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Reflecting on 2023’s Highlights

9 Dec 2023

At the recent Regional AGM, I reflected on some of our Regional successes in 2023 and how we are progressing against our Regional Strategy. As we approach the end of the year I wanted to share a few of my personal highlights from 2023 in South East Scotland Scouts. 

Happy Birthday to Us

2023 marked 15 years since the formation of South East Scotland Scouts Region and it was wonderful to join with volunteers from across the Region to mark it at a special event at the EICC. As well as hearing about just a few of the many successes that we have seen in the Region over the last 15 years and paying tribute to the late Margery Naylor we had the opportunity to gather together in person and catch up with friends old and new – which has been a rare opportunity is recent years!

Pride at Pride

I have made no secret of the importance that inclusion in Scouting is a priority for me so to take part in Edinburgh Pride with volunteers and young people form across the Region – and further afield – and our friends in GirlGuiding was an experience that I will never forget. 

Scouting should be a place where all of us – volunteers and young people – can be our authentic selves. I recognise that we still have work to do on that and I am excited to see what 2024 holds with our new Inclusion Team led by Alison Robertson. 

Jamie's Journey

One of the reasons that I have been in Scouting for more than 30 years is that I feel part of an incredible community and this was never more so than during Jamie’s Journey in August. 

Visiting all 88 Scout Groups brought me into contact with volunteers and young people from across the Region and I was delighted that so many were able to join me for part of the journey and to receive their Jamie’s Journey Badge. 

The event raised more than £2300, split equally between the charity Love From Jamie and the Region. 

Jamie’s Journey was just one example of how sections supported our Community Impact strategic aim. We celebrated some of these at our recent AGM. If you missed it you can watch it here:

Recognising Volunteers and Young People

The success of our Region is down to the hard work of our Volunteers and Young People so it was brilliant to have the opportunity to recognise so many with awards this year. 

Leading the Way on Improving the Volunteer Experience

Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you can’t have missed the fact that changes are coming to the Volunteer Experience and South East Region have been leading the way as an Early Adopter. 

I am excited for the positive impact that these changes will bring and look forward to seeing more young people enjoying opportunities to gain Skills for Life with well supported volunteers. 

As we prepare for the Christmas holidays, I hope that you will all be able to enjoy some well earned downtime. I would like to thank all of you for your hard work supporting Scouting in South East Scotland and look forward to continuing to work with you all in 2024. 

Support Available from Regional Inclusion Fund

9 Dec 2023

In the South East Scotland Regional Strategy we have set ourselves a goal of: “Actively reducing barriers to membership for both young people and adult volunteers to help make Scouting in the Region representative of our wider communities by 2025”.   

To support this goal, we have an Inclusion Fund specifically designed to help overcome barriers to support young people and adult volunteers participating in Scouting. The Inclusion Fund is open to all Sections, Groups, Districts or Regional led activity.   

Initiatives which this funding could be used to support include:  

  • Taster Events (potentially using our Regional Centres) for those who experience barriers to traditional Scouting.   
  • Partnerships with organisations to support provision of Scouting in areas of deprivation.  
  • Developing community relations   
  • Resources to support making the demographic of our adult volunteers’ representative of the communities within South East Scotland.   
  • Improving our recruitment and induction of volunteers.   
  • Purchase equipment to make venues or activities more accessible.  
  • Venue costs for a new section in an area where Scouting has traditionally struggled e.g. areas of deprivation. 
  • Training for adult volunteers and/or young people  

How to apply 
You can complete this form if you wish to apply for a grant from the Inclusion Fund. Please ensure your District Lead Volunteer (or Regional Lead Volunteer for Regional initiatives) is aware of and supports your application.   

More about other funding options 
You can find out more about the Inclusion Fund via the document below and on our Funding page where you can also find information about other funds available to support different aspects of Scouting from South East Scotland, Scouts Scotland or UK Scouts.

