A new inspection team will check if UK Scout groups are following national policies, while an independent panel of abuse survivors will make sure victims get the right support and counselling.
Interesting! Should we be looking at something similar…?
So their increase of £2 takes it to £38 Annually…
Our equivalent that goes to the General Purpose Fund is £2.50 per month excluding August so an annual total of £27.50, once again showing just how under charged we are given in the majority of cases we meet twice a week rather than the once for scouts.
2 Likes
I think we already have.
The new expanded safeguarding team at HQ have requested that all safe guarding incidents within RAFAC goes to them in the first instance. This has ruffled a few volunteer feathers but is the right call & I have a lot more confidence in RAFAC safeguarding than there use to be.
4 Likes
One thing to bear in mind with the scouts (& to a less extent the sea cadets) is the don’t have the legal muscle that the Army & RAF do.
This means that when a safeguarding incident is declared & an individual is challenged if they have the clout & the funds they can threaten to sue the organisation for all sorts of defamation, particularly in situations sure as safeguarding where things may not be evidenced as robustly as needed or above the bar from criminal involvement.
The Army & The RAF with the MoD lawyers would just laugh at such threats and say bring it on. The scouts would need to weigh up not just whether they would win in court against said individual but be able to afford going to court in the first place as the costs would be quite high.
1 Like
I find the scouts to be rather expensive in comparison to the cadet forces but the scouts dont have the backing of the public purse.
Working on what cadets pay at my squadron and what I pay for my son at the local scouts we get the following:
Cadets £1.80 per night (£15 subs x 12 / 100 nights) we close for 2 weeks over xmas.
Scouts £3.08 per night (£40 per term x 3 / 39 nights) 1 night a week and closed for 13 weeks school holidays.
This doesn’t take into account the extra charges for activities which we on average have to pay extra for an evenings activities once a month. Ranging from £5-£20. Cadets on my squadron haven’t paid extra for parade night activities we cover these from subs.
Weekend activities the last weekend camp for scouts was £130 for Friday evening to Sunday evening. The activities were limited and the only exciting was the high ropes / create stack.
A simlar weeked camp ran for the squadron was £35 in comparison we used the scouts high ropes amoung other activities.
I definitely think as a parent you get vaule for money from the cadet forces but that is down to the public funding for perminent staff and some activities, reduction in messing fees, accomodation funded and access to MT for certain activities without cost. That is what makes the difference.
1 Like
I think it’s really interesting how long this has taken to come around.
My sister and her friend were away on a Scout camp when the leader abused her friend. This was in the late 90s/early 2000s, and the leader had also been my leader before I joined the cadets.
It feels as though, before now, Scouts have tried to operate almost as a franchised brand, with responsibility lying at the local levels. With this move, I think they’re now starting to realise that they have to take national organisational responsibility for safeguarding and assurance.
It’s a good news story in so far as further safeguarding assurance activities taking place, but it’s decades overdue.
My old scout leader (also the local area child protection officer) who would always bring beer for us on weekend camps.
And another one that I was at school with.
I’m pleased to see them sorting things out as the rumours flying round about other staff in the area were just as bad, even if not proven. There were one or two staff that I refused to go on camp with (ironically I was happy to go with Steve as he let us get utterly plastered)
Agree, I’ve only had a few dealings with the HQ team but they were leagues above that offered by wing when I was a CI with the ATC.
1 Like
Its all sort of in the name though…isnt it?
“Scouting for boys”…
I mean talk about not even trying to hide it.
What are you saying about Scouting for Girls? They seemed mostly infatuated with Michaela Strachan and some lovely 30 year old…
i have nothing wrong to say about such an infatuation…
4 Likes