Safety Checklist Cards

(Published May 2026, replacing September 2021)

This Safety checklist card is designed to help Lead Volunteers and Team Leaders understand their role in building a strong safety culture across Scouts. It reflects the latest policy and guidance to help you understand your responsibilities and to work with your team to create an exciting programme while keeping everyone safe.

As a Lead Volunteer or Team Leader, you have a pivotal role in overseeing, supporting and reviewing safe practices. You set expectations and make sure safety measures are effective. Your leadership is crucial in making Safe Scouting the norm.

Leading by example

Your actions set the tone and they matter. When you see a hazard or risk, address it promptly and visibly. Demonstrating proactive behaviour around safety shows others that this is the norm, not the exception.

Working together

Tips for managing safety locally

Plan - Information

• Make sure that all activities are planned, approved, run and supervised in accordance with POR (Chapter 9).
• Check all volunteers have a copy of Safe Scouting – What to do in an Emergency (Purple Card) and understand it.
• Make sure all activities, events and meetings have risk assessments in place, using the 5-step approach.
• Encourage volunteers to use the other Safety Checklists for Team Members, and for Trustee Boards when planning meetings, activities events and nights away, to help spot potential risks and hazards, including carbon monoxide.
• In your teams, a volunteer will be the leader-in-charge of overseeing the management of safety of specific meetings, events or activities. This includes oversight, registers, headcounts, sharing risk assessments, role allocation, and confirming that volunteers understand their duties and effectively communicate any controls.

Do - Empowering

• Make sure that you and all volunteers you manage have undertaken the learning or training relevant to the role.
• Take time to pause and encourage local learning reviews. Gather learning and insights that can reduce the likelihood of incidents occurring in the future. Share these learnings as appropriate.
• Encourage and empower Team Members and young people to feel confident in stopping or altering any activity they feel is too risky, whether led by themselves, you or others.
• Make sure volunteers know where to get support with creating or reviewing their meeting, activity, event plans and risk assessments.
• Lead by example - take visible, timely action when hazards are identified.

Check - Monitoring

• Monitor required learning and training compliance locally using data, checklists and reviews.
• Safety should be a standing item in all meetings. Discuss recent updates, lessons from incidents and key issues raised and celebrate good practice.
• Make sure safety responsibilities are being fulfilled by all during role reviews and informal check-ins.

Act – Supporting

• Make sure volunteers know where to get support with completing and reviewing their meeting, activity and event plans and risk assessments.
• Encourage and make sure volunteers understand how and when to record and report all incidents, injuries and near misses locally using the Purple Card process and supporting guidance.
• Celebrate and share good practice and reinforce positive safety behaviours.
• Appoint a County/Area/Region Safety Adviser or District Safety Lead and know how to contact this person for support.

Risk assessments: 5 key steps

Risk assessment is a cornerstone of safe Scouting. All activities, indoors or
outdoors, must be risk assessed.

Five key steps

For more information, templates and examples, visit our Risk Assessment guidance page