Unifying Forces

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Bringing together two scout counties for a stronger collective purpose

In an era defined by rapid change and evolving challenges, The Scouts stands as a beacon of tradition and values. As neighbouring scout counties, Greater London South and Greater London South East have a long-standing working relationship and have shared many common challenges and opportunities whilst preparing young people for a brighter future, fostering character, leadership, and community engagement. 

Like any successful organisation, we need to be prepared for the future so we can react to social change, remain sustainable, and most of all ensure we are effective and relevant in today’s society. 

As the landscape of scouting, youth services, and the way adults volunteer their spare time continues to evolve across Greater London, the idea of bringing Greater London South and Greater London South East Scout Counties together as one Scout County has emerged as a positive opportunity to strengthen the way we administer support for local scouting. 

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The time is right…

As we move into our refreshed way of team-based working, with better ways of welcoming and developing our adult members. It’s also a timely opportunity to really put in practice flexible volunteering at county level. It’s an opportunity to combine strengths and bring teams together, and for exploring possibilities and opportunities to be stronger as one team with one united goal.

The creation of one Scout County, supporting seven Scout Districts, reduces the duplication of governance and operational management across our area. Bringing together all our volunteers that currently work at county level will enable us to provide a relevant, resilient, sustainable team which will provide stronger programme opportunities and programme support, and a wide-reaching strategic approach to organisational growth, dedicated volunteer support, volunteer services, and effective leadership and governance. Meeting the needs of our groups, units, and districts, and making it easier for our adults to provide exciting programmes to their members.

We are excited by the endless possibilities that this opportunity presents, as we all embrace the changes and work constructively with each other during this time of transition. We are driven by the enthusiasm of everyone involved, and we know you will help us ensure we place county level scouting across our area on a sound footing. Of course, there may be a few potential challenges for us to overcome, but we will approach everything as one team with a positive shared aim of creating a more robust, efficient, and impactful scouting experience that benefits our current members and the generations to come.

Our planning starts now, and we anticipate its completion by the end of this scouting year, in July 2024. During this time, we will keep you informed through regular updates and events. if you have any questions, observations, or suggestions throughout this process, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. We will share ways in which you can do this in the near future. 

As a valued member of our team, your dedication and expertise are crucial to the success of this transition. We encourage you to share your positive unique perspective and ideas as we make the most of every opportunity to make new friendships with people from other Districts and work together to utilise everyone’s talents and skills as we integrate the best practices and services from both counties. 

To celebrate the launch of our new county, we are planning a special event. We will share a date for your group and section diaries as soon as possible (with more info to follow). We really hope you can join the celebrations to mark the beginning of this new chapter in our scouting journey.

Words cannot express how much we value your personal commitment to scouting. Your dedication provides amazing programmes for your young people which helps them gain the skills they need to succeed in life. 

Thank you for being an integral part of this exciting time and we look forward to the positive impact our new scout county will have on the communities we serve, as we work together to bring about the most significant change to our county level organisation for 60 years.

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