Over the last eight years, I’ve enjoyed working with so many of our great volunteers in East Lancashire who want to give more skills for life to our 2,700 young people each week. Over those years, I’ve listened to feedback and, adjusting to my new role as a County Lead Volunteer, I’m excited to get started. Over the next few weeks I’ll be hosting a strategy session to make sure we’re clear on where we’re going and how we’re getting there. I’ll also conduct role reviews with the County Team to help us ensure the right people are in the right roles and that they love volunteering.
One of the things I’ll be doing is to start writing a blog where you can keep up to date with our progress, our challenges and all the things going on in East Lancashire and across Scouts in the UK. My first blog today will focus on the changes to Scouts in the coming months.
At the County’s AGM on 19th July, I talked about my commitment to ensuring that volunteers have the tools, resources, and skills they need to deliver a quality Scouts experience right across East Lancashire and for me, that starts with making sure we get our volunteer experience right. You should enjoy volunteering with us; if you’re not, something has gone wrong.
While we’ve learned that leaders deeply enjoy volunteering, we know challenges exist. That’s why we’re embarking on a journey to transform volunteering; we want to make volunteering with Scouts easier and more fun to attract more volunteers, and our current volunteers want to stay. Every volunteer deserves to feel valued and spend time with Scouts well.
The world is changing, and young people have never needed us more. It won’t surprise you that the most significant barrier to us increasing the number of young people in Scouts is the number of adult volunteers. Recent research tells us that only 30% of potential volunteers want to give their time regularly, and it’s clear that volunteers have less time and want more flexibility when they volunteer for us.
We cannot grow to meet our ambitions for young people without making some fundamental changes.
Transforming volunteering is only one part of our strategy to support Scouts in East Lancashire over the next few years. Today, I want to ensure everyone knows what’s changing to help transform our volunteering.
So, what’s changing?
- A warmer welcome for all
For new volunteers, joining us can feel daunting. Our current appointment panels can sometimes feel more like a job interview with time-consuming and inefficient tools and processes. We’re often reliant on our existing networks to get new members. So, it’s changing.We’ll ensure that volunteers feel welcomed, valued and at ease from day one with welcome conversations with a small number of existing volunteers. We’ll have a buddy system throughout inductions and a clear explanation of the required learning to volunteer for the Scouts. While the ‘how’ might change, we won’t compromise on the key steps that new volunteers go through (like Disclosure and Barring Service checks) to keep our young people safe from harm.
- More engaging learning
While we’ve completed a phenomenal amount of work in East Lancashire over the last few years to help in this area, our training scheme can sometimes feel overwhelming. Some learning is hard to access and requires more time in our already busy schedules. So, it’s changing.We’ll move to more personalised training when you need it, tailored to your role. We’ll start to recognise existing skills with sign-offs built in – no separate validation required. A new digital learning platform will support learners and reduce administration (no more having to print off certificates for your training advisor). We’ll take a digital-first, but not a digital-only approach with all of the revitalised learning modules in bite sized-chunks in one place. In addition, the Wood badge will be available for everyone to complete if they wish.
- Positive volunteering every day
In research with volunteers, we’ve learnt that we have too many roles. It can sometimes feel like work, and new volunteers find it hard to understand the expectations of their roles. A small number of our roles have lots of responsibility and stress placed on them, not supported by our existing digital systems, which are inefficient and time-consuming to use. So, it’s changing.We’ll move to a team-based approach to volunteering from September 2023 with clear tasks relating to teams rather than individuals. As part of the transition to team-based volunteering, we’ll have clearer roles with titles that people inside and outside of Scouts understand. Our new structures will mean that individuals can contribute in a way that matches their skills, interests, and availability rather than inflexible and work-like roles.
Each time will be led by a Team Leader, with team members contributing to the goals and tasks of the whole team.
Easy-to-use digital tools support each of the key areas of change. Yes, that means Compass will be replaced.
In March, I walked your Group Scout Leaders (now called Group Lead Volunteers) through what’s changing in detail, and they have developed a plan to help your Group and sections make the most of the changes which are coming. If you haven’t heard from them, I’d ask that you reach out to them and ask them to share the plans with you.
We are still on track to transition to the new membership system (a replacement for Compass) this coming February, and as we draw nearer, we’ll be sharing more information with you about what that means and looks like for you. For now, we’re renewing our efforts to ensure the data in Compass is correct. We’ve already started working with your District and Group Lead Volunteers to update as much information as possible.
If you have any questions about what the changes mean for you, I’d encourage you to talk to your line manager, and if you’re still unsure, reach out to us via voldev@eastlancashirescouts.org.uk
Thank you for all you’re doing to provide skills for life to young people.
