Frequently Asked Questions

To gain a greater understanding of Scouts across the Country, the online census system has individual returns for each Drey, Colony, Pack, Troop, Unit and Network section. The details of the hierarchy used for the census has been taken from the membership system. 

For Dreys, Colonies, Packs and Troops, the Group will be able to log in and add Group level information, as well as being able to go into each section within the Group to add the information for those sections. 

Explorer Units and Network returns are managed by the District. 

If sections are missing from the census, they’ll need to be added to the membership system locally and can then be added to the census system by contacting the Support Centre. Details of how to add a Section to the membership system can be found on the digital tool guide pages.

On the Census form, the total number of young people of each age and gender needs to be recorded in the relevant section – record the number of members as they are on 31 January 2026. You should also count the number of youth members that you intend to invest into your sections in the near future. 

Alongside this, we ask for information regarding ethnicity, religion and additional needs. This information is anonymous and enables us to understand the composition of the movement and provide the most appropriate support to our members. 

Sections using Online Scout Manager can obtain this information by using the Census Aggregator function on OSM. The Census Aggregator will not record data for any young people listed on the Census Aggregator’s ‘Members’ tab – that data must be added manually. 

A question is also included on each section return relating to top awards for young people. Each section, including the Scout Network, is asked to state the number of top awards achieved during the past 12 months. It’s important to note that this is the total number achieved (whether the young people are still members of the section/Group), and it’s the date of completion of the award that matters rather than the date that the award is actually presented. For example, if a young person completed their top award in December, but the presentation won’t be until March, then the award should be recorded on the census return. Sections using Online Scout Manager will be able to gain this information by generating an OSM Badge Report. 

Anyone who’s a member of Scouts should be recorded, both young people and adults.  Everyone who’s a member of a section (Squirrels, Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Explorers, Network) is a member starting from the date of their first investiture into Scouts but you should also record young people that are due to be invested in the near future too. 

Adults will be automatically recorded in the census based on the roles they hold in the membership system. All adults with a role listed in the roles table, included in Chapter 16 of POR, that grants membership to The Scout Association will be counted in the census, including those that hold provisional roles. 

Young people should only be recorded once on the census; this makes sure that their UK HQ Membership Fee is only paid once. Adults and Scout Network members don’t pay the UK HQ membership fee. 

If an adult holds more than one role, they will be included within the census return of each unit they hold a role in, but will only be counted once in the overall membership figure. This will allow each level of the hierarchy to see how many volunteers are part of their team, while also providing an accurate of the total number of volunteers within Scouting. 

Secondary roles (roles which are granted because a member holds another role,) will not be recorded on a return. 

For example: 

Example 1: Sharon is a Section Team Member and also holds a role in a District Programme sub-team. Within the Group’s census report, Sharon will be recorded within their return. Within the District report, Sharon will also be recorded as a member of the District Programme team. However, within the overall aggregated District report, Sharon will only be counted once. 

Example 2: Glenn is an Explorer Scout Team Member and a member of two Scout Support Teams; one at District level and one at County/Area/Region level. 

Glenn will be recorded on the Explorer Scout Unit Census as an Explorer Scout Team Member and will also be recorded as a Programme Team Member on the District & County Census returns. Within the aggregated report for each level of the hierarchy, Glenn will be recorded once as a unique individual. 

Example 3: Sally is a Scouts Section Team Leader, and therefore holds a secondary role as a Team Member on the group leadership team. On the census return Sally will only be recorded once as the Section Team Leader but not within the group leadership team.

The data we analyse is anonymised and every effort is made to make sure that the data is also anonymised at the point of collection. 

However, we recognise that from time-to-time it may be possible for volunteers to identify individuals. We ask that discretion and confidentiality is applied in these circumstances, as some of the data can be sensitive. 

Personal data of adult members is collected via the scouts.org.uk membership system. This data is only visible to the individual member themselves and will be anonymous at the point it is exported to be analysed for census. 

