Retaining young people as they move sections

The retention of young people as they move between the sections in your group and on to explorer scouts and the scout network is paramount to our continued success.

To achieve this, you and the other leaders in your group or unit need to work together to maintain links. By meeting regular you will build relationships and ensure that suitable joint activities are organised and that consideration is given to planning young people's transfer from one section to another. Without cooperation between leaders very little can be achieved to establish a sense of group unity and family spirit.

A particularly important aspect of this is to plan ahead to ensure that young people move at the right time for them rather than the time that suits the leaders.

Change can be difficult and as leaders, it is our responsibility to do all we can to continue to support our young people throughout their scouting journey. Remember to use the Moving On Awards when a young person joins a new section in conjunction with our Link Badges and to develop those all-important links between section leaders.  

Here are some practical things that all leaders can do to support young people moving between the sections.

• Regularly update your group scout leader on who in your section who is getting ready to move on

• Attending district meetings or events will give you the opportunity to meet leaders in your local area and share ideas

• Joint activities help members of both sections get to know each other and feel comfortable with others outside their own section

• If a young people needs a bit of extra support in preparing to move on use some  visual aids which are easy to understand and can help to put young people at ease when thinking of making the big move.  These may be particularly useful for a young person with additional needs or a young person on the autism spectrum, as this often involves increased anxiety about change or new situations.

• The youth resources for each section provide key information for the young person, about their new section.