New Volunteers

A new volunteers joining journey begins when they are added to the Scouts membership system at scouts.org.uk

Initially the new applicant will have a provisional membership status on the membership system. While the role has provisional status, they must always be supervised when with young people and must not take part in any form of regulated activity. Those supervising must have a full appointment with Scouts.

You can view the full process to add a new member to the Scouts membership system here.

Once added to the system, the new applicant will receive an email asking them to login and finish entering their personal and application information.

Scouts is a regulated activity provider and must comply with the law in respect to adults engaging with children. Regulated activity with children refers to work that a barred person must not do. A barred person is someone who has harmed or poses a risk of harm to children or vulnerable groups.  

In England and Wales, regulated activity is defined in the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 and amended by the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.   

Regulated activity in Scouts means where a person aged 18 or over meets any of these criteria:

• is taking on a formal adult appointment to help run or support scouting   
• will be assisting with, and be present overnight at, an overnight activity
• may be helping once a week (or on four occasions in a thirty-day period), or more frequently 
• could have unsupervised access to young people
• will be involved with the handling or management of money and/or personal data
• any adult member or helper delivering or likely to participate in regulated activity must hold a satisfactory Personal Enquiry - that’s a satisfactory criminal record DBS check, an satisfactory internal (UKHQ) check, and satisfactory references

As a Movement, we are committed to meeting the NSPCC guidelines around safer recruitment. This framework helps us to minimise the risk of appointing someone unsuitable and helps us make sure that new volunteers are ‘safe’ to work with our young people. To ensure a fair and consistent process we do this through disclosure (DBS) checks, references, welcome chats, and learning. 

A satisfactory criminal record (DBS) check must be completed within 30 days of the start of the new adult’s provisional role.

In England and Wales, we use a mobile friendly self-service criminal record check process through Atlantic Data. 

If the satisfactory criminal record check is not complete after 180 days but the application for a criminal record check was made within 30 days of the start of the Provisional role then the applicant may continue to operate supervised, provided that all other steps of the volunteer joining journey have been completed.

The Scout Association does not accept DBS checks from other organisations. This is because the nature of the information that may be disclosed on an enhanced scout DBS criminal record check may differ from that provided to another organisation.

We seek to be open and accessible to all. A criminal conviction will not necessarily prevent an individual from volunteering. This will, however, depend on the nature of the position and the circumstances and background of their offences.

All convictions, including those that are spent will show on a Disclosure and Barring Service check. Some criminal convictions, disciplinary proceedings or behaviour may disqualify adults from certain roles in scouting, specifically any convictions or disciplinary proceedings which involve the harming of children, young people or vulnerable adults in any way.

This is a check of internal records held at UK Headquarters. This is an automated process, making it quick for the check to be completed. New volunteers and their Team Leaders will see the results and will be aware if any restrictions have been applied to someone's membership by UKHQ. 

We need references so we can keep young people safe and check all new volunteers are right for Scouts. 

Volunteers enter their referee information directly into their adult membership record and requests are then sent automatically by the system. References with no comments or issues are approved automatically by the system.

If reference requests have not been received within 30 days, the new volunteer will received a notification from the membership system asking them to submit different people to request references from. Any issues flagged by references received will be reviewed locally by members of the District Volunteer Development Team. 

The purpose of our volunteering declaration is to confirm that all new volunteers agree to uphold the values, rules, and policies of the Scouts. 

The declaration includes an acknowledgment of the fundamental principles of Scouting, which focus on the personal development of young people and their positive contributions to society. By signing the declaration, volunteers are showing their commitment to supporting these goals and ensuring that they will operate within our guidelines and mission.

New volunteers are asked to accept and ‘sign’ the volunteering declarations, relevant to their role when they first login to the membership system.

Trustee eligibility 
All charity trustees in the UK must also complete an additional eligibility declaration form saying they are eligible to be a trustee. 

All adults interested in becoming a trustee are required to satisfactory complete a trustee eligibility check by the trustee board they are joining. The relevant team responsible for providing administration support can carry out this check on behalf of the trustee board. 

It’s important to keep a local record that the trustee eligibility checks have been carried out. For example, it could be added as an agenda item and noted in the minutes of the first Board meeting following the Annual General Meeting (AGM):

"On [Date], [Full Name] reported that searches were made of the Individual Insolvency Register, Register of disqualifications, and Register of removed charity Trustees. They checked for all Trustees and found no adverse information."

Legal requirements can change, make sure to read the England and Wales Charity Commissions guidance for the latest information on Trustee eligibility.   

Below are three registers that must be checked. If a person is listed on one or more of these registers, they’re not able to be a trustee.   

Individual Insolvency Register
Register of disqualifications
Register of removed charity Trustees 

Growing Roots is the mandatory learning that new volunteers must undertake. It comprises of two parts: the learning that all adults must undertake, and the learning that is required for specific roles. The safety and safeguarding learning elements of Growing Roots needs to be completed within the first 30 days of a new adult being added to the membership system.  There are more details about Growing Roots here.