Concerns about scouting

Please understand that all Leaders and Commissioners are volunteers and undertake their scouting roles in their spare time. It may take time for them to give you a substantive reply to your complaint.

Scouting is provided through Beaver Scout Colonies (6-8 yrs); Cub Scout Packs (8-10½ yrs); and Scout Troops (10½-14 yrs). These Scout Sections are organised into Scout Groups based in a local community and lead by a volunteer ‘manager’ - the Group Scout Leader. In the absence of a Group Scout Leader one of the other Leaders will be designated as the Acting Group Scout Leader.

A number of Scout Groups in a defined geographical area form a Scout District led by a volunteer District Commissioner. Provision for Explorer Scouts (14-18 yrs) and Scout Network (18-25 yrs) is also organised by the District.

A number of Scout Districts in a defined geographical area form a Scout County (designated Areas in Scotland and Wales) led by a volunteer County Commissioner (Area Commissioner in Scotland and Wales). Provision for members of the Scout Network (18-24 yrs) is also organised by the County/Area.

The Religious Policy
The Scout Movement includes Members of many different faiths and religions as well as those with no formal religion. The following policy has received the approval of the heads of the leading religious bodies in the United Kingdom.

All Members of the Movement are encouraged to:

• make every effort to progress in the understanding and observance of the Promise to do their best to do their duty to God or to uphold Scouting’s values as appropriate;
• explore their faith, beliefs and attitudes
• consider belonging to some faith or religious body;
• carry into daily practice what they profess.

Attendance at services
If a Scout Group, Explorer Scout Unit or Scout Network is composed of members of several denominations, religions or beliefs, the young people should be encouraged to attend services relevant to their own form of religion or belief.

Equal Opportunities Policy
Young People
The Scout Association is part of a worldwide educational youth movement. The values, which underpin and inspire its work are embodied in the Scout Promise and Law and in the Purpose of the Association.

Within this framework, the Association is committed to equality of opportunity for all young people.

Accordingly:
The Scout Association is committed to extending Scouting, its Purpose and Method to young people in all parts of society.

No young person should receive less favourable treatment on the basis of, nor suffer disadvantage by reason of:

• Class or socio-economic status
• ethnic origin, nationality (or statelessness) or race
• gender (including gender reassignment)
• marital or civil partnership status
• sexual orientation
• disability (including mental or physical ability)
• political belief
• pregnancy
• religion or belief (including the absence of belief)

All Members of the Movement should seek to practise that equality, especially in promoting access to Scouting for all young people. The Scout Association opposes all forms of prejudice and discrimination, including racism, sexism, and homophobia. All Scout Groups, as independent charities, have a duty to comply with relevant equalities legislation. All volunteers should make reasonable adjustments where possible to support all young people with disabilities to access Scouting. Reasonable Adjustments Reasonable adjustments means actions to enable young people with disabilities to access Scouting and Scouting activities, as far as reasonably possible, to the same level as young people without disabilities. This should involve working in partnership with parents/carers, to identify needs and support strategies. Reasonable steps should also be taken to identify any young people with disabilities in the Section/Group.

Leaders and other volunteers
To carry out its work the Association seeks to appoint effective and appropriate Leaders, and to involve other volunteers in supporting roles, all of whom are required to accept fully the responsibilities of their commitment.

The overriding considerations in making all appointments in Scouting shall be the safety and security of young people, and their continued development in accordance with the Purpose and Values of the Association.

Accordingly, all those whom the Movement accepts as volunteers must be appropriate persons to undertake the duties of the particular position to which they have been appointed (including, if relevant, meeting the requirements of the Sponsoring Authority) and, where appropriate, the responsibilities of membership.

In making an appointment to a particular leadership or support position it may be appropriate to consider the gender and/or ethnicity of the potential appointee, in particular to ensure appropriate composition of leadership or supporting teams.

The physical and mental ability of a particular potential appointee to fulfil a particular role will always be a relevant factor to consider.

Within these constraints, and those imposed by the need to ensure:

• the safety and security of young people
• the continued development of young people and equal opportunities for all

no person volunteering their services should receive less favourable treatment on the basis of, nor suffer disadvantage by reason of:

• age
• class or socio-economic status
• ethnic origin, nationality (or statelessness) or race
• gender (including gender reassignment)
• marital or civil partnership status
• sexual orientation
• disability (including mental or physical ability)
• political belief
• pregnancy
• religion or belief (including the absence of belief)

Note: Paedophilia is a bar to any involvement in the Scout Movement.

