County Development Service

Our most important area of development is to support and grow our existing scout groups. Our first step to do this is to carry out an action planning workshop which we call a group health check.

Whilst this might sound quite formal, it’s really not! A group health check is a chance to celebrate your group’s successes and the great things that happen every week at your section meetings and highlight any areas that could do with some improvement. By doing this everyone in your group gets the opportunity to work together and identify the areas you need support with.

The health check falls into three main categories: the green zone - good progress, the amber zone - initial progress and the red zone - opportunities for improvement.  Most groups will have a mix of zones and using this system will help you find quick fixes to help you move from red to amber or amber to green.

It is important to note that this is not a test, or a league table and you will not be asked to share your findings with anyone outside your group’s leadership team, (unless you choose too). It is also important to remember that this is not a set of standards that your group is expected to achieve.

Using the outcomes of your group health check and experience we have gained from other scout groups across the county and around the UK, our development team will help you put a simple action plan together and help you to turn the plan into reality. The result will be a happier, stronger scout group, which in turn will result in more leaders and members!

If you would like to discuss how this could benefit your scout group or If you would like to book a group health check, please contact our development officer, Matt (his contact details are at the end of this section).

Group Lead Volunteers are key to ensuring that we are providing successful scouting! They ensure everyone is happy, making sure the sections have a vibrant programme and ensuring that the group has everything it needs and is administratively sound.

We can support you in doing this and can help make things easier. We do this by providing a one-to-one session to break down the role and make sure you have all the “tools” you need. Get in touch so that together we can identify the areas where you need support and start the ball rolling.

Scouting is in high demand across our County and in many areas of the county supply outstrips demand and the only way to cope is to open new sections!

This might sound like hard work, but in reality, it is very rewarding and great fun. As a development team, we have supported the opening of dozens of new sections and scout groups and have some tried and tested methods to follow. Contact Matt to find out how we can help you do this too.

Constantly recruiting young people and adults means that scouting in our County will continue to flourish.

We have a number of tools to help you with recruitment and these include:

Going for Growth badge scheme
Our Going for Growth scheme has been designed to help you promote the amazing things that happen in your colony, pack and troop each week to the people in the local community. The scheme consists of 13 badges which can be easily run as part of a sections weekly programme. Badges are free of charge and cover the following areas:

• Shouting about scouting
• Bring your friends
• Easy linking between sections
• Growing your adult membership
• Community awareness and involvement
• Gaining top awards and taking part in a quality programme

You can find out more about the scheme, download the badge requirements and resources and order badges HERE.

Recruitment Events
We can also provide support at recruitment events and can provide some simple (and fun), recruitment tools to help you do this:

• Recruitment stands - we can work with you to run a recruitment stand at a local community event and promote scouting
• Scout Group recruitment leaflets – with information about all age ranges, volunteering and space for your own contact details
• Publicity activities – when you go to school fairs or local events, do you want something more interesting than leaflets on your stand? Let us show you how you can bring your stand to life and get lots of people wanting to talk to you! (we can lend you the equipment you need).