District / County Leadership Teams
Understand how County and District Leadership Teams inspire volunteers so young people can gain skills for life
District Leadership Team Description
Purpose
The District Leadership Team leads and inspires volunteers to give young people great experiences and skills for life. They make sure their District teams are organised, have enough volunteers, and can deliver a great programme.
- District Lead Volunteers
- District Youth Leads
- District Leadership Team Members
Other volunteers are automatically members of this team because of their roles in Scouts:
- Lead Volunteers of each Scout Group
- 14–24 Team Leaders
- Programme Team Leaders
- Support Team Leaders
- Volunteering Development Team Leaders
- Team Leaders of any District Leadership Team sub-teams. For example, Inclusion Team.
Make sure teams across the District:
- Work well on their own (and together).
- Support young people and volunteers to feel welcome and included, and make changes (when necessary) so the environment and activities are accessible for everyone.
- Are inclusive and reflect the demographics of their local area.
- Have the resources, skills, and enthusiasm to deliver the Scouts strategy.
Make sure:
- Volunteers in the District’s teams fulfil their safety and safeguarding responsibilities, including keeping up to date with changes and learning.
- Any helpers are briefed on the practical aspects of safety and safeguarding. This includes giving them a copy of the Yellow Card, confirming they’ve read and understood it. Check they know who to speak to if they have any concerns.
- Volunteers are aware of Our Volunteering Culture, reflect on it, commit to it, and apply it in their teams.
- Help with recruitment to make sure there are always Chairs, Team Leaders and Group Lead Volunteers in the District.
- Support the District Youth Lead to work with teams across the District and its Groups so they can be shaped by young people.
Make sure:
- Safety incidents are reported.
- Safeguarding incidents are reported directly to the UKHQ Safeguarding Team.
- Data incidents and complaints are managed well.
The District Lead Volunteer is responsible for responding to these, or for appointing someone else in the District to do this. There are a number of accreditations which can be given to share specific responsibilities.
We expect that members of this team will take part in regulated activity.
All District Leadership Team Members must complete:
- The learning everyone needs
In addition, District Lead Volunteers and District Youth Leads must complete:
- Leading Scout Volunteers
- Being a Scouts Trustee
You can find out more about our learning content on the learning page.
County Leadership Team Description
Purpose
The County Leadership Team leads and inspires volunteers to give young people great experiences and skills for life. They make sure their County teams are organised, have enough volunteers, and can deliver a great programme.
- County Lead Volunteers
- County Youth Leads
- County Leadership Team Members
- County Transformation Lead
Other volunteers are automatically members of this team because of their roles in Scouts:
- Lead Volunteers of each District
- Programme Team Leaders
- Support Team Leaders
- Volunteering Development Team Leaders
- Team Leaders of any County Leadership Team sub-teams. For example, Inclusion Team.
Make sure teams across the County:
- Work well on their own (and together).
- Support young people and volunteers to feel welcome and included, and make changes (when necessary) so the environment and activities are accessible for everyone
- Are inclusive and reflect the demographics of their local area.
- Have the resources, skills, and enthusiasm to deliver the Scouts strategy.
Make sure:
- Volunteers in the County’s teams fulfil their safety and safeguarding responsibilities, including keeping up to date with changes and learning.
- Any helpers are briefed on the practical aspects of safety and safeguarding. This includes giving them a copy of the Yellow Card and confirming they’ve read and understood it. Check they know who to speak to if they have any concerns.
- Volunteers are aware of Our Volunteering Culture, reflect on it, commit to it, and apply it in their teams.
- Help with recruitment for the County Chair, County Team Leaders, County Youth Lead and District Lead Volunteer roles.
- The County Youth Lead works with teams across the County to make sure they’re shaped by young people.
Make sure:
- Safety incidents are reported.
- Safeguarding incidents are reported to the UKHQ Safeguarding Team
- Data incidents and complaints are managed well.
The County Lead Volunteer is responsible for responding to these, or for appointing someone else in the County to do this. There are a number of accreditations which can be given to share specific responsibilities.
We expect that members of this team will take part in regulated activity.
All County Leadership Team Members must complete:
- The learning everyone needs
In addition, County Lead Volunteers and County Youth Leads must complete:
- Leading Scout Volunteers
- Being a Scouts Trustee
You can find out more about our learning content on the learning page.
Accreditations
Accreditations are a way of sharing tasks and responsibilities where a volunteer needs to be given certain permissions to take these on.
There are many Leadership Team Accreditations, available at both District and County, helping Lead Volunteers to share out the responsibility for managing incidents, approving permits and activities, and much more.
Leadership Team Accreditations can usually be given by Lead Volunteers:
Group Lead Volunteers can give:
- Recruiter
- Nominated Person
District Lead Volunteers can also give:
- Award Nominations Supporter
- Data Lead
- Disclosure Support Volunteer (see Volunteering Development Team accreditations)
- Nights Away Approver
- Permit Approver
- Resolutions Lead
- Safety Lead
- Suspension Lead
- Volunteer Safeguarding Lead
County Lead Volunteers can also give:
- Safeguarding Adviser
- Safety Adviser
- Visits Abroad Approver
Read the Leadership Team Accreditation descriptions.
Permissions in our new digital system
All volunteers will have access to our new digital system and will be expected to sign in to manage their own membership and complete learning. Some volunteers will have further permissions to the system features depending on which team(s) they’re in, and what their role is in that team.
All members will be able to nominate for awards, apply for grants, apply for permits and Nights Away Notifications, use Data explorer, and search for members who are visible for them.
Members of Leadership Teams will also be able to add and end roles, support with criminal record checks, hold reviews, create and update Units, and create custom Data explorer dashboards, and download these.
The Lead Volunteer will also be able to support Awards nominations, support Grant applications, approve Permits, approve Nights Away Notifications, manage suspensions, assess adverse references, add and end accreditations, hold Welcome Conversations, create sub-teams and manage volunteer enquiries.
Helpful resources
We've compiled some of the most useful resources for Team Members and Team Leaders to look through, to help them understand their responsibilities. These links don't cover everything though, and Team Leaders should make sure that all the tasks on the Team Description are being carried out.
What you need to do to be ready for change
There are simple actions that all volunteers can take to make sure that they, and their team, are ready for change. From making sure that data is up-to-date, to understanding the changes, and how processes may change locally.
Find out what you need to do to prepare for changeInformation for volunteers who lead teams
There are some responsibilities that sit with Team Leaders, such as welcoming volunteers to the team, and making sure that everyone knows what tasks they're working on, and has the support they need.
Read our guidance for Lead Volunteers and Team Leaders