Island Lead Volunteer of Jersey
Join our volunteer leadership team
About the role
The Island Lead Volunteer is a key volunteer role within local Scouting with responsibility for providing outstanding leadership and support for the Groups on the Island. The primary focus for the Island Lead Volunteer is to ensure that Scouting is able to reach every young person on Jersey; open to all regardless of faith, colour or social background, because we believe Scouting has the ability to change lives. This is achieved by leading the team of Group Lead Volunteers, and other Island volunteers as well as working with the Growth & Communities Teams (employed staff) to provide enough places to meet the demand for Scouting, and by ensuring that every youth member has access to a high-quality balanced programme that is challenging, relevant and rewarding.
Recruited by: Regional Lead Volunteer, via a search group process responsible to the UK Scouts Volunteer Support Team
Responsible to: Regional Lead Volunteer of South West England
Responsible for: District Lead Volunteers, County Leadership Team Members, County Team Leaders, County Youth Lead, and all other County appointments, however it is expected that line management for other roles are delegated to Team Leaders.
Number of Groups: 7
Numer of youth members: 787
Number of adult volunteers: 206
Extra information: We're looking for a candidate with a strong commitment to community partnerships and growth.
Key tasks
- Ensure that every Squirrel Drey, Beaver Scout Colony, Cub Scout Pack, Scout Troop, Explorer Scout Unit and Scout Network within the Island is able to deliver a high-quality programme which is challenging, relevant and rewarding for every young person.
- Provide proactive line management, including coaching, mentoring and guidance to Group Lead Volunteers as well as other adult volunteers on the Island who directly report to you including setting objectives for their work, holding regular one-to-one meetings and reviews.
- Build and maintain a sense of Island team by holding regular team meetings with the Group Lead Volunteers, Island Chair, Island team Members and other appropriate volunteers within
your Island team to collaborate and provide peer support. - Lead a safe, open and transparent culture around keeping young people and adults safe through our Yellow Card and key policies.
Ensure the timely recruitment and appointment of new Group Lead Volunteers where required and ensuring that interim arrangements are put in place for any vacant posts. - Together with the Group Lead Volunteers, agree the priorities for the Island and produce a plan to deliver these to meet The Scout Association’s vision and strategic objectives.
- Ensure that problems within the Island are resolved so that an effective volunteering culture is encouraged and Group Lead Volunteers feel supported to deal with challenging issues, including complaints in a timely manner.
- Ensure that the Island has an adequate team of supported and appropriate adults working effectively together and with others to meet the Scouting needs of the area.
- Ensure that problems within the Island are resolved so that excellent Scouting is provided to young people on the Island.
- Act as an ex-officio trustee as a member of the Island Trustee Board, and an ex-officio member of the Council of The Scout Association.
- Play an active part within the Regional Team by joining short MS Teams calls and in person meetings led by the Regional Lead Volunteer and twice yearly by Team England for all County Lead Volunteers to contribute to the development of Scouting within England as part of the Headquarters team.
Person specification
- Ability to lead, manage and motivate people in a voluntary environment. Essential.
- Understanding of the challenges of working in the voluntary sector. Desirable.
- Experience of working with young people and/or community work with adult groups. Desirable.
- Experience of volunteering in a manager/supporter role in Scouting (e.g. Group Lead Volunteer, District Lead Volunteer or other District/County/Island role).
- Excellent ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing including ability to speak and present publicly in a clear, articulate and motivating way. Essential.
- Ability to provide advice and guidance effectively to others. Essential.
- Ability to provide inspirational strategic leadership for the Island. Essential.
- Ability to contribute to strategy development and identify practical actions to achieve strategic objectives. Essential.
- Ability to effectively chair meetings. Essential.
- Can build, maintain and facilitate effective working relationships with a wide range of people. Essential.
- Ability to enable others to identify issues, clarify objectives, develop attainable objectives and gain the necessary skills and confidence to work as an effective team. Essential.
- Ability to negotiate compromises Essential.
- Plans, manages and monitors own tasks and time. Essential.
- Can construct and implement long-term plans that improve and expand the Scouting offered to young people, and identify any training, resources and other needs required to undertake
this work. Essential. - Ability to use technology, especially mobile email, to carry out a range of tasks (confident in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint). Essential.
- An understanding of the needs of adult volunteers. Essential.
- Flexible approach. Essential.
- Self-motivated. Essential.
- Able to work as part of a team and promote good teamwork. Essential.
- Resourceful, energetic and enthusiastic about the job. Essential.
- Acceptance of the fundamentals of the Scout Movement. Essential.
