At the end of January, a delegation of 7 Gloucestershire Scouts Volunteers attended the national Summit25 conference in Birmingham to review the last strategy cycle and begin to form the new one. The delegation was made up of:
Carole O’Donnell – County Lead Volunteer
Hannah Paveley – Member of the County Youth Team
Deborah Whitfield – Cotswold Vale District Lead
Kat Holter – County Volunteering Development Lead
Dave Hall – County Growth Lead and member of County Trustee Board
Dan Seamarks – Vice Chair of County Trustee Board
Colin Steward – Park District Lead and member of County Trustee Board
The aim of the weekend was to gather volunteers with a variety of roles from across the UK to look back on the last seven years of the Skills for Life strategy and look forward to the next nine years. We heard from guest speakers from other charities, expert panels and headquarters volunteers. We also had a keynote speech from out new Chief Scout Dwayne Fields.
The conference started with a review of the Skills for Life strategy from Craig Turpie and Phillipa Ward. They reminded us what the strategy set out to do and the goals we achieved as well as the additional pieces of work done which came about as a result of the pandemic and cost of living crisis. Key highlights were the rollout of squirrels, the you shape award and the new branding.
They also reflected on the successes of Scouting in adapting during the pandemic (we racked up over 11 million zoom hours!) and the large piece of work done improving our safety and safeguarding policies and practices.
One of the standout keynote speeches of the weekend was by Mark Russell, the CEO of The Children’s Society. He spoke about the outcome of the Good Childhood Report which was put together and released in 2024. This report took data collected across the UK about various aspects of children’s lives and their satisfaction.
The overall outcomes were that children are becoming less happy and girls have significantly lower happiness levels than boys. Some of their main concerns were appearance and school life. The data collected was also compared to similar studies across Europe and the UK was found to have the lowest ratings for 15 year olds. Mark’s key point to us was that in order to feel safe and secure, children need ‘safe spaces with trusted adults’ which Scouting can help provide.
As well as keynote speakers, we had panels of experts from many areas including the youth sector, charity sector and other Scouting organisations from around the world. They all gave different insights into what we as Scouts can bring to the world and how we can support our young people the best. It would take ages to review each panel in depth but here are some memorable quotes which can be used to sum up some of the key points:
‘Little futures into big futures’ – how we can help young people shape their own journeys.
‘Ask with the intent to listen’ – how to understand young people and their needs.
‘Squirrels of today are the King’s Scouts of tomorrow’ – seeing the bigger picture as we guide young people through their journeys.
‘The answers are there – be curious and you’ll find them’ – how to approach social impact and change by learning.
On the Sunday, we looked forward to the next nine years of strategy. We were split into workshops to discuss seven different potential focuses of the next strategy and were asked to discuss whether we felt it should be a focus or not. The feedback given will go on to influence the focus of the next strategy.
As well as talks and workshops about strategy, we also got to hear from Dwayne Fields, our new Chief Scout and Darren Edwards, an adventurer who kayaked from Land’s End to John O’Groats and has completed 7 marathons in 7 days on 7 continents in a wheelchair. Darren was particularly inspiring as he talked about determination and the ability to rethink your life goals when faced with unexpected events.
The national team are now working on getting input from other members of the movement before pulling all the feedback together to form the new vision. This will then be communicated to all members and form the focus for the next nine years.
Overall, the weekend was an amazing opportunity to meet other like-minded Scouts and play a part in the shaping of the future of our movement. We can’t wait to work with you all as we start