2023/24 Year in Review

17 July 2024

Well, that's it! With our cub pack closing this evening, the 2024/25 Scouting year has come to an end for the 17th - and what a year it's been. This page is a summary of the year, with some updates on group policies, finances and the strategic direction of the group.

It's been a year of progress and change - some of the biggest changes we've seen in the group since its formation in 2017. This is a long post, so grab a cup of tea and settle in - or, use the "On this page" navigation on the left to jump to the section you're interested in.

Leadership Teams

Firstly, I want to extend an immeasurable thank you to our section leadership teams in our Beavers, Cubs and Scouts sections. Without their dedication, enthusiasm and hard work, the group simply couldn't function. The time commitment they make to the group is huge, and their passion for ensuring young people get unforgettable, unique experiences within Scouting is truly inspiring.

I'm sure you'll join me in thanking them for their hard work this year.

We're also, sadly, saying goodbye to some of our leaders this year across our sections due to new jobs and education commitments requiring travel - I want to extend a special thank you to them for their time with the group, and for a few of these leaders, we can't wait to see you back in the 2025/26 year!

Group Trustee Board

The 17th Newcastle Scout Group currently has several vacancies on its Trustee Board (formerly Executive Committee), which we anticipate filling in the coming months - primarily by co-opting and electing new members at our Annual General Meeting (AGM - see below). The Trustee Board is responsible for the governance of the group, ensuring that we're operating within the law and the rules of the Scout Association.

I have only recently (October of last year) taken on the role of Group Lead Volunteer, and I'm also delighted to announce in June our Cub Section Lead Volunteer (Ellie) has agreed to take on the role of Group Chair until the AGM in September. I'm sure you'll join me in congratulating her on this new role.

Transformation in Scouting

Across the UK, Scouts are undergoing significant changes to the way we deliver Scouting to young people. While this primarily impacts leaders and groups more than individual young people, I feel it is important to both mention here, and also explain some of the key changes.

Firstly, a significant number of roles (the positions adults hold within Scouting) have been renamed to both better reflect the role they play in Scouting, and to make it easier for new volunteers and parents to understand what each role does.

The key changes are:

• Group Scout Leader (GSL) is now Group Lead Volunteer (GLV)
  • This has also been replicated across all levels of Scouting's leadership structure. Any "Commissioner" role such as District Commissioner is now "Lead Volunteer" (i.e. District Lead Volunteer)
• Section Leader is now Section Team Leader
• Assistant Section Leader and Sectional Assistant roles have been merged into Section Team Member

Secondly, the way we onboard and welcome new volunteers is changing to make it easier for new adults to get involved in Scouting. This includes a new online system for completing mandatory training (such as safeguarding and safety training) and a new, more streamlined process for completing a DBS check. This will hopefully encourage new volunteers to join us and help us to deliver more Scouting to more young people.

The full strategy can be found on the Scout Association Website, however, for conciseness I've only included the key changes here.

Events and Activities

We've run a number of events and activities this year, including:

• A group-wide camp at Broadwood Scout Campsite at the end of April (more below)
• A number of hikes and walks in the local area
• Trips for our Cubs and Scouts to a police station's cells and garages (a big thanks to Northumbria Police for their assistance with these trips)
• Bowling, bouldering and bouncing trips across the group

and a lot more...

With improvements in our storage and equipment situation (more below), we've been able to run more activities and events than ever before - and we're looking forward to running even more in the 2025/26 year.

Mission Adventure camp

Our Mission Adventure camp in April was a huge success, with over 50 young people from across the group attending (compared to 25-30 in previous years). We had a huge number of young people spending their first ever night away from home - a feat that saw no tears and no homesickness!

Incidentally, the campsite was one of the - if not the - coldest places across the UK that weekend (just our luck, right?) but we saw no complaints from young people or leaders - a testament to the resilience and determination of our young people.

We can't wait for next year's camp (which we hope will be warmer, though with this Summer's weather I don't want to make any promises...) and we're looking forward to seeing many familiar and new faces there.

We are also in the process of training more leaders to the Nights Away standard - the requirement to run a residential activity such as a camp - to ensure that we can continue to run camps, and indeed more camps, in the future.

Beaver Leadership

As some parents may be aware, our Beaver Section is largely run by dedicated parents, rather than by leaders who have been trained in Scouting. This is a common situation in many Scout groups, and is fantastic to see parents getting involved in the running of the group.

With that said, we are looking to recruit more leaders to the Beaver Section to ensure that we can continue the running and provision of high-quality Scouting to young people in the area. If you're interested in volunteering with the group, please send me an email at [email protected] - without volunteers, we simply can't run the section.

Waiting Lists

Our waiting list has grown by 35% in the last year, with - at the time of writing - 35 young people on our group-wide waiting list.

