Shared Experience

While we Scout we find out a whole lot of useful information about different people, places and situations. Some of it is from the things that go really well and some is from the things that could have gone better. To gain all we need to know for ourselves would take a lifetime but collectively we can pool that experience and every day become a little better than we were before. New items will be added and if you have experiences to share please submit them here .

This Shared Experience area on the website is designed to give you some neutral statements based on leader learning that can help you expect the unexpected and boost the detail in your risk assessments.

Information in this section is put together from real events but given as neutral statements so that it is anonymous, rather than specific to a particular event. You won’t know whether this was discovered from something that has gone well, or gone badly or who went through it …but that doesn’t matter.

The learning and observation from the experience is shared so that others can benefit.

Event risk assessments and Major Incident plans should be in place, including risk assessment for the service parts of the day

Place duty of care to young people taking part in the service and the parade at the highest priority

Maintain communication between the organising team and the leaders of sections/groups, particularly those sections/groups who have young people taking part in the service. As a rule of thumb, if you leave a young person or an item somewhere, you are responsible for collecting them/it from the same place.   

Publish risk assessments to the participants and the Major Incident plan to GSL/section leads and members of the organizing team

Individual from organizing team to be responsible for the young people taking part, they are to meet at the rehearsal and get to know each other. They are to ensure that all Young people are returned to their section/group. Parents are to be advised of the arrangement and asked not to take their child back to the section/group.

All members of the event team should be up to date with ongoing learning for Safeguarding and Safety.

Reinforce the concept of the Buddy System and keeping a register of young people attending. Not just numbers as it’s essential to be able to identify who is missing quickly.

Debrief of the event to be completed with the organizing team. The debrief should then be discussed with GSLs/Section Leads identified leads and any identified roles to confirm lessons to be learned and an awareness for all similar events with immediate effect.

GSLs must be aware that they are responsible for all members of their Group.

Ensure that Leaders are aware which of their members are taking part in the Service.

Occasional Helpers being given a Group necker helps the identification of supervising adults.

You can transport young people, who are not your own but you should never be in a one to one situation with a child except in a genuine emergency.

Any situation that is known in advance is not likely to be considered an emergency, it is an inconvenience.

Real emergencies cannot be pre-planned. Even when they genuinely occur, there is benefit in telling other leaders what we are doing before setting out. Also consider risk mitigation options such as travelling in convoy with another vehicle and placing the young person in the back of the car where possible, for example.

Risk assessment is key and should be reassessed dynamically if the situation changes.

Giving a child a lift home on their own because the scout camp is finished making it a personal matter does not exempt you from yellow card guidance. 

If you have to carry a child in your car, you should have either another adult or another young person with you. If carrying more than one child make sure that you can drop the last two at the same place. The only time this would not apply is if the final child is your own.

The final statement of the yellow card is paramount – although you fully understand safeguarding, and would never harm a child … you should not rely on your reputation or position to protect you. The guidance is there to protect the young person and you.

Please carry your yellow card with you whilst on scout activities and follow the guidance therein. It doesn’t do any harm to show the yellow card or give them to parents, in fact we’d encourage it. Anything that raises the profile of safeguarding in the wider community can only be good.

You must keep your safeguarding training up to date. If information you received during training conflicts with these learning points, please raise it with your District Commissioner.

If you think that an adult who has been assigned to transport the young person is under the influence of drink or drugs you should not let the young person travel with them. Seek your management advice, the advice of other adult members or if needed call the Police or HQ out of hours for next steps advice.

If you report any concerns of this nature, the reporting should involve your immediate manager at the time or at the earliest opportunity, even if reported directly to HQ or the Police.

A risk assessment should include what action is expected from members of the group and this together with the potential circumstances should be briefed to the group beforehand. This is important especially if members of the group are not expected to intervene with any actions.

Whilst verbal instruction and peer awareness may be appropriate for the age group, the risk assessment should consider whether the decision making of the young people or agreed supervision is of a sufficient level to be made responsible for the action to be taken.


Local or personal knowledge must be taken into account. Local leaders should be consulted with and parents must be asked if there is any other information they wish to offer about their child whether or not additional needs have been identified. Concerns raised should be included within the risk assessment.

Make written adjustments to risk assessments as new information becomes available whether that be additional needs, injuries or changes of mood/emotional state to ensure that mitigations remain appropriate. Review instruction where necessary. When additional needs are identified the mitigation cannot remain the same, regardless of age group. It must be tailored to the needs of the individual even if this means others in the immediate group also receive an element of closer supervision as a result.

Assign risk owners so it is clear who will be providing instruction, supervision etc This is perhaps more important as the ratio becomes relaxed in older age groups and instruction is given to a larger group.

Extreme care should be given when delegating the level of risk ownership to young people. This is especially true when members of the group have been identified with additional needs. The responsibility for young people with additional needs should remain with an adult who may then be present at activities that would not normally require them to accompany that age group. This mitigation proposal will be discussed with headquarters who are also looking at how we better support leaders and individuals who highlight additional needs requirements.

Hikes and Expeditions

Older sections are able to exercise more independence but should still receive briefing on behaviours and expectations (return times, restricted areas etc) based on risk assessment before being released.

A plan should be in place to detail actions if young people do not return on time. This should be communicated to the young people so they are aware of what will be happening if they become late.

If a young person is injured and emergency services are contacted or attend (by anyone related to the incident or young person). The incident must be reported to HQ. If an injury occurs but emergency service assistance is not required it would be useful to update the circumstances and outcome to the County Office to inform shared learning and additional best practice. In any case, a local recording of the incident should be held in an accident book or activity log.

In a case of injury or near miss, parents should be updated at the earliest appropriate opportunity and be invited to comment on the incident log should they wish to.

During expeditions, whilst young people can have choice in the selection of their groups, party size must be in accordance with POR 9.32

At the start of any activity, young people should be briefed on behaviours and expectations, based on risk assessment and activity requirements in POR (Chapter 9). 

In the case of any incident, all parties witness to it should be asked to provide independent accounts of the events on these and other matters.

Each aspect of organising an event should be assigned a named owner who will then coordinate or fulfil the actions to achieve it.
A budget should be determined by considering the spend to make the event happen and the potential income from the participants and include a contingency for the unexpected. This budget planner will help check if income and outgoings are likely to balance and help set a participant cost.

Dates should be set for the post-event learning workshop, before the event happens to ensure diary arrangements are made not scrambled in case of incident. Collating information and discussions are difficult to achieve after the event when diaries become busy with other things.

The medical contact or camp/activity lead or another identified role should maintain an accident/incident book and report any near misses as well as incidents that are reportable. Review will be made of County procedure regarding this taking care not to increase or misinterpret the requirements already stated within the Scouts Policy, Organisation and Rules (POR).

If young people are allowed to carry their personal mobile phones during an activity. A disclaimer should be included in parent information to state that the contact directory area of the phone may be reviewed in case of emergency in order to reduce any delay in making necessary contacts. Parents must then opt out if they do not wish this to happen.