Lead Volunteers and Approvers Guide
Interim process for when Compass goes offline
This process will be impacted by Compass going offline for everyone from Thursday 7 November. For details on how this process is impacted and what you'll need to do instead, please take a look at our interim processes.
Find out more about the interim processes(FS120803) Published October 2024, replacing Jan 2015.
Introduction
This page provides a guide to Lead Volunteers and Approvers (Nights Away Approvers and Permit Approvers) on their role within the Nights Away Permit Scheme. It should be read in conjunction with Policy, Organisation and Rules (POR) of The Scout Association. Find out more information about the scheme for applicants and for Nights Away Assessors.
Before beginning your Nights Away process, please check with your Lead Volunteer to confirm the correct procedure that you should follow.
Districts have until Spring 2025 to transition to the Nights Away process within the new digital membership system. As a result, your County/District may implement this process right away or choose to wait until closer to the transition date in Spring 2025, during which time you can still use the existing systems (downloadable nights away notification form or local digital solution).
For more information about the changes, please visit the Volunteer Experience and Digital Transformation webpages.
All County/Districts will transition to the Nights Away process within the new digital membership system. After this transition, download nights away notification forms, or local digital will no longer be accepted.
For more information about the changes, please visit the Volunteer Experience and Digital Transformation webpages.
The Nights Away Permit Scheme
The Nights Away Permit Scheme promotes quality residential and camping experiences. It allows adults who have demonstrated their knowledge & skill to take young people away on nights away events. It also supports and encourages adults to acquire and improve the skills required to provide residential experiences.
The Lead Volunteer and Approver Role
It's your role as the responsible Lead Volunteer or as Permit Approver to issue Nights Away Permits. No one else can grant a permit, although they can provide support to you.
It's also not possible to grant or renew a permit without a recommendation from a Nights Away Assessor. It's also not possible to grant a Permit to a higher level than that recommended by the Nights Away Assessor (see FS120804 Nights Away Permit Scheme – Nights Away Assessors).
The Nights Away Permit Scheme is a national scheme, so any permit you grant can be used with young people from other parts of the country, and anyone with a permit from elsewhere in the country can use it with young people from your County or District.
Please don't implement local rules in relation to the permit scheme. These are not needed, provide extra barriers to young people being able to take part in residential experiences, and may lead to confusion and frustration.
Granting A Permit
If someone wishes you to grant them a permit they should come to you with a recommendation from a Nights Away Assessor (this will happen through the membership system). When this happens there are a number of steps you need to take:
This will be based on the applicant’s technical competence and experience. This recommendation will come to you through the permits function on the membership system. You may not grant a permit that is less restrictive than this recommendation. Always check who the Nights Away Assessor.
You will need to check that the applicant is aware of the general and nights away specific Scout Association Rules and how these affect them. It might be that you use a specialist to check this such as the Nights Away Assessor, and further support can generally be found from those in the County Programme Team.
All Permit Holders must have undertaken appropriate vetting and disclosure checks. In addition they must have completed the relevant safety and safeguarding learning.
This is a check on the applicant’s attitude to run the activity for young people. It is not the same as their personal suitability to hold an appointment as they will be in a different environment with different responsibilities.
If you do not know the applicant well yourself it can be useful to consult with people who do know them well such as their Group Lead Volunteer (GLV).
This cannot be to a level higher than the recommendation received from the Nights Away Assessor.
It can be tailored to the skills, experience and requirements of the individual as much as is deemed appropriate, but you should be prepared to explain the reasons for any restrictions, and how they could gain a less restrictive permit in the future. You will also need to state an expiry date for the permit, up to a maximum of five years from the issue date.
Again, if you decide there are reasons to issue a shorter term permit you should be prepared to explain the reasons for this to the applicant. When an applicant’s permit expires they will need to apply for a new one following the same process, permit holders will receive reminders ahead of their permit expiring through the membership system.
The permit isn't valid until the details are recorded on the membership system. This also allows local visibility of permits and also allows The Scout Association to easily contact them with updates (or other information) should the need arise.
Permits are not section specific and Districts and Counties / Areas mustn’t operate a policy of issuing only section specific permits. It is recognised that for some individuals a restriction to this effect may be appropriate. However consideration must be made on how this will affect the use of Young Leaders or other young people on the residential experience.