We have merged all sectional waiting lists into one group-wide list, to ensure that we can offer places to young people as soon as they become available, and also ensure young people are offered a place in the most age-appropriate section for them.

Furthermore, we have launched a new Membership Form on our website, which allows parents to sign-up multiple young people to the waiting list at once, and also allows us to collect more information about the young people joining the group - which reduces the amount of administrative time spent onboarding new members.

New Website

As you may have noticed, we have a new website! This website has been designed to be more accessible, fast, and informative - cutting jargon and making it easier for parents to find the information they need.

This website is also now the primary source of information for policy and procedure updates, as well as the place to find out about upcoming events and activities (NB that we still use Online Scout Manager to manage any personal information).

Finances

As you may be aware, we recently increased our subscription fees by £5/term to a total of £40/term. This is to cover rising costs caused by the cost of living crisis and a rise in insurance costs for Scouting. This increase provides us with approximately £1,250 extra income per fiscal year - which will be used to cover the costs of running the group, and to ensure that we can continue to provide high-quality Scouting to young people in the area.

Storage and Equipment

I'm delighted to announce that we have secured access to a shipping container provided by St George's Church, which will be used to store our equipment and resources. This will allow us to store equipment more securely, and also to ensure that we can access it more easily when we need it. It further allows us to procure more equipment and resources for the group, as we now have significantly more storage space.

I want to thank the church for their work with us to secure this container, and their ongoing support of the group as a whole.

Church Renovations

The St George's Church building are anticipating renovations in the not-too-distant future, which will impact the delivery of Scouting in the area. We are working with the church to ensure that Scouting can continue to operate in the area, and that we can continue to provide high-quality Scouting to young people in the area.

We do not currently anticipate any disruption to our programme, however, we will keep parents updated as we learn more about the renovations.

Revised Safety policy and training

As some parents may know, there was a tragic incident in Wales in August 2018 where a young person lost their life due to a lack of safety precautions taken by a (different) Scout group. This has had a profound impact on Scouting as a whole, and has led to a significant review of safety policies across the country.

We have reviewed and revised our Safety policy to ensure that we are taking all necessary steps and precautions to keep young people safe while they are with us. This includes a review of our risk assessments for general activities, and a review of our emergency procedures.

We have never had a serious incident in the group, and we are committed to ensuring that it stays that way. All adults in our group will be required to complete a new safety training module in the coming months, which will cover the new safety policy and procedures. For further details on the national changes, please visit The Scout Association's website.

Note that Safety and Safeguarding, while both instrumental in keeping young people safe, are separate policies and procedures. We have also reviewed our Safeguarding policy and procedures as part of a separate national review of Safeguarding procedures. At the bottom of all pages on this page is a yellow banner with information about how to report a safeguarding concern. This is not in response to any specific incident, but rather a proactive measure to ensure that young people are kept safe while in our care.

Group Policies

As I alluded to earlier, we have reviewed and revised a number of our group policies this year to ensure that we are operating in line with the rules of the Scout Association, and to ensure that we are providing the best possible experience for young people in the group.

All group policies are available on our Policy Hub which serves as the sole repository for all group policies and procedures. This is to ensure that parents and volunteers can easily access the information they need, and to ensure that we can keep policies up-to-date as the group grows and changes.

We write new policies periodically and as required. These policies are supplementary to the national Policy, Organisation and Rules (POR) which is the definitive national set of guidelines to how Scouting should - and must - be run.

AGM

Our Annual General Meeting (AGM) is scheduled for mid-September. We'll be putting out Online Scout Manager invitations to all parents and volunteers in the coming weeks, and we hope to see as many of you there as possible. We'll be also using this as an opportunity to present some of our young people with their Chief Scout's Awards - the highest award a young person can achieve in our group, as recognition of their hard work and dedication to Scouting.

Please do come along if you can - it's a great opportunity to meet other parents and volunteers, hear about our progress and future plans, ask questions and get involved in the governance of the group.

Summer Holidays

We're now on our Summer break, with no meetings until September. Our sections meet in accordance with the Newcastle City Council school term dates, and we'll be back in September for another exciting year of Scouting.

Moving on

If your child is reaching or has reached the upper age limit for their section, we'll be in touch over the holidays to discuss moving them to the next section. If you have any questions about this, please do get in touch with your section leader or myself.

Conclusion

It's been a fantastic year for the group, and I personally can't wait to see what we get up to as a group in the 2024/25 academic year. I also want to thank you, the parents and carers of our young people for your continued support of the group - your engagement and support is what makes the group what it is.

On behalf of the leadership team, I want to wish you and your family a fantastic, restful, and hopefully sunny (compared to Summer so far...) holidays, and we look forward to welcoming you back in September.

Yours in Scouting,

Phil Gibson, Group Lead Volunteer