Volunteer Support

Find out how we have transformed volunteering at Scouts

We wanted to make volunteering with Scouts easier and more fun, so that we can attract and retain more volunteers, resulting in more young people gaining Skills for Life!

Read on for details of what this means, or click here for our one page quick briefing on improving the volunteer experience.

As part of delivering our Skills for Life Strategy, we have recently transformed the volunteering experience. We wanted to make sure our volunteers feel valued for everything that they do and most of all, we wanted them to enjoy themselves.

Together, our aims were to:

Recruit 10,000 more Volunteers nationally
Have a compelling Volunteer offer that shows the value and benefit of volunteering with The Scouts
Ensure Volunteer roles are modern, manageable and fit for purpose
Have an improved and seamless joining journey
More Volunteers from a diverse range of backgrounds that reflect the demographics of society

Why we changed?

We spoke to thousands of people both inside and outside the movement, and here’s some of the things they told us were wrong:

A Wood badge was required within 3 years when many only stay for 2
Lots of work carried out by a few people wearing many different hats
53% of District Commissioner and 27% of Group Scout Leader roles vacant throughout the UK
Over 400 different roles
New Volunteers being interviewed by Appointments Committees can be daunting
Digital tools that were not fit for purpose