Notification and approval
Having a permit does not override the need for all activities to have the approval of the responsible Lead Volunteer or Nights Away Approver, and in the case of nights away events this is done through the Nights Away Notification Form (NAN), local digital solution or through the membership system.
Before any nights away event takes place, the permit holder should send you all the details that can be found on Form NAN, whether this is through email, hard copy or via membership system.
Lead Volunteers or Nights Away Approvers provide you with approval for events to take place, not campsite wardens or managers, so please don’t leave this for others to do.
All adult groups, whilst not requiring to have a Permit, are still required to inform you when they undertake a residential experience. However, it is not required that a NAN form be used in this instance.
Review or Cancellation of a Permit
A permit can be reviewed at any time if the issuing Lead Volunteer or Permit Approver has concerns about the holder’s suitability to continue to run residential experiences. Outcomes of a review can be continuance, restriction, non-renewal or cancellation.
The Lead Volunteer or Permit Approver should inform the permit holder, and their volunteer line manager (if different from the Lead Volunteer), as soon as is practically possible that they are reviewing their permit.
They should also inform the permit holder the areas of concern and the processes by which they are going to review the permit i.e. re assessment by a Nights Away Assessor, interview etc. and the time line of the review (any review of a permit should be completed as quickly as possible and lead volunteers or permit approvers should aim at no longer than 3 months).
A Lead Volunteer or Permit Approver may restrict a permit for the duration of the review. This may include a restriction on the permit holder that they cannot lead residential experiences until the review is concluded. The permit holder and their volunteer line manager must be informed of any restrictions.
The permit holder and volunteer line manager should then be informed of the outcome of the review, the rationale of the conclusions and any actions required (i.e. additional learning).
Any amendments of a permit's status is only valid if the record on the membership system is updated as appropriate. If the permit is revoked, this can be done on the membership system using the revoke permit function, giving the Lead Volunteer or Permit Approver the ability to record the reasons for the permit being revoked and to communicate this to the permit holder through the system.
If the permit holder is dissatisfied with the outcome, they may appeal using either of the two options below.
If an applicant has cause to dispute the level of permit granted, or if no permit is granted, they should be allowed to appeal.
If the dispute lies with the assessment by the Nights Away Assessor, then the applicant could ask to be re assessed. In this instance it is advisable to use an independent Nights Away Assessor, usually from another District or County, who is unknown to the applicant and the original Nights Away Assessor so as to enable an impartial assessment.
If the cause for concern lies with the issuing Lead Volunteer or Permit Approvers decision, then a complaint can be raised using the Scouts Complaints Policy.
Formal inspections are not part of the Nights Away Permit Scheme; however, everyone likes a visit from their DLV, Nights Away Approver, a member from the District Leadership Team, or Nights Away Assessor from time to time, these visits are encouraged.
They act as support to Permits Holders that they are doing a good job and as opportunities to increase skills and knowledge.
Activity Leaders & Permit Holders
During the course of a residential experience the permit holder has overall responsibility. However, some activities during the course of the residential will require an activity leader overseeing their team. i.e. a climbing team member on a campsite, a horse-riding team member, activity team member who is responsible for that part of the programme.
In these instances, the activity leader should have a more thorough knowledge of the activity and consequently are best placed to ensure that it is safe and fun for all.
The permit holder is still responsible and must ensure that the activity leader is competent to lead that part of the programme and the appropriate risk assessments have been completed satisfactorily. If the permit holder has any concerns during the course of the activity, then they should take the appropriate action to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all concerned.
Family Camps
The permit holder has responsibility for the overall camp and can't 'ignore' any rules because parents and carers are present. Within this context, parents and carers can be responsible for their young people. Find out more about Family Camps.
Levels of Permit
The diagram below outlines the hierarchy of the permit scheme.
Anyone holding a Greenfield Permit may lead residential experiences in the other three categories. Those holding a Campsite Permit may also run indoor residential experiences.
However, those holding only Indoor or Lightweight Expedition Permits may not run residential experiences in the other categories.
Those holding a Hillwalking Permit that includes lightweight camping in remote areas may also run Lightweight Expedition events.
However holding a Lightweight Expedition Permit does not allow those holding a Hillwalking Permit (without the remote camping element) to camp in remote areas.
Support
If you are unsure of anything to do with the permit scheme, then support should be available. Many Counties have a local support structure for activities through the County Programme Team who would usually be the first point of contact for any activity queries. In addition to this there is support available from the Support Centre at Scout HQ.
If in doubt, please ask.