Keeping everyone safe

Keeping everyone safe is fundamental to what we do. No matter what challenges we face, it’s the one area which we will never compromise on. We are proud to say that safety of young people and volunteers is at the heart of our culture.

But safety isn’t just a set of policies. Neither is it something that’s just the responsibility of a team at headquarters. Every one of us has a role to play.

Every volunteer should:

1. Have the knowledge and training to identify risk and stay safe 
2. Know where to get support and advice
3. Know where to turn if they have a concern   

Keeping more than 600,000 members safe across the UK is never going to be easy, but we know the importance of giving people the right knowledge, learning from experiences, and making robust responses to incidents when they occur. This approach is embedded in The Scouts’ culture and systems. It’s why we’re trusted – and we take that trust very seriously.

From time to time we will, of course, need to review policies and the way we do things. This is even more critical now as we prepare for the safe return to face to face activities.

While change can mean we need to spend time on training or adapting to new ways of doing things, we know you’ll understand that this is not change for change’s sake. It’s to keep people safe. And nothing is more important than that. 

This year we will be strengthening our:

• Basic training requirements, as well as safety and safeguarding training
  
  
• Policies, including safeguarding
  
  
• Guidance and rules for managing risk
  
  
• Ways of supporting you if you have any concerns locally about a young person or volunteer

Thank you for support. We never take it for granted.