Frequently asked questions

Transformation Leads can collaborate on the Transformation Leads Facebook group.

If you're not a member of the Facebook group, you can share your ideas in the chat during Transformation Leads calls or email Transformation.Leads@scouts.org.uk if you'd like to be connected with another County or equivalent.

Setting up a local network of Transformation Leads within neighbouring Counties/Areas/Regions is also a great way to share learnings and collaborate.

Make sure you attend our Transformation Leads call each month as we’ll be sharing the most up to date information with you there. If you miss the call, we’ll make sure we record it and share any slides with you via email afterwards. Keep an eye out for any other emails from us.

We’ve also built a dedicated resource hub for you where we’ve stored everything in one place.

Absolutely, the information shared on our calls is not confidential, unless it's specifically stated. You can use the information shared on our calls to help others in your area with preparing for implementation of changes.

We'd encourage that information is presented in context. For example, if you forward slides or videos without supporting information, people may not fully understand why the changes are important. Share wisely! 

We’ll be providing you with additional resources to help throughout our transformation journey, but these can also be tailored based on what each local area needs.

When tailoring resources please ensure you maintain the purpose, meaning and context of the wording used to ensure that a consistent message is being shared across the movement.

If you feel like you’re missing a particular resource, please let us know and where possible we can support the creation of additional resources for the benefit of all Transformation Leads.

The Early Adopters are selected Counties and equivalents who will adopt the new volunteer experience a few months before the rest of the movement. They'll provide feedback that will help the transition to be as smooth as possible for everyone else.

The Early Adopter Cohort includes: Belfast, Berkshire, Coventry, Dorset, Greater London Middlesex West, Guernsey, Clwyd, Humberside, South East Scotland and West Yorkshire.

You can request support for or attendance at an event or meeting about the volunteer experience changes by completing this form. Please provide as much detail as possible about the support you're requesting, so that we can ensure the most appropriate person can help.

We'll do our best to ensure that someone is able to support/attend but this may not always be possible. Please give us plenty of notice.

We listened to feedback from across the movement, including from yourselves, and we recognised that there’s a lot to do to prepare for change locally.

We also listened to staff and volunteer teams working directly on the delivery, and we know there’s more we can do to make these changes as smooth and successful as possible for every member.  

By extending the timeline, there'll be more time to:  

• Deepen understanding of why the changes are needed and what they’ll involve
• Build local capacity to support local implementation
• Prepare and initiate culture and process changes which are reliant on system updates
• Prepare Compass data for transition to the new Membership System

Yes, you can expect to see it published in the first week of November.

In October, we’ll be sharing the new timeline, which will include details of when we plan to switch off Compass. Census is currently planned to go ahead, as usual, at the end of January.

We know that to complete Census, you’ll need access to Compass, and will make sure that the Compass switch off doesn’t affect Census. 

The Readiness Checklists are about making sure you’re prepared for change, and the actions they talk about are best completed ahead of transition.

We recommend that you try to complete all of the ‘Important’ actions so they can be RAG rated as ‘green’ at least four weeks ahead of transition, and that the majority of the ‘useful’ elements are also RAG rated as ‘green’ before transition, with no ‘red’ in either section.

Our aim in all this work is to make sure that the personal data held on Compass for each of our volunteers is accurate prior to the changeover.

We understand that some of the incorrect data may have originated on systems that existed before Compass. There'll be some opportunity to rectify this on the new system but now is a great opportunity to update the data as much as practicable.

There are many errors in our volunteers’ personal data held on Compass. Databases are only as useful as the data contained within them, so this transition presents a one-off opportunity to improve the accuracy of our database.

There are restrictions on who can update some information fields on Compass, and more details can be found in the full guide on updating compass. If people find they can't update something they should contact their local District or County team for support.

You can view the current guide on updating Compass.

To be able to log-in to your personal record you'll need a unique and personal email address.

This email address will be the username used to log in to personal accounts on the new system, so it won't be possible for two people to have the same login.

The Volunteer Experience Group are helping us to test everything, from ways of working, to learning content, and features on our digital system.

