Adventurous Activity Permit Scheme – Moderation

(FS120106) Published Dev 2025, replacing Oct 2024. 

Introduction 

This guidance is designed to help MAPS (Managers of the Activity Permit Scheme) and County / Area / Region (Scotland) (from now on referred to as County) Lead Volunteers with the self-moderation of the adventurous activity permit scheme within their County. It supports the County Self-Moderation form. 

Moderation 

The Adventurous Activity Permit Scheme is a national internal assessment scheme within Scouting to make sure that those leading adventurous activities have the necessary skills and experience to do so safely. It is therefore crucial to make sure it is working effectively across Scouting in the UK.  

A system of moderation provides a local check of the robustness of the scheme, allowing plans to be put into place to correct any weaknesses identified and to find areas for further improvement. It also allows the Scout Association to document the checks in place on the permit scheme to be able to prove its robustness to any interested parties. The Scout Association needs to demonstrate that it can manage the provision of activities internally without relying on external legislation that could hinder volunteers' ability to run activities. 

How moderation works 

The moderation scheme has been designed to make sure that it is not, time-consuming for MAPS to carry out, while remaining a meaningful and useful tool.  Following the Transition, and for 2026, the moderation form has become digital, and questions have been significantly reduced.  Additional questions have also been added to collect information to support the development of national resources for MAPS and Assessors.

Each County is required to carry out a self-moderation by the end of January, looking at the management and robustness of the permit scheme within their County. This will be done by the County’s MAPS and agreed by the County Lead Volunteer. 

There is a County Self-Moderation form for each County to use to carry out their moderation. This lists each of the areas that need looking at and has the ability to record whether or not the area has been met. 

For any standards not met, there is the ability to record an action plan to make sure the County meets the standards in the future. The County Self-Moderation form has an area to record the action plan. Where a standard isn’t met, there is a requirement for the County to implement an action plan to make sure they do reach that standard as soon as possible.

Any action points identified need to be assigned to someone who is able to carry them out / added to the County workplan, and there needs to be a check that all action points are completed. 

Support 

Where Counties are not meeting one or more standards within the moderation, they can request support from the UK Safety Team. 

Support will consist of helping the County develop an action plan that they can implement to make sure they meet the identified standards. A member of the UK Safety team will work directly with the County to discuss possible remedies for any identified issues and help develop the action plan. They will also be available to the County to discuss and support them through any issues they encounter while implementing the action plan. 

Sampling 

The UK Safety Team will review a sample of self-moderations annually. This is not an additional check on how each County is performing, but a means for The Scout Association to identify any trends and document how the permit scheme is operating, as well as the actions being taken to address any weaknesses. This enables the Scout Association to demonstrate its ability to manage the provision of adventurous activities internally, without requiring additional external legislation.