Awards Recognition for Regional Volunteers

9 Dec 2023

Congratulations to everyone who received a Good Service award in the past year.  We are delighted that your efforts have been recognised by the Chief Scout and your Scouting friends.  

The most recent award was presented to Ian Nicolson whose exceptional service to the 15th Edinburgh North East Scout Group, the Regional Training Team and the community in his role as a member of the St Andrews Ambulance Association have been recognised by the award of the Silver Acorn.

 

Ian Nicolson

Martin Elliot also presented awards to members of the Bonaly ASU for their outstanding service over many years.

Remember, you can nominate any adult member for a good service award. If you need help or advice, then contact the Awards Advisory Team who will check the relevant criteria and assist in the completion of the appropriate nomination form.  This should be submitted for approval by the end of February 2024. Our email address is awards@sesscouts.org.uk

After that date, we anticipate that an improved stream lined process will be in place using the new system that will replace Compass.  This will enable online applications to be created and passed direct to your Lead Volunteer.

For those of you who haven’t nominated someone before, we recommend that you focus on the person’s role, their achievements and importantly how their Group or District have benefited directly from their actions. For example, the nominee may be a Trustee who has raised funds for new equipment which resulted in the Troop increasing the number of camping nights. Mention key facts such as the part they played in the fund-raising event, how much was raised, what was purchased and how many extra camping nights were achieved.  

John Bruce
Regional Awards Advisory Group

Find out more at Regional Advisory Group – SE Region (sesscouts.org.uk)

Transformation Update December 2023

9 Dec 2023

 

 

Thanks to everyone in South East Scotland Region who has contributed to the work going on this year to prepare for the improvements to our volunteer experience, which for us will pick up pace in early 2024. It was so encouraging to meet with hundreds of adult volunteers recently from across all 7 districts and hear such enthusiasm for the changes coming. Changes which will attract more volunteers, who stay for longer, that value those of us who have been around for a while, meaning we can offer skills for life to many more young people in the coming years.

Scott Goddard, Transformation Lead

Volunteering Culture

 

With Christmas approaching it feels timely to focus on the strand of work which is about our volunteering culture. On reflection, this is at the heart of the improvements coming and something we will all contribute to one way or another, good or bad, whether we like it or not.

Our Volunteering Culture is a shared set of principles that outline how we behave, in line with our values.

It gives us a shared understanding of what we do and say as volunteers in Scouts, supporting each other, following our values and being at our best, while acting as role models for young people.

There are more details here including a short video to help explain it. As we head into 2024 I know it will be helpful for teams to discuss what this means for them and what we can all do to get our culture right.

Web pages: Our Volunteering Culture | Scouts

PDF: Our Volunteering Culture.pdf

Reminder of Key Changes

 

Scouts Scotland have produced 4 one-pagers about the key changes relating to the Volunteer Experience:

Roles and Structures – moving to a team based approach

More Engaging Learning

Governance Changes – move to Trustee Boards

A Warmer Welcome for all

 

More details available on SES Website here

 

Trustee Boards

 

UK Scouts held a recent webinar on the move from Executive Committees to Trustee Boards – a recording of the webinar, which lasts approximately one hour, can be found here. Please encourage members of your Executive Committee, now Trustee Board, to have a look if you haven’t already.

Actioning our Regional Strategy

10 Nov 2023

We are now a year into our 2022-25 strategy. We set ourselves some ambitious targets but how are we progressing turning our words into action and how can we all get involved in helping us to achieve our aim:

By 2025 we will have prepared more young people in South East Scotland with skills for life, supported by amazing leaders delivering an inspiring programme. We will be growing, more inclusive, shaped by young people and making a bigger impact in our communities.​

Our strategy covers 4 areas – Growth, Inclusion, Youth Shaped and Community Impact. We will look at Growth in more detail following the Census so today I want to focus on the other three areas. 

