Advice on adapting activities

 Controls and mitigation: If you can split the group into smaller self-contained groups for activities it will reduce the risk of spread.    

• When splitting the meeting into smaller groups please consider grouping members with people they already spend time with, eg: siblings, school bubbles. Your members will know what these groups are so this does not require extensive pre-planning. Particular care should be taken on activities with the potential for close proximity, eg: two scouts sharing a fire for a cooking activity.

 Controls and mitigations: Keeping hands clean reduces the risk of spread  

• Insert hand cleaning into instructions at appropriate points, e.g.: after touching shared surfaces and equipment, before and after handling food and drinks.  
• As a minimum, everyone should wash their hands or sanitise them on arrival, before departure and at least once an hour during meetings.  
• It's ok to share equipment where appropriate controls are in place, think about the who is using the equipment, what type of equipment it is and when hand washing would be appropriate.

Controls and mitigations:

• Don’t have a group huddled round a table face-to-face to do an activity. Consider alternative formats, e.g.:   
  - Group works in a circle, spread out by the distancing guideline applying at the time  
  - Or group works in two lines back to back  
• Plan in advance how to help a child that is struggling to follow instructions, without a leader moving into the distancing zone to intervene: e.g.:  
  - Coach from outside the distancing area  
  - Demonstrate from a distance with your own set of equipment   
  - Show a video of the activity on a phone 
• Get a neighbouring young person to demonstrate 
  It’s not worth taking the risk of going too close to solve this sort of problem.    

• Separate guidance on first aid is available to explain the trade-off between distancing and providing necessary help.  

Keep activities as short as we can, thinking about the following:   

• Could the activity be simplified?   
• Could more up-front preparation by leaders reduce the time it takes the young people to complete the activity, without diluting their learning?    
• Could the activity be finished off at home?  E.g. make something in the meeting but do the decorating at home? 

As part of the planning for the activity, think through:   

• What you will do if young people leave their groups . 
• What you would do if young people don’t follow social distancing instructions within their groups.