A new adult membership database

As you will imagine, there is a lot of data stored on Compass covering personal details, emergency contacts, appointment records and completed and required training. All of this will need to be reviewed, checked, and amended so that the data uploaded to the new system, later in 2023, is as clean and accurate as possible.

Whilst some of this can and will be done centrally at HQ, and County level, much of the personal data is just that, personal. This means that the only person to provide information and confirm held data is the person themselves. At some point therefore, over the coming weeks, your line manager; GSL, DC etc will be in touch to ensure that all your Compass records are correct and any gaps such as missing e-mail addresses, emergency contacts etc are populated. Please help the process as much as you can in responding to any requests and update data.

It is also important that we maintain this cleaned up Compass over the coming months so, please if you change e-mail address, or mobile number, ensure that you update your own Compass record. Similarly at Group and District levels, when adding, amending, or deleting appointments, do please complete all the required areas. If in doubt, please ask.

Click here to download our guidance sheet to help you with tidying things up on Compass for the embers of your group 

Click here for a guide to viewing training records on Compass 

What are accreditations?
Accreditations are a way of sharing tasks and responsibilities, where a volunteer needs to be given certain permissions to take these on.

Under our new approach, everyone in Scouts will be part of a team. Then, it’s up to volunteers in each team to agree who does which tasks, based on their skills, interests and availability. Sometimes a volunteer needs permission to do a specific task on the membership system. This is where accreditations come in.

Example tasks

• A task that needs to be done by someone with specific skills or qualifications. For example, making sure a kayak permit assessor is appropriately qualified.
• A task where someone needs to find and contact a specific person. For example, if the UKHQ Awards Team needs to know who to post awards to.

Who can have an accreditation?
To get an accreditation, a volunteer needs to be a ‘full member.’ This means they have completed all the steps on their volunteer joining journey, including their Growing Roots learning, and they are also a member of a team.

They may also need to meet other criteria for their accreditation. For example, completing relevant learning, having a specific qualification, or holding a particular role. For more details about criteria, see the accreditations table which will be listed in the October 2023 edition of POR.

How to give an accreditation
Relevant Lead Volunteers or Team Leaders give accreditations. Ideally, they will have the best overview of how tasks and accreditations are shared in their teams, so ideally they will approach suitable volunteers and ask them to take on accreditations. However, volunteers, in their team or in wider teams, may also approach the Lead Volunteer or Team Leader if they're interested in taking on specific tasks.

Lead Volunteers or Team Leaders are responsible for checking that the volunteer has met the criteria, is suitable to take on these responsibilities, and they’ve done the relevant learning.

Accreditations are given by logging into the membership system and give the accreditation to the volunteer. This will give the volunteer the right permissions to do their tasks and it will also record who’s doing what on the membership system.

How accreditations link to teams
Accreditations are responsibilities linked to certain teams – UKHQ, Leadership, Volunteering Development and Programme. If a volunteer takes on an accreditation task, they might already be part of that team, but they don’t have to be. If they’re in another team and they take on the accreditation, they don’t join that team, nor do they take on whole team tasks.

Instead, they’ll simply show up on the membership system as someone who’s taking on a task linked to that team. There can be real benefits to this, as it makes it more flexible about who can do what tasks.

Accreditations can be given to multiple people
Tasks can be shared depending on who’s in the team and your local needs. This might change over time. Accreditations will help volunteers give their time flexibly.

For example, in a large District with plenty of volunteers, there might be multiple volunteers with the same accreditation. In a small District, the Lead Volunteer(s) may find it more practical to keep some responsibilities, rather than sharing them with others.

The only exceptions are Awards Parcel Recipient and the King’s Scout Award Parcel Recipient. These accreditations are used for sending certificates and other award materials in the post, so there should only be one person with these accreditations in each location to avoid confusion.

Can volunteers have more than one accreditation?
It’s also possible for volunteers to take on more than one accreditation. There’s no limit to the number of accreditations a volunteer can have. However, it’s worth checking in with volunteers to make sure they understand the size and nature of the responsibilities that come with each accreditation, and how it’ll fit in with their overall commitment to volunteering.

When to start using accreditations
Remember, you won’t be able to officially use accreditations until the new digital systems go live from February 2024.

However, you can start thinking about them as you begin making changes to your teams:

Some things to consider when building your new teams

• When you’re recruiting new volunteers or talking to current volunteers about their skills and interests, try to decide who might take on extra responsibilities. For example, Volunteer Safeguarding Lead, Permit Approver or Awards Parcel Recipient sit as default with the Lead Volunteer, but can be shared through accreditations
• As you create your Volunteering Development Team, consider who might take on the responsibilities (and accreditation) to become a Trainer
• Take time to identify volunteers in the Programme Team who could get the accreditations for Visits Abroad Recommender, Nights Away Assessor, or Adventurous Activity Assessor

Find out more and read about all the accreditations that are available in our accreditations guide