Safety Policy
It is the policy of The Scout Association to provide scouting in a safe manner without risk to health, so far as is reasonably practicable.

The Association believes that this responsibility ranks equally with the other responsibilities incumbent upon those providing Scouting activities and functions.

It is the responsibility of all those involved in Scouting to seek, so far as is reasonably practicable, to ensure that:

• all activities are conducted in a safe manner without risk to the health of participants
• the provision and maintenance of equipment and buildings for Members and others is safe and without risk to health and adequate for their welfare
• information, instruction, training and supervision is provided with the object of ensuring the health and safety of all those involved in Scouting activities or who may be affected by them
• appropriate arrangements are made to ensure safety and the absence of risks to health in connection with the use, transport, storage and handling of equipment, and substances which are inherently or potentially dangerous

Vetting Policy
It is the policy of The Scout Association to check all adult volunteers to ensure that: only adults appropriate for a role are permitted to undertake responsibilities in Scouting; and that regular reviews are undertaken of adult volunteers to ensure their continued suitability.

Accordingly The Scout Association is committed to:

• following a defined process for appointing adult volunteers that establishes the applicant’s suitability taking into account the fundamentals of Scouting; the Child Protection Policy, Anti-Bullying Policy, Safety Policy and the Equal Opportunities Policy;
• Refusing offers from applicants that are found to be unsuitable;
• Putting in place robust vetting arrangements and ensuring that these arrangements are made clear to applicants and to the public;
• Taking into account relevant information from The Scout Association’s records, police forces, relevant statutory authorities, personal references and other credible sources.

As part of the vetting arrangements, The Scout Association will undertake a Personal Enquiry which involves a check made against records at Headquarters for all adult volunteers and for certain roles a Criminal Record Disclosure Check. For foreign nationals or British Overseas Territory citizens operating abroad in British Scouting Overseas and Overseas Branches, checks must be made according to arrangements authorised by the Head of Safeguarding at Headquarters.

Child Protection Policy
It is the policy of The Scout Association to safeguard the welfare of all Members by protecting them from neglect and from physical, sexual and emotional harm.

Accordingly The Scout Association is committed to:

• taking into account in all its considerations and activities the interests and well-being of young people;
• respecting the rights, wishes and feelings of the young people with whom it is working;
• taking all reasonable practicable steps to protect them from neglect, physical, sexual and emotional harm;
• promoting the welfare of young people and their protection within a relationship of trust.

Anti-Bullying Policy
“Children have the right to protection from all forms of violence (physical or mental). They must be kept safe from harm and they must be given proper care by those looking after them.” [The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 19]

The Scout Association is committed to this ethos and seeks to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, the prevention of all forms of bullying among Members. To this end all Scouting activities should have in place rigorous anti-bullying strategies.

Development policy
Subject to the our rules governing age ranges and mixed membership the Scout Movement is open to all young people of whatever background.

The Scout Association recognises, however, that access to Scouting is not equally available to all groups and communities across society as a whole.

South London Scouts
Our County Development Service support scouting across our Scout Districts which cover the London Boroughs of Wandsworth, Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham and Royal Greenwich in promoting scouting, supporting the recruitment of adult volunteers, providing support to adults to helping them deliver quality scouting which is available to all young people in our communities.

Nationally
The Operations sub-Committee of the Trustee Board and the Regional Development Service at Headquarters support the Movement in its work in making Scouting available to all.

In particular, through the use of innovation and experiment, it supports local Scouting in meeting the needs of young people in areas of urban disadvantage or priority, in highly rural areas, and among the minority ethnic communities. It also works in collaboration with other agencies to support those disadvantaged young people who might benefit from its programme and ethos, and who may never become full Members of the Movement.

To submit a complaint please CLICK HERE and complete all the information requested.

We accept complaints about how you have been treated by scouting or, if you are a parent or carer of a young person, how that young person has been treated by scouting.

We have a few basic rules for the acceptance of complaints:

• complaints must be raised within three months of you knowing the facts (we do not deal with complaints that are older).
• we do not generally investigate anonymous complaints.
• we do not accept complaints that are raised on behalf of or regarding other people (except by parents/carers of children in scouting).
• we do not accept complaints that are broadly or substantively the same as a previous complaint.
• we do not progress complaints that we believe to be vexatious or malicious.

