Recruiting volunteers – how one early years’ pilot is doing it

Alison Hurn is a long-time Scouts volunteer with no shortage of things to do, taking up various roles both in her Group and District. Nevertheless, when she received an email about trialling a new young Scout section for 4 and 5 year olds, she spoke to her GSL and suggested they get involved.

Despite the inevitable concern from fellow Groups in her District worried that the need for new leaders could be a drain on those volunteering in other sections, Alison believed the pilot would attract a range of new volunteers and that the benefits could potentially outweigh the concerns.

Concerns around recruitment and volunteer retention have been expressed throughout the movement and this has been a key issue being looked at by the Centre for Research in Early Childhood (CREC) in their observation and report on how the pilots are progressing.

In their most recent report, they say ‘the pilot Programme has been successful recruiting new and additional volunteers, particularly the Scout led and Family led sections’, but that it hasn’t been possible to evaluate the longer term retention of new adult volunteers in the Programme in this short evaluation period. Nearly 60% of families involved overall have no previous connection to Scouts.

They say there may be high retention levels of volunteers in the early years Squirrels’ section in Northern Ireland, but if the new section were to go ahead here ‘recruiting and retaining significant numbers of additional volunteers needs careful management and requires investment in age specific training, support and resourcing.’

How the Cornwall pilot recruited volunteers

The 1st Callington pilot kicked off in September 2019 using the Scout-led model and Alison says so far, they’ve had a lot of interest and attracted a range of young people from various backgrounds, recruiting leaders entirely new to Scouts as well as a number of parent helpers.

Taking charge of getting leaders for the pilots, she reached out to potential volunteers through various channels: through Scouts, the wider community and social media too.

Who came on board?

• A Cub leader who’s also a mum of a child joining the section. She said she was having such a good time volunteering in Scouts that she wanted to help out at the new pilot too.
• A well-experienced leader who’s been in Scouts for a lifetime who was excited about the new pilot.
• Someone completely new to Scouts who’d seen the ad on Facebook and wanted to get involved ‘to give something back to the community’ and because he loves the outdoors. He’s now helping out at all the sections, alongside the pilot, to see which he enjoys the most.
• A few parent helpers, including one who brings her elder daughter along. This particular parent has been ‘amazing’, says Alison. ‘She gets involved and is really hands-on but she can’t help us this term because it’s lambing season! On the upside, we’ve been invited to the farm so all the young people in the pilot will get to enjoy a real farm experience.’

How were the newly recruited volunteers trained for the role?

Alongside doing the compulsory training – some of it online, some of it through workshops and some of it with Alison herself (as the District’s Training Advisor) – the newly recruited volunteers also learn through volunteering, Alison explains, ‘so they come along to a session and might run a session or give ideas for the sessions. Because everybody’s got skills to share that they might not necessarily know they have.’

Are the safeguarding rules and measures adequate for this age group?

‘I think as long as we adhere to the Scout Association guidelines – of no one-to-one’s and things like that – I think we can leave them be,’ says Alison.

What drew the new volunteers to the pilot?

Alison says ‘It may be that it’s something new and feeling like we’re so lucky to have it. I think we work really well as a team, so if one of the leaders is short in one section then somebody from another section will come across and help out. I don’t know whether that’s because of the community we live in – it’s quite close-knit.’

Data from the CREC report shows that new volunteers are also being drawn in by the younger age of the children and volunteers ‘openness to being more actively involved as a parent.’ Their findings show that 80% of the volunteers are female, in contrast to other sections where the gender balance is more even.

What effect could going ahead with this new section have on recruitment across the movement?

Alison admits that ‘we’ve got some neighbouring Scout Groups that aren’t really for the idea but one of the leaders keeps asking me how’s it going and so I give them feedback. I think a lot of people are quite wary about the age range – they’re a little bit scared. And admittedly when I started in September, I realised it is a massive age gap between the younger section we’re piloting and the Beaver section but once you get into the swing of things you adapt, and it’s the same from a Beaver to a Cub – between those sections it feels like a massive difference, and the same goes for Cubs to Scouts. It’s just a question of adapting.’

She goes on to explain that the structure of the programme has made a huge difference to volunteers: ‘Having that pack gives you a starting point. You can obviously adapt and find all sorts of activities that go along with what you’re doing but if you’re new to it and you’ve been given the programme book, it’s a brilliant resource to start with.’

Share your thoughts

A decision about whether or not to go ahead with Scouts for 4 and 5 year olds will be made by the Board over the summer. The decision will be informed by ongoing research as well as the thoughts and feedback of our members so let us know what you think.