To get involved with testing, join the Volunteer Experience Group, and we’ll be in touch.

We're developing guidance to help ensure that transition and volunteering in during this time, is as smooth as possible.

During transition some interim processes may involve communicating with UK Headquarters in place of using a central digital system, while others may be designed and managed locally. 

Volunteers will sign in to scouts.org.uk, using an email address and password. For existing volunteers, they should see the Updating Compass Guidance, to know which email address will be used for their new account.  

The new digital system is not designed to work offline, as, to complete actions, it relies on continuous access to live data. It’s been built like most other websites though, in that, to save/submit a form you need to be online, but that if your connection drops while you’re on a page, you shouldn’t be logged out, you just won’t be able to complete an action until you’re reconnected. 

No – when the new digital system goes live, it won’t have functionality to process Visits Abroad Forms. We are currently looking at the continuous development of our new digital system and will be exploring how we can bring other processes, like the Visits Abroad process into the new digital system.  

Before the new digital system goes live, we will transfer information about volunteers’ training from Compass into the new learning system. This is part of a process called data migration.

To make sure that this is successful, and you have what you need when the new system goes live, please encourage all in your local area to make sure that the information in Compass is accurate, and training modules completed are recorded and validated.

Please talk with your County Training Manager about the need for volunteers to record and validate their Getting Started Training modules on Compass.

Your County Training Manager will already have access to all the information on which training volunteers have done and will have access to the Compliance Assistant.

We’ll be inviting members from across the movement to test the new learning system and content. We want to have a good mixture of people from different places and backgrounds so we can make sure that learning works for everyone.

Each time testing opens, we'll let you know how, when and who can provide feedback. The latest feedback opportunities are on the Testing Hub. As a Transformation Lead, please continue encouraging local volunteers to visit the Testing Hub and get involved.

The change from ‘training’ to ’learning’ is not just a word change, but a cultural change. The new content and learning system have been designed to engage each volunteer as they learn about the skills and qualities relevant to their individual volunteering experience.

With our current Adult Training Scheme, some training can be focused on compliance, and transmitting information to people, and it can be hard for volunteers to absorb the information they need.

The new system and content will also help us to create a learning culture that recognises all forms of learning. Learning can happen in many ways; as volunteers, we're learning all the time, be that when we’re completing our assigned tasks, talking with our peers, young people, or their parents.

We don’t plan on making any significant changes to how volunteers learn content currently delivered by the First Response course. It is important that First Response courses continue to be delivered locally as per current guidelines.

Before the summer break we will share more information about which volunteers will need to complete First Response in line with our new roles and teams-based approach structure.

Branching Out learning content will take us until 2025 to develop. At the moment, we’re exploring what it could look like, based on opinions shared by members in surveys and focus groups.

When we have a delivery plan, we will start to talk to Transformation Leads and members about the content you can expect in Branching Out and ask for your thoughts and opinions.

Adventurous Activity and Nights Away Permits will continue to be delivered in their current format but will come under Branching Out. Volunteers will need to complete learning in Branching Out to gain a permit.

It will still be up to the volunteer if they would like to hold Adventurous Activity or Nights Away Permits.

We have a ‘digital first’ approach with all our content, and as such, all the Growing Roots learning will be available digitally. For each of the learning courses, learners will be able to complete them at their own pace, engaging with video, written and graphic content. There will also be offline delivery methods for anyone who cannot access digital learning, and Volunteering Development Teams will be able to advise on this, once they are established. 

Branching Out content will have a range of delivery methods, with many courses being available through the new digital system, but with some being run by Trainers, either in-person, or on online calls.  

The Trustee Board are responsible for the Governance of the Charity, part of this being the assurance that it has the funds required to operate, whereas fundraising itself is more of an operational matter, supporting the Charity with the money they raise.

This means fundraising would sit as a responsibility of the Support Team at District or County (or equivalent) level and within a sub-team of the Leadership Team at group level – there's nothing to stop a Trustee being a Support Team Member or Sub-Team member, too.