Your complaint will be dealt with fairly and objectively. We handle complaints in a positive and pro-active manner and expect resolutions and outcomes to contribute to a process of continuous improvement.

Please bear in mind that adults in scouting are volunteers and have other calls on their time. It may therefore take a little longer to sort out your complaint, however you will be kept informed of the progress of the complaint.

The investigator may need to speak to you and a number of other people to fully understand your complaint and the circumstances surrounding it.

The manager will make a decision about the complaint and will inform you whether your complaint is upheld or not and the actions that will be taken as a result.

The vast majority of adults involved in Scouts are volunteers. Complaints received will be passed to the most appropriate and most local volunteer manager for resolution. The appropriate volunteer manager can then decide whether they’ll manage the complaint themselves or delegate to one of their deputies or assistants to manage the complaint.

If the appropriate volunteer manager, their deputies or assistants are unable to investigate the complaint for any reason including a conflict of interest (see definition below), the complaint should be passed onto a volunteer manager, deputy or assistant from a different part of the movement at the same management level for them to progress the complaint.

If your complaint is about a matter within one of our local Scout Groups please contact the Group Scout Leader. The Group Scout Leader is the manager of scouting activities within the Scout Group. They will listen to the complaint and will do their best to answer your concerns. If you feel you do not want to discuss the matter with the Group Scout Leader, or if they cannot deal with your concerns, or if your query is more serious, then please contact your District Commissioner who will assist you. You can find out who your District Commissioner is by looking at the ‘our people’ section of this website.

They will acknowledge receipt of any formal complaints within seven days and will past your concerns on to our appropriate Group Manager for investigation. Our aim is to resolve all complaints within four weeks. However, this may take longer depending on the nature of the complaint. If the timescale needs to be extended, you should expect to be kept informed of progress.

A conflict of interest is when someone’s judgement or actions are, or could be, affected by something unconnected with their role in scouting. This includes any circumstances that affect, or could be seen to affect, someone’s independence or impartiality.

If a volunteer manager from the management level above is an ‘acting’ volunteer manager where a complaint is to be managed, then whenever possible they shouldn’t manage the complaint so as not to create a conflict of interest if an appeal is needed.

The offices of the Patron, President, and Chief Scout do not deal with complaints, disagreements or disputes. Any correspondence received on these matters by UK headquarters will be referred to the most appropriate and most local manager.

Prior to beginning an investigation into a complaint, the volunteer manager of the management level above where the complaint is being managed will be informed and kept up to date with the progress of the investigation throughout. This volunteer manager will not get drawn into the detail of the handling of the initial complaint in case they are required to hear an appeal at a later stage.

There is no process of ‘escalation’ of a complaint. The complainant’s recourse is solely to a single appeal once the original complaint has been investigated and the outcome known as set out in this policy.

Complaints in relation to our paid staff and matters relating to South London Scout County will be handled by the relevant line manager in accordance with this policy and/or relevant employee policies. 

Complaints about employees of any companies or services used by local scouting should be dealt with in the most appropriate and most local level of scouting in accordance with their relevant engagement policies.

What happens if I have concerns about how the original complaint was handled?
If after receiving a response to your complaint you are concerned that it was not handled appropriately, or still consider that you have not had a satisfactory answer, you may express these concerns to the next level of scouting. If your concern was originally dealt with at scout group level this will mean contacting the District Commissioner. If it was originally dealt with by the District Commissioner, then the County Commissioner should be contacted (you can contact the County Commissioner at cc@southlondonscouts.org.uk). If it was originally dealt with by the County Commissioner, then the Regional Commissioner should be contacted. The contact details for the Regional Commissioner can be obtained by emailing office@southlondonscouts.org.uk

What appeals are accepted?
If a complainant or those who are directly affected by the outcome of a complaint are not satisfied with the outcome of the original complaint or the process undertaken, there is a right for appeal. Only one appeal is allowed per person directly affected by a complaint and if multiple appeals raise the same concerns they may be carried out as one appeal.

Any appeal must be received within 14 days of the complainant, or those directly affected, being notified of the outcome of the original complaint.

The Whistleblowing policy is for all volunteers who have a serious concern in regards to a breach of our standards or conduct. This policy makes sure that if a volunteer has a serious concern, they know how to raise it as soon as possible. The matter will be comprehensively investigated and the appropriate action taken.

Click here to find out more details on the UKHQ website