When collecting youth data locally, care should be taken particularly if using the form provided to collect ethnicity and disability information [link]. There’s no name required for the form, but we do ask for gender. The forms should be collected and collated anonymously, and destroyed once the figures have been submitted to the Census site.  

The only exception to this is that we request the contact details of the person completing the census return. This data is kept for a maximum of twelve months so they can be contacted if there are any questions regarding their return. This personal data from the 2026 census will be removed from the census website no later than January 2027. 

You can read more about how data is managed at Scouts by reading our Data Protection Policy. 

We know many religions form our Scouting, and we're keen to know the religious makeup of our membership. Mapping the Religion of our members helps the Scouts to understand how reflective we are of the communities in which we are present and identify if there are groups which are currently under-represented within the membership. This helps us to look at how we might grow and develop Scouts locally and better support the programme.

Information about Religion is anonymous.  

If an individual does not wish to provide this information, they can record this as ‘prefer not to say’. However, this should not be used instead of collecting the relevant data. A letter for parents and a form has been produced to help collect this information for the young people in your sections [link]. Users of Online Scout Manager can use the Census Aggregator tool to anonymously collect the Religion data required for the census. 

There are a number of ways in which collecting this data will help us to grow and develop Scouts. These include: 

The Equality Act 2010 defines a disability as “having a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on an individual’s ability to do normal daily activities”. Understanding the disabilities and additional needs of our members helps us to constantly look for ways to improve access to Scouts and provide the support and guidance needed to support the full participation of all young people. 

This information helps us to identify the key external bodies and agencies we need to work with to make sure that we are following the best practice guidelines with respect to our provisions for people with visible and hidden disabilities. Information about disability is anonymous and a letter for parents to explain why we want this information, as well a form, have been produced to help collect this [link].

We’re seeking additional information about disabilities across Scouts to help us improve and more accurately target the support provided for adults and young people. 

This data will help us to be more effective in planning our projects, programme materials and events, so we can meet the needs of both adult volunteers and young people. The data will also help identify the key external bodies and agencies we need to work with to make sure that we are following the best practice guidelines with respect to our provisions for people with visible and hidden disabilities. 

We send log in information to District 14 – 24 Team Leaders so that they can manage the census information for which they’re responsible. As this doesn’t fit the normal District/Group hierarchy, we’ve added these as ‘Provisions’. 

A District Explorer Scout Provision will comprise of one or more Explorer Scout Units, in the same way that a Scout Group comprises of one or more Colonies/Packs/Troops. 

This allows the 14 – 24 Team Leader to go straight to their sections. Those with the District or County level log can see the Explorer and Network sections by first going into the Provision level. 

Young people of Explorer Scout age can be involved in different ways, as Explorer Scouts, Young Leaders or both, so it’s important to record them correctly to avoid double-counting or missing anyone. 

There are four main types of involvement: 

Examples to help you record correctly: 

After a return has been approved, it’s only possible for those higher up in the hierarchy to unlock the return: a Group will be able to unlock their sections, Districts can unlock a Group and the District sections and so on. However, once the Group is approved, it won’t be able to unlock its own sections and similarly, when a District is approved, it won’t be able to unlock its Groups. 

Please take care to check your data before submitting and approving a return. Once a return is approved the numbers will be considered final and will only be reopened in exceptional circumstances.

We are seeking this information as we are always looking to improve our policies and procedures, including our complaints policy. This information will help us to build a picture of the volume of formal complaints received from the movement overall. We plan to work closely with a representative sample of the movement to explore changes in how we deal with complaints. 

We also want to look at the advice and guidance available for all stakeholders including complainants and their representatives, managers and individuals subject to the complaints process. We feel this data will also be helpful for the line management chain to get a better understanding of their respective areas in Scouts when it comes to concerns and complaints. 

Please note that the question relates to complaints raised formally under The Scouts complaints policy. It does not include concerns raised which may have been resolved informally.