COVID-19 News Bulletin #12 – 7th August 2020

Hi Leaders and Executives,

We are pleased to say we are ready to restart face-to-face scouting in Suffolk! If you are choosing to return to face-to-face Scouting, we hope you are making good progress in preparing yourselves to be Covid19 ready. The highlighted text below is clickable to the relevant webpages.

Readiness for return to face-to-face Scouting   

Full details of the national plans can be found on The Scout Association website. Further details of our process and forms can be found on the Suffolk Scouts website

  • From 7th August leaders in charge of a section or place (e.g. campsite) can submit their Covid19 risk assessment using Smartsheet plus any other documents if you’ve been instructed to by your District
  • Make sure that your section Scouting plan and risk assessment have been agreed with the GSL and Group Chair before submitting to your District approver
  • Prior to approval, you will need to confirm that all leaders within in your section and the Group Executive have their safety and safeguarding mandatory training completed which is normally covered by the Essential Information training under Module 1 (leaders) and Module 1EX (exec members) and has been validated on Compass.
  • Confirm that Adult leaders meeting face-to-face have up-to-date DBS (or renewing within the allowed 90 days)
  • Please submit your risk assessment in a timely fashion ahead of when you plan to start (we recommend 14 days to allow for any revisions which might be required)
  • Your district teams are happy to help and advise

Explorer Scouts

  • As above. For District Explorer Units, we are content that the approver may be within the same District, with delegated authority from the District Executive and Commissioner if they are assured that there is no conflict of interest.

A Blended Programme

We are really looking forward to seeing Beavers, Cubs and Scouts starting back and learning their ‘Skills For Life’ and working towards their Top Awards. Practically, you may choose to run a blended programme i.e. a mix of face-to-face, online meetings and home assignments to ensure Scouting is accessible to all. Face-to-face programme ideas can be found on Planning A Safe And Enjoyable Programme here. And if you are looking for At Home Scouting ideas why not try out Suffolk’s own #AdventureContinues challenges here.

Lockdown Heroes

If you know of any volunteers or leaders that have really gone the extra mile since lockdown and would like to nominate them for the Commissioner’s Commendation please drop Mark Pearson County Commissioner a line about the person. Reply to this email.

Great to be re-starting face to face Scouting.