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Volunteering at Scouts is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing at Scouts. Read more

Discover what this means

Some questions and thoughts to think about in terms of the leadership team

Some questions and thoughts to think about in terms of the leadership team

  • Do you look like a team with shared levels of acceptability?

  • When you all work together and react alike there is far less opportunity for ‘playing one leader off against the other’.

  • Do you support each other when an activity is happening?

  • What is the ‘praise’ or ‘blame’ culture of your section like?

It’s much easier to keep control if one of you is running the activity and another is helping to observe. It is very easy to miss something while you are running the activity, so another pair of eyes can be invaluable. You may want to look at whether the atmosphere is full of criticism or a constant reinforcing of acceptable behaviour. ‘Thank you’ and ‘well done’ need to be heard (and meant) when talking to young people and between leaders too.

Also remember that it's the behaviour, which is unacceptable, rather than the young person and provide opportunities for them to have good behaviour acknowledged. Avoid labelling individuals as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, referring rather to acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. This helps everyone to focus on what the problem is and deal with it.