County Assessors
FS120104 p2
Assessor qualification tables updated October 2023
How to become a County Assessor
County Assessors are appointed by Counties through the same process as any other adult appointment, including vetting checks and mandatory learning. To be considered as a County Assessor, or for review of a role as County Assessor, you need to fulfill the following criteria:
1. Technical knowledge – Hold the level of qualification, or equivalent or higher, as laid down for each activity County Assessor Qualifications table. This needs to remain current throughout your time as an assessor.
2. Assessment skills – Validate the activity assessor’s version of module 25 of The Scout Association’s Adult Training Scheme.
3. Remain current and up to date – Meet the currency requirements set out in the County Assessor Qualifications table. County Assessors must also have attended at least two days of technical updates within the last five years at the point of your appointment review.
All County Assessors are required to hold a national governing body qualification, to ensure that they have the technical knowledge required for the role. Funding is available to assist potential County Assessors in gaining the qualifications they require.
As well as having the required technical knowledge, County Assessors also require the skills to be able to assess. This training and validation is provided through the activity assessor’s version of Module 25 Assessing Learning (Adventurous Activities) of The Scout Association’s Adult Training Scheme. Due to the modular format of the training scheme this will involve no unnecessary training courses for those who already have these skills, as validation of these skills can be done through carrying out assessments with the support of a Training Adviser (who will quite possibly be another County Assessor).
It's important that County Assessors remain current and up to date and active within their activity. To ensure that they are, all County Assessors must keep their qualifications current as outlined in the County Assessor Qualifications table and in addition are required to have been on at least two days (14 hours) of technical update workshops within the last five years. This figure should be seen as the minimum rather than the target and should include at least one day of technical updates for the activity and at least one day of assessing skills updates. These updates can include events such as:
- Scout Association assessor workshops
- National governing body assessor workshops
- National governing body qualification revalidation events
County Assessor role
In addition to the main task of carrying out assessment of members for activity permits, there are a few other requirements of the role:
Attend assessor meetings
Each County, and sometimes multiple Counties, will run assessor meetings for assessors to get together and discuss assessments that they have carried out. These are important to provide peer support to other assessors and to ensure that all assessors are assessing to the same standard. These discussions are to help the ongoing synchronisation of standards between assessors and do not affect the decisions that have already been made on the assessments discussed. Ideally these discussions will include assessors from the same activity, but there are also benefits from discussions with assessors from similar activities.
Have assessments reviewed
Every assessment carried out by a County Assessor needs to be seen / reviewed by more than one assessor. Where these happen through assessment courses or shadowing they will automatically have been seen by multiple assessors, but where this isn’t the case you will need to take details of assessments that you have carried out to an assessor meeting for discussion. You should still provide the recommendation for a permit to the applicant straight after the assessment, there is no need to wait until after an assessor meeting has taken place.
Shadow assessments
To ensure that your standards of assessing are the same as other assessors and to pick up ideas and good practice, it is important that you see others assessing. Ideally this will be through working on assessments and assessment courses with other assessors, but where this is not possible it is important that you take the time to shadow other assessors carrying out assessments.
Work with other Counties
As the activity permit scheme is a national scheme, it is important that you work with more than members from your own County. Ideally this will be through working on assessments and assessment courses with assessors from other Counties, but there is also benefit to be gained from attending assessor meeting and assessor workshops with assessors from different parts of the UK.