Being a Team Leader
We’re currently looking for a Island Lead Volunteer. This is a management role, and we need someone who can provide leadership, motivation and guidance to our other adult volunteers. A ‘team’ approach will be considered for this role.
Island Lead Volunteers support volunteers and other managers, known as Group Lead Volunteers, who in turn support the local Scout Groups. Adults at every level need support to ensure that they are motivated, inspired and focused on providing first-class Scouting. A good manager thanks other volunteers for their hard work, and helps to make sure that they feel happy and supported, week after week.
The Island Lead Volunteer will also provide direction for the Island, and will help others see the bigger Scouting picture through solid leadership.
We believe that everyone in management roles within Scouting should adopt an approach that combines the skills of both leadership and management.
What is a Brilliant Leader at Scouts?
We’ve identified five core skill areas that make a good Scouting manager.
· Understand what’s important to young people and how their team helps this to happen.
· Strong understanding of the current realities of local Scouting.
· Create effective working relationships across HQ and beyond to deliver our goals.
· Know their customers and hold themselves accountable to meeting their needs.
· Are network builders who cultivate new connections that add value to Scouts.
· Have a clear and compelling purpose for themselves and their team.
· Are self-aware, manage their energy effectively and role-model self-care.
· Take great care of people, supporting mental and physical health.
· Recognise and reward positive behaviours and high performance.
· Enable people to enjoy being a part of our organisation.
· Actively listen to and centre diverse voices.
· Create a psychologically safe and inclusive environment where everyone feels secure, respected, and valued.
· Recognise and take concrete steps to address privilege, power and bias in themselves as individuals and in our movement.
· Are role models for continuous learning; giving and receiving challenge while creating safe and brave spaces for colleagues to learn together.
· Make sure that their behaviour is underpinned by our values.
· Are adaptable – agree clear objectives but change in line with circumstances.
· Work in an agile way, constantly learning, iterating. and achieving results at pace.
· Dynamically manage risk, calmly leading others through periods of change or crisis.
· Trust people to do the right thing and deliver
· Use data and insights to drive decision-making.
· Understand and deploy user-centred design principles in development work.
· Are digitally literate and committed to making best use of digital to do things better.
· Encourage innovation and welcome disruptive thinking.
· Create a culture of active learning, spotting, and responding to future trends in the world beyond Scouts
England Team
It is an exciting time to be involved in Scouting, as we develop and progress our Skills for Life strategy, in order to prepare better futures and deliver skills for life to young people who want to access Scouting.
The Island Lead Volunteer role is an important UK Headquarters appointment within the England Team, responsible for providing inspirational and effective leadership for one of the 60 English Counties. As County Lead Volunteer you will take the lead for implementing our 2018-25 strategy with your team of Group Lead Volunteers and ensuring they feel motivated and supported to lead the Scout Groups to success.
The England Team is broad and also includes our staff colleagues within the Growth and Communities Team, the eight Regional Lead Volunteers, our regional growth and learning leads and the new core volunteer teams (Support, Programme and Volunteer Development). You will be joining a team of talented, focused volunteers
who are all passionate about bringing brilliant Scouting to every young person who wants to take part.
The role of Island Lead Volunteer is a demanding one, but we believe that it is critical to our success as well as being a highly rewarding challenge for the right volunteer. We are looking for individuals who can lead and inspire their team by being a great coach, critical friend and motivator. This is a senior manager role within Scouts and comes with significant responsibilities. It also offers a unique opportunity to make a real impact on the lives of young people on your Island through building, nurturing and leading a team to deliver our shared vision. This role provides the opportunity to be at forefront of our continued success within England Scouting.
- Liz Henderson, Chief Volunteer of England
More information about Scouts
Sound good?
Before making an application please ensure that you've read carefully read our vacancy informtion. In order for us to monitor the application of our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy, we'd be grateful if you'd also complete the Diversity Monitoring questions on the Application Form.
Questions?
If you'd like to discuss this role in more detail, please get in touch with Graham Brant, Regional Lead Volunteer of South West England, or Katharine Paton-King, Growth & Communities Manager.
Next steps
Thank you for your interest in volunteering as Island Lead Volunteer of Jersey. You can apply for the role yourself using the application form.
A search group has been put together to oversee this process and will review all applications and nominations in order to make decisions as to who to invite to attend the selection stage of this process (subject to internal checks).
Interview date: TBC
Apply nowKnow someone who might be a perfect fit?
Use the Nomination form if you know someone that might have the skills and experience that we're looking for.
We'll get in touch with them and start a conversation about the role.
Nominate someone for this roleLocation:
Jersey
Closing date:
Mon, December 1, 2025, 9:00 AM