I said in my last blog that this time I would say a bit more about what being “outstanding” might mean for Avon County Scouts.  So, here goes!  If you haven’t already, you might first like to read my earlier blog post which provides some background.

Ultimately, we should judge whether or not Scouting is outstanding by the nature and extent of its impact on young people’s lives in line with our purpose.  This is to say that outstanding Scouting really brings to life its purpose, values and method to great effect, everywhere it happens. When this happens, we enlarge young people’s prospects, we enrich their lives by addressing their needs and aspirations, we empower them to help shape Scouting and wider society and we encourage them to live by great values.  How well do we do this?  That’s the measure of our success.  It is certainly worth keeping this in mind when we’re in the thick of practically preparing or doing this or that adventure. 

Underpinning this is how we organise ourselves to best achieve this impact.  Therefore, what do we need to do as a County, District, Group, Section (organisation) to be “outstanding”?  What kind of organisation should we try to be? I think for Avon Scouts to become outstanding and consequently to have the potential to grow really significantly, it must address a number of areas.  I believe these should form the basis for our development over the next five to ten years. 

Goals towards our vision

Broadly, I think Scouting in Avon will be outstanding when:

Far more young people join and stay, preparing to be active citizens and shaping Scouting in partnership with adults

I believe that this means we should work to significantly grow the number of young people taking part in Scouting whilst empowering them, in creative ways, to both develop their capacity for making decisions and to play a much more active role in shaping our direction, decisions and activities so that these better reflect their expressed needs and aspirations.

Far more adult volunteers enjoy Scouting, feel empowered, valued and proud, access appropriate  development opportunities and are more effective in their roles

I believe that this means we should significantly grow the number of volunteers and create an empowering, open, outward-looking, innovative, flexible, inclusive and adaptable culture, where volunteers are more effective and aspire to deliver outstanding Scouting, where their capabilities are developed and fully utilised, and where they feel more motivated, valued and better communicated with.

It reflects the diversity of the communities in which we live, and embraces and contributes to social change

I believe this means we must become more inclusive and broaden our membership, making sure it becomes representative of the communities we serve, especially in terms of gender, age, ethnicity, disability, sexuality and faith.

To enable and to support outstanding Scouting in Avon, we will need to develop and ensure:

A sustainable, fit for purpose, well managed infrastructure, marketing, internal communications and partnerships

Therefore, we should invest in strengthening and modernising our infrastructure and marketing and communications so that they are well managed, sustainable, support growth and fit for purpose.  We should also establish new and effective partnerships with individuals, organisations and networks who share mutual objectives and who will help us to achieve our aims.

Scouting experiences are consistently high quality, reflect our values and are focused on achieving our mission and vision

This means that we should establish and maintain an up to date picture of the quality of Scouting in every locality and proactively support the raising of quality across the board so that every section reaches a minimum standard and all at least aspire to be outstanding and know what they need to do to get there.

Planning our development

Clearly, these are long-term, “big picture” goals.  We need to confirm whether they are right given our current situation and whether we all broadly sign up to them.  Then we need to develop plans that identify what we must do in the next 3 months, 6 months, 1 year and so on to gradually work towards achieving them.  We need to agree what action this implies at the individual, Section, Group, District and County level if we are all to play our part in this vision.  This is the process we are beginning to embark upon.   The Scout Association nationally has its vision for 2018 and is working on its plans at national level (see video) – this is our part in that process.

Future blog posts…

I will build on the themes in this post over the coming months and years and will use them to showcase current examples of outstanding Scouting across the County.  Why not share you own achievements here too so that others can benefit?  With the District Commissioners and Group Scout Leaders we will develop our plans so that they start to reflect this overall direction. We’ll also be reviewing our County support provisions, taking on board lots of views, to ensure it stacks up with what is required.  Watch this space.