Inclusion

As Regional Lead Volunteer, Inclusion is one of my key priorities. We have made progress in a number of ways:

  • Extended learning opportunities including Adjustments to Scouting and Mental Health training for managers
  • Introduced an inclusion fund to support Sections, Groups, Districts or Regional led activity  
  • Participation in Edinburgh Pride
  • Appointment of a new Inclusion Lead as part of the restructured Regional Leadership Team
  • Embedded support for additional support needs in activities including SEEE and in our Centres

By 2025 we will have:

  • Actively reduced barriers to membership for both young people and adult volunteers to help make Scouting in the Region representative of our wider communities.
  • Expanded adult learning to support inclusion equity and diversity

However, there is still more we can do. We recognise that areas within the Region which are most deprived according to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) have less access to Scouting and we will be working with Scouts Scotland to look at how to increase provision in these areas. 

We also plan to introduce further learning opportunities with a focus on particular inclusion topics e.g. autism, supporting LGBT members. 

We are also looking for people to get involved and support this important priority. If you are interested in being part of our inclusion team or finding out more you can contact our Regional Inclusion Lead, Alison Robertson at alison.robertson@sesscouts.org.uk 

Youth Involvement

As we implement our Strategy it is crucial that young people are central to shaping our future direction. We have made some progress:

  • Involving young people in all key decisions e.g. staff recruitment or recruitment of senior volunteers
  • Appointed a Regional Adviser for Youth Involvement
  • Grown South East Explorer Expeditions (SEEE) to support young people to achieve top awards. 
  • Working with youth representatives e.g. MSYPs and Regional Adviser (Youth Involvement) to shape Regional policy
  • Worked with Districts to identify ways to increase support and empower Explorer Scout Young Leaders

By 2025 we will have:

  • All young people in South East Scotland have an opportunity to shape their experiences at Scouts
  • 50% of young people will be achieving at least one top award for their section

As part of the restructuring of the Regional Leadership Team I plan to appoint a Regional Youth Lead to the team to ensure that the decisions that we make are shaped by young people. I am working with the new Scottish Youth Lead Mollie Reid to ensure that we do this in line with the new Scouts Scotland Youth Shaped strategy so look for more details on this in the new year.   

Community Impact

Groups across the Region continue to have a positive impact on their local communities including our Region wide event in August where members from all districts joined me for Jamie’s Journey raising over £2300 for charity. 

By 2025 we will have:

  • 50% of sections take part in at least one community impact project per year

As part of this year’s AGM we would like to celebrate some of the ways that Groups, Units and Districts across the Region have been supporting the aims of our Regional Strategy so if you have and images, videos or stories that you can share that show how Scouting locally has been supporting our aims of Inclusion, Youth Shaped and Community Impact then please share them with us by e-mailing communications@sesscouts.org.uk .

Martin Elliot
Regional Lead Volunteer
rc@sesscouts.org.uk 

Regional AGM Tuesday 21st November 2023

10 Nov 2023

We would like to invite you to join us at the South East Scotland Regional Scout Council AGM on Tuesday 21st November at 7pm.

To make the event more easily accessible to all members across the Region, it will again be held virtually on Zoom. You can register you attendance here. Pre-registration is essential to confirm your attendance. 

2023 AGM Agenda

  1. Welcome and Opening remarks
  2. Apologies
  3. Approval of Minutes of Annual General Meeting held on 10th November 2022
  4. South East Scotland Regional Scout Council Trustees’ Annual Report and Financial Statements for the Year ended 31st March 2023.
  5. Election of Office Bearers and Trustee Board for 2023-24
  6. Approval of Independent Examiner/Auditor
  7. Regional Lead Volunteer’s Report and Presentations
  8. Vote of Thanks

All are welcome to attend and the following papers are available:

If you would like to submit a question relating to the business of the AGM, it would be helpful if you would send this in advance to the Regional Secretary at secretary@sesscouts.org.uk by 5pm on Friday 17th November. 

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