March 2025 Newsletter
County Lead Volunteer
We have lots to look forward to this year; Annual Dinner, County Conference, County Cub camp Top Awards event and Beaver sleepovers. All are planned and ready to go. We hope there will be lots of participants at all the events.
It was great to see so many children, young people and volunteers at this year’s Endurance events. We had several teams from outside of the County; and there were some personal best times. Thanks to Clare and her team for planning, organising and running the event.
It is very pleasing to see the possibility of three new Explorer Units in the County; one at 1st Chalfont St Giles, one in High Wycombe and the other for people with SEND in Buckingham.
Don’t forget there is a County Get Together on 17th May. This is free of charge and is a small way of saying thank you to you all for the time and commitment you give to Scouts. There will be entertainment and free camping if you wish to stay overnight.
Webinars
There are several webinars available about a variety of topics including the role of Trustee Boards, running good AGMs and adult recruitment. Events | Scouts
Local Growth Officer
You can now submit projects for your Group, Unit or District using the link below. Any projects submitted will be discussed by the Steering Committee that oversees the projects Erin deals with, and might be referred back to your District Team but please do send your requests for help in.
Activities in 2025
2025 is going to be a bumper year for activities across the County. These include
County Awards day – 17 May
County Registration for Young People Top Awards (The 2025 event is full. Any further applications will be for the 2026 event)
County Get together – 17 May
County Adult Get Together - May 17th 2025
County Cub camp - 30 May to 1 June
County Cub Camp 2025 | Buckinghamshire
County Young Leaders’ training weekend – 26 to 28 September
Beaver Sleepovers at the National Space Centre – 4-5 October and 8-9 November
Big O – 11 October
VEmail
What a great opportunity for young people to get in touch with veterans of the 2nd World war. I’m sure it will tick some boxes for various badges. https://www.scouts.org.uk/news/2025/march/ve-day-80-writeletters-to-a-second-world-war-veteran/
Neurodiversity and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities webinars Activities in 2025
At the All Members call last week, it was detailed that there would be a series of webinars covering Neurodiversity and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. They are on three consecutive Thursdays. I’m sure they will be recorded, so if you cannot make it on the day, you will be able to listen to the recording. https://www.scouts.org.uk/events/2025/may-2025/supporting-neurodiversity/
Volunteer leave
As you may know, The Scouts are working with other voluntary organisations to encourage businesses and companies to give employees 35 hours of volunteer leave a year. If you get any volunteer leave, could you please let me know how much, which company and any restrictions? I will then collate the information and pass it to one of my colleagues at The Scouts.
Top awards event 17 May – Help Please
We will need a team of helpers in place to deal with various tasks across the day. If you are interested in getting involved either for the full day or just half a day please let Claire know at claire.heasman@bucksscouts.org.uk. Tasks include admin, car parking, meeting and greeting and overseeing the inflatables and activities we are providing. And don't forget the get-together we are hosting in the evening for adult members too.
Bucks Scout Camp 2026
We are holding a County camp from 22 to 26 May 2026 at the Penn House Estate. More details about cost, activities and how to book will be available over the next few months. Please put the dates in your calendar
We are reaching out for some support for our 2026 County Camp. We are looking for some archery and tomahawk permit holders to help us run this at the camp. We are bringing in lots of exciting activities for young people, and we'd like to get some more traditional Scouting activities in here too (although away from the inflatables!). If you have a valid archery and/or tomahawk permit and would be interested in a chat to find out more, please get in touch with jenny.davies@bucks-scouts.org.uk
County Conference
There are still some places left at the County Conference. This is being held at Wycombe Wanderers Football Ground on Saturday 26 April. There will be workshops and some plenary sessions. If you haven’t yet signed up for it, please contact claire.heasman@bucks-scouts.org.uk
Learning
Details of learning courses for the end of this year and all of next year are detailed on the County website. These include first aid and modules 8, 9, 11, 13, 16, 18 and 19 also has details of Module K – First aid for young leaders. Before attending this course, the young people will need to have completed the Hampshire Scouts e.learning module. For further information please contact Stuart.black@bucks-scouts.org.uk
Census figures 2025
The overall picture for the year ending 31 January 2025 was a 0.3% increase nationally in young people aged 4 to 17. The number of children in Beavers and Cubs had decreased for the second consecutive year and the number of volunteers was down. I raised the issue that with the reduced number in Beavers and Cubs for two consecutive years this will presumably result in a decrease in Cubs, Scouts and Explorers for several years to come. The matter of reduced numbers is going to be looked at and I’m sure the Growth and Communities Team will be doing some research into the reason(s) why numbers in these two sections are falling. If you have any thoughts as to why numbers are reducing in your Group, please let me know and I will endeavour to feed it back to my colleagues at Gilwell.
