Session 4: What is your role? (70 minutes)

Handout the different role descriptions relevant for each person’s role. Briefly describe the roles as follows:

Manager - The line manager agrees and reviews an adult’s role description. Ensures that appropriate training is completed and that any permits that are held are up to date. Line managers must understand the various processes and be able to support those they manage through them. It is very important that they explain the commitment to training to  adults new to Scouting from the outset. They are also responsible for monitoring the ongoing learning of those they manage. They will support members they are responsible for in applying for Nights Away and Activity Permits and should ensure that there are enough people in their Group or District with the relevant permits to enable activities to take place.

Training Adviser – agrees an adult’s Personal Learning Plan, provides them with support throughout the training process and validates their learning. They then recommend the award of the Wood Badge, subject to the approval of the County Training Manager. The Training Adviser directs the learner towards training but does not deliver training. If a Training Adviser is a Trainer, ideally, they should not validate against learning that they have delivered.

Nights Away Adviser – Supports adults through the process of getting a Nights Away Permit, including the assessment of applicants and providing further support for those requiring additional learning. They also advise on camping and residential experiences and promote them in their area.

Activity Assessors – assess adults’ technical competence in activities and make
recommendations for permits to be granted to run specific Adventurous Activities. They may also be asked to support those working towards these permits.

Scout Show Assessor – assesses Scout Shows against the criteria for National Recognition and recommends recognition to the relevant County or District Commissioner.

Not all assessors need to be members of the Movement, so it’s important that all participants understand the fundamental values of Scouting and remember that these are important to the members of the Movement that they are supporting. They should also have a good understanding of the Safeguarding policies and procedures of The Scout Association. Depending on the experience of the participants, you could go through these fundamentals, or could just display them around the room (Appendix 9).

As assessors, participants should remember that their role is always to enable adults to provide safe, good quality Scouting which develops young people. Part of their role is to encourage the people being assessed to provide evidence that they themselves have learned and developed. This should be evident from the adult’s normal activities in their Scouting role during the period whilst they are being assessed.

Monitoring progress is part of the learning experience for all the roles attending this training, and the whole process of assessing needs, supporting learning, assessing knowledge and skills, supporting learning, and assessing is a spiral or cyclical process, with validations or permit recommendation being returned to several time in the cycle, as detailed below.

For a Nights Away Adviser this might be:

• a new applicant with little nights away experience;
• NAA recommends further practice and partners the applicant with a more experienced Leader;
• The applicant decides they are ready for an assessment, but for an Indoor permit to begin with so they can take the Cubs away to an indoor venue while they continue to build their skills;
• Assessment is successful, and the NAA guides them in the further skills that they would need to develop to move on to Campsite Permit;
• Applicant attends a Module 38 training course and continues to build skills and shared camp regularly with more experienced Leaders;
• The following year, they apply for a Campsite Nights Away Permit and assessment is successful;

For an Activity Assessor the picture could be similar with an initial Permit awarded with
restrictions to known water/hills while the applicant develops and practises skills or attends further training;

For a Training Adviser, the cycle is much clearer:

• A new learner is allocated and the TA meets them. They assess needs and create the PLP. They agree on the learning required for Modules 1 and 3;
• At next meeting the learner has completed learning for Modules 1 and 3 and these are validated. They agree the learning for three further modules and are able to validate two based on prior learning and experience and evidence collected as a Young Leader and over the last few months in role.
• The learner is busy at University and hasn’t got the learning done by the next meeting, so further support and encouragement is offered and a different learning method suggested.
• At the next meeting the three further modules are able to be validated and further learning needs assessed.
• This cycle continues until all the required Modules are validated and the Training Adviser agrees a plan for ongoing learning for the first year, they then recommend the Wood Badge.

Occasionally there will be a disagreement when a learner/applicant disagrees with the outcome of a validation or assessment. It's important to deal with this in a sensitive way, and not allow it to become a personal disagreement. The matter is referred to the County Training Manager, if they cannot resolve the issue, then it is passed to the County Commissioner whose decision is final. This is set out clearly in the Training Adviser’s Guide and the Adult’s Personal File.

After the award – what next? Learning in Scouting does not cease at the moment that a Permit is awarded or a Wood Badge recommended.

A Nights Away Adviser is not there to simply assess for Nights Away Permits, but to promote nights away experiences. When you recommend the award of a Nights Away Permit, get in touch with the applicant and find out what their plans are for Nights Away  over the coming year. Encourage them to try new campsites or to plan a night away every term.

The Activity Assessor, as an experienced and skilled practitioner, can give guidance on planned activities and suggest further learning or practice to support the applicant as they continue to build their skills.

The Creative Activity Adviser/ Assessor, as an experienced practitioner, can give advice and guidance through the planning of future performances and support the group as it builds and grows.

The Training Adviser should remind the learner about their commitment to an average of five hours ongoing learning each year, explain about mandatory ongoing learning and supplementary modules and make a plan for the ongoing learning for the first year, which should be copied to the line-manager so that they can continue to support the learner.

The Training Adviser can explain to learners that they can log on to their own record on Compass to record their ongoing learning.