Digital transformation
Our digital strategy supports our members, grows the movement and puts our people at the heart of what we do
Making Scouts digital first
Being digital first isn’t about being digital only, and it’s not about being digital for the sake of it.
Most importantly, being digital isn’t just about technology – the transformation comes from a combination of changes to people, processes and technology, working together in a different way.
Our digital strategy supports our members, grows our movement, and puts our people at the heart of what we do.
Becoming a digital first organisation allows us to transform the Scouts experience. It helps us produce tools and services for our volunteers, staff and young people which are easy, enjoyable and empowering.
Digital is here to make a difference. It enables what we do.
Our 8 digital principles
We’re building our digital principles into the foundations of how we do things, defining the road ahead.
1. We put people at the heart of everything we do
2. We are bold and open to change
3. We create digital-first, responsive and accessible services
4. We use data and insight to drive our decisions
5. We measure, test and learn
6. We engage, collaborate and partner
7. We provide safe and secure services
8. Our systems are flexible, sustainable and interoperable
1. We put people at the heart of everything we do
We create services with and for our members to deliver what they want and need. At the same time, we help our members improve their digital skills and confidence.
2. We’re bold and open to change
We aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo – we think differently and we innovate. We’re not afraid to get things wrong and learn from things we do. We’re here to transform the movement, making change happen in a positive and sustainable way.
3. We create digital-first, responsive and accessible services
We design and deliver digital services, tools, platforms or content that work across most devices, are available anywhere and are accessible for all.
4. We use data and insight to drive our decisions
We capture, monitor and analyse data across the movement to inform decisions and create insights. This supports the development of our services, using data to help make decisions
5. We measure, test and learn
We test and learn, listen to users’ feedback, measure our results and continually improve.
6. We engage, collaborate and partner
We encourage innovation and creativity from across our movement. We work collaboratively in co-design between staff and volunteers. We share knowledge and information across the charity sector and with our partners and suppliers.
7. We provide safe and secure services
By maintaining the highest security and data standards, we make sure that our digital and technology services are safe and secure. We meet all regulatory and compliance obligations for technology.
8. Our systems are flexible, sustainable and interoperable (they work with each other)
Our technology infrastructure, architecture and systems are reliable and robust, using technologies with a cloud-first, open source approach. This means they are more sustainable and give us better value. Our digital platform is flexible and supported by re-usable components. This allows them to work across different systems. We use open standards for data and coding wherever possible so that we can share these across the movement or the sector.
What we've achieved so far
There’s been mountains of progress since we started this programme in 2018.
We’ve launched a completely new website, delivered huge online events and used digital tools to help volunteers continue to deliver Scouting throughout the pandemic. During the pandemic our volunteers spent more than 214 million minutes delivering Scouts on Zoom through our award-winning partnership.
Our vision is that our website should be the one-stop shop for all the digital tools our volunteers need to deliver great Scouting. We deliver our digital strategy through a close collaboration between our staff and hundreds of volunteers up and down the country.
What’s next?
We are continuing our shift towards being digital first.
We’re developing the core technology systems that’ll underpin everything:
- The membership system
- The learning experience system
- Digital tools to help with volunteer recruitment.
Meanwhile, we’re upgrading the legacy systems so that everything works together. All of our work is underpinned by our digital principles, ensuring that we listen to our users’ needs, we use data and insights to inform our decisions and we measure test and learn along the way.
In 2023
- We launched a new digital skills platform for volunteers that was shortlisted for an award.
- We are finalising the development of a new system that will help all adult volunteers manage their membership and learn skills to help in their Scouting.
- We will also have an improved process for attracting and welcoming even more great volunteers.
- We continue to fine tune our website so people can still find what they need as more and more tools go on there.
- We are also starting work on additional functionality to improve important areas of the website like safety management and youth programme and data management.
The Digital Transformation team are a team of volunteers and staff helping to deliver our digital strategy.
In 2024, we’ll be supporting the new volunteer journey by launching new tools for welcoming, learning and adult membership management
These are the key digital skills you'll use for planning and delivering Scouts