Diwali, and Lunar New Year. We’ve also created activities for young people to learn about Korea to mark the 25th World Scout Jamboree.

The passing of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II saw over 17,000 visits to our programme activity resources. These activities celebrated her life and explored her legacy and connection to Scouts, and they’re likely to have reached around 240,000 young people.

What volunteers think of our activity finder

Over the last 12 months, around 385,000 users have created 1.25 million visits to our activity pages.

After visiting these pages, they’ve given our Activity Finder a Net Promoter Score, which measures volunteers’ satisfaction by asking if they’d recommend the Activity Finder to another volunteer. Our Activity Finder was given a score of +26 on a scale of –100 to +100, with +26 being considered ‘good.’ We’ve seen satisfaction improving continuously from the original –32 when we first started our work.
We know these activities are hitting the mark, as 80% of users have rated the activities 4 or 5 out of 5.

Progress a year on

Thanks to volunteers’ input, we’ve started making it easier for volunteers to plan programmes and help more young people gain awards.

• Improving our digital programme planning tools: We’ve made sure our activities now meet accessibility guidelines, introduced new occasion and event calendars, and added the option to download session plans in an offline format. We’ve also made new videos with Scout Adventures volunteers, showing people how to play our most popular games.
• Duke of Edinburgh Award: In 2022, our dedicated local and national volunteers supported 6,600 young people to get their walking boots on and start their DofE Award journey. Happily, 3,600 young people pitched their tents and earned their awards.
• Our top awards: This year, 37% of eligible 4–13 year olds and 4% of 14+ year olds achieved our top awards.

Working with our supporters

Over the last year, we’ve created a range of activities with our supporters, who bring their external expertise and knowledge into our programme. These supporters include Disney, Dungeons and Dragons, Gas Distribution Network, Arup, BBC’s Wild Isles, The Rail Industry, UK Power Networks, Go Outdoors, Rolls-Royce and Nominet.

Here are a few opportunities for young people made possible by our partnerships:

• Inmarsat: Over 200 budding astronauts entered a science skills competition judged by Scouts ambassador Tim Peake, with two winning Scouts going to watch a new satellite launch in Florida.
• HSBC: More than 109,000 young people earned their HSBC Money Skills activity badge this year. 70 HSBC UK volunteers are trained to deliver Money Skills sessions, reaching 500 young people so far.
• Lawn Tennis Association: Over 1,000 volunteers have signed up for tennis training, securing over £100,000 of free tennis kit for local groups.
• Warhammer: Helped us give free crafts kit to young people, helping them achieve more than 100 top awards.

Making improvements

Volunteers told us we still have a long way to go to make it easier to deliver programme activities. Our 2022 Scout Experience Survey found that:

While almost half (45%) of Section Leaders use our programme resources occasionally, only 19% use them ‘regularly’ or ‘always.’ This hasn’t shifted since 2018 (44% and 17% respectively).

Section Leaders gave HQ programme resources a Net Promoter Score of -37 out of a possible -100 to +100, which has increased from -46 in 2018.

To improve these, we plan to invest more in an inclusive, user-centered approach that’s been steadily increasing the resources popularity since 2018.

What’s next

Over the next year, we’re prioritising:

• Community Impact: Making sure 39% of section leaders say young people have been involved in projects to help other people or the environment by the next Scout Experience Survey.
• Youth Shaped: Increasing the number of young people achieving the Youth Shaped Award to 100,000 between April 2023 and March 2024.
• Scouts and Explorer top awards: Increasing support for volunteers delivering the Scouts and Explorer programme, working towards our 2025 target of 40% of Scouts and 10% of Explorers achieving their top awards.
• Nights Away: Increasing the support we offer for Nights Away across all sections. Nights Away and being outdoors are a key part of young people’s Scouts experience, as they’re the most impactful way to achieve our outcomes.

To achieve these, we’ll work with young people, volunteers, and external experts to:

• Duke of Edinburgh Award: Increase how many young people are starting and achieving their awards.
• HSBC Money Skills: Expand our opportunities to young people aged 10–17, and help another 10,000 young people aged 5–9 get support from HSBC volunteers.
• Youth Shaped Scouts: Increase support for youth-led opportunities in Squirrels.
• Making a difference: Finish reviewing our approach to supporting social action in Scouts.
• Storytelling in Squirrels: Improve support for storytelling, a key part of a brilliant programme for our youngest section, through our partnership with Disney.
• Nights Away: Increase our support and encourage more Nights Away experiences across all sections.
• Volunteer programme roles: Improve how we support and engage with volunteer line managers related to programme planning and delivery.