Poacher 2026
Poacher 2026 International Jamboree - Bookings have opened for the adventure of a lifetime in Lincolnshire! Your group can join 5,000 Scouts and Guides from across the world for a huge range of adventurous activities, exciting entertainments and lasting friendships, from 1st - 8 th August 2026. Participant fee: £300, Leader fee: £30 More details can be found at www.poacher.org.uk - bookings are open until 31st October 2025, or until the event is full - whichever comes sooner.
Adventurous Activities:
As a County Activities Team, we want to encourage and help Leaders to apply for adventurous activity permits or renew permits they already have in place so that our young people can take part in as many programme opportunities as possible.
The new system allows Leaders to select the Assessor they would like to work with when apply for, or renewing, a permit and we want to help facilitate finding the right Assessor for you and making sure they are available to do an assessment. Claire at County Office has a list of our Assessors so when applying for a permit please also email Claire (claire.heasman@bucks.scouts.org.uk), as we used to do when using the paper application system, so that applications can be monitored and processed efficiently.
At present the system is NOT notifying assessors that permits are waiting for them. This is also true of Nights Away Permit applications. More information on the activity scheme can be found here
Holiday bus
If you are looking for something a little bit different for your next Scout camp, how about trying out the Holiday Bus at Walter Davies Scout Camp? Carefully converted to provide comfortable sleeping accommodation for 14 young people on the upper deck with a leaders’ room downstairs, it is the perfect place for a camp with a difference. The Holiday Bus has its own private garden area (and room to pitch tents for extra campers), an outdoor shelter providing seating and a cooking area with two double gas burners. Activities available to book include Air rifle shooting, Archery, Junior Tomahawks, Bouldering wall, challenge course and a choice of “Activities in a Box” which have a choice of games, sports and bushcraft equipment. For further information please visit www.walterdaviesscoutcamp.org.uk
New membership system
Have you logged on and started using it? While I am sure it will take a little getting used to, there are lots of great new features that are receiving lots of positive feedback. Online NAN forms, online awards and permit applications, great new join-in journey process for new volunteers, online access to all the mandatory training in a great new easy to understand format. Reminders for outstanding training and other actions as well as some great tools to help Group and District lead volunteers. Having difficulties logging on or need support with the new system? Contact your local District Go live support teams. First steps | Scouts
Safety Training
Delivering safe Scouting is a key responsibility of all leaders. As part of Scouting's commitment to safety, the mandatory training module that all volunteers need to do has now been updated. This means all Volunteers will need to refresh their training in the next 3 months (by July 2025). The module is an easily accessible online module and is a great way to try out the new training methods of the new system. Log on to the new system and visit "my training " to find the link to access the training. You can complete it all in one go or stop at any point and revisit it. It is automatically validated and recorded on your records once completed. Once completed it is valid for 3 years.
First aid training (Adult)
There is now a full list of County-Run First response first aid courses available on the County website. While we have increased the number of courses, demand is very high so please book on to a course in plenty of time and before your current First aid certificate runs out. Contact the County office to book a place.
Revised NAN process
Do you have an upcoming camp or nights away? Remember there is a new process now for NAN forms. All forms must now be submitted online via the new membership system. It's a very simple and efficient system; fill in all the usual details online, attach risk assessments and other supporting documents and press ‘go’. The submission can then be reviewed by your local nights away team or District lead volunteer who will approve or feedback online. Please apply in good time (system will not allow less than 7 5 days) to enable the required checking to be done. (Good idea to drop the DLV an email in case they are not online to see if one has been submitted) . There is a good online help guide to the process Nights Away | Scouts Scouts -
Braid Wood
The weekends of 25 to 27 April, 13 to 15 June and 12 to 14 September 2025 have been designated as Scout camping weekends only. The price list effective from 1 January 2025 can be found here
Bucks Scout Radio
If you would like Bucks Scout Radio to come to an event, or come to a section meeting where they can talk about it and how it is used; and probably get the children or young people to tell a joke or answer a question about what they like most about their section, please contact Bucks Scout Radio at info@bucksscoutradio.co.uk I’m sure this would count towards the Scouts Media and Marketing badge.
Nigel Taylor
County Media Lead
County Support Team Member
nigel.taylor@bucks-scouts.org.uk
www.facebook.com/BuckinghamshireScouts
www.bucks-scouts.org.uk