Nights away at home

Nights away rules in POR, including rules 9.55 to 9.63, don’t apply to nights away at home, as long as the young person’s parent or carer is present and the night away takes place at home. This means that there’s no need to complete a Nights away notification form (NAN form) for your Night's Away Permit holder to oversee. You don’t need a qualified first aider on site, and parents or carers don’t need to have a disclosure check.

Parents or carers may still want to let their young person’s leader know about their night away at home, to help volunteers understand the badges and awards young people have earned during the pandemic.

Talk to the young people in your section and adapt requirements to suit their abilities and circumstances.​ You can replace or remove requirements where suspending face-to-face Scouts has stopped someone from completing an award (or where it isn’t possible to complete the award in an appropriate time period).

When considering if nights away at home should count towards badges and awards, you should also think about:

• Most importantly, the quality of the experience for the individual. Adapting or removing a requirement might result in an experience that stretches and challenges one young person, but not another.
• How many requirements you adapt. For example, counting a couple of at home nights away may be fine, but counting 20 isn’t.
• The importance of the badge. You can be more relaxed about requirements for Activity Badges than for top a
• Equality of access for young people. Make sure you include everyone – young people who don’t have access to outdoor space or equipment like tents should still be able to join in.

Some awards are a little trickier to adapt. You’ll need to put a bit more thought in before adapting the Queen’s Scout Award, Explorer Belt, Scouts of the World Award and Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, or changing any of their requirements. We've put together specific guidance on adapting these awards, and you’ll also need approval from your County, Area, or Region Commissioner, Assistant Commissioner, or their nominee.