Yes. On the new membership system, Section Team Volunteers will either be a Team Leader or a Team Member, but in practice, they’ll use whatever they think describes what they do the best. Those outside of Scouts will still know many of our volunteers as Scout Leaders, as will many of our young people and parents.

Yes, please visit the Volunteering Together webpages.

At the moment, there are no plans to introduce a learning requirement for Occasional Helpers. That said, where someone is helping regularly, now may be the right time to talk to them and introduce the idea of becoming a team member.

Read more about team members and helpers.

Visit the Resources page on the Transformation Leads Resource Hub to download the latest presentation materials. We will also be running a webinar for District and County Chairs – dates will be shared via the Transformation Leads Newsletter, and the sessions will be recorded and shared.

All teams, excluding Section Teams, can have sub-teams, including Trustee Boards.

When reviewing which sub-committees exist, it’s important to consider whether the tasks that they’re completing are governance or operational/support, and as such, whether they should be sub-teams of the Trustee Board, or of the Leadership or Support Teams. 

The Lead Volunteer nominating the Chair provides a potential conflict of interest. Going forward, we won’t have nominated and elected Trustees, instead, the Scout Council will appoint Trustees, and the Chair, too. It will be done using a selection process designed by the Trustees.

Yes – some roles will become accreditations when we move to the new digital system, and some will map across directly. On the 'becoming part of a new team’ page, we outline some of those that will automatically map across. 

Appointments Advisory Committee Members won’t automatically become Welcome Conversation Volunteers. Volunteers undertaking Welcome conversations will need to have a role in another team, be a Team Leader or a Lead Volunteer and have completed the Welcome Conversation learning. This is a good opportunity to consider who has the best skills and lived experiences to warmly welcome new volunteers to Scouts and carry out the Welcome Conversation.

No. Until you transition to the October 2023 version of POR, which will be at the point your County/Area/Region (Scotland) starts using the new digital systems, you need to continue using the current Appointments Process, which is in the current version of POR.

We would need to work with them to find a role in a team they would like to undertake alongside carrying out Welcome Conversations, as carrying out Welcome Conversations is a task rather than a role.

The new volunteer will login to the new membership system on scouts.org.uk and submit details of their references. The system will then contact them and ask for a reference. Satisfactory references will be processed automatically by the system, but if a reference comes back with a concern, this will be automatically sent to the Volunteering Development Team. 

No – as we operate now, until a volunteer has completed their joining journey, and their role’s full, they should have an appropriate level of supervision until they have completed their checks and learning. 

It doesn’t. Welcome Conversations are a new way to welcome adult volunteers to Scouts, and are quite different from Appointments Panels. For a volunteer to be given a Welcome Conversation Volunteer Accreditation, they will need to complete the new learning, regardless of whether or not they have completed Module 37 before. 

The Volunteering Development Team will support Lead Volunteers to ensure that new volunteers have a Welcome Conversation 4-6 weeks after starting their role, and that an appropriate volunteer is chosen to engage them in the Welcome Conversation. 

To make sure that volunteers can be given the accreditation in time to start as soon as the new digital systems go live, we aim to share the learning content with all other counties ahead of February. We have gathered feedback from Early Adopter Counties on initial drafts and are currently working on new versions which will be used in the new learning system.

The Volunteering Development Team Leader, or Lead Volunteer can give a Welcome Conversation Volunteer accreditation to any volunteer who has completed the learning and meets the requirements.

The detail of this is still being worked through, although in most cases, these tasks will be taken on by the Volunteering Development Team or the Leadership Team.

After the Welcome Conversation, the Team Leader / Lead Volunteer and Welcome Conversation Volunteer should discuss and agree an outcome. Should they disagree, the final decision can be made by the District/County Lead Volunteer, as long as they are sufficiently independent. 

At present, the Welcome Conversation Volunteer Accreditation will last for five years.

No. Individuals with a Welcome Conversation accreditation will not form a team. The Volunteer Development Team will have a responsibility to make sure a District/ County has enough accredited people to carry out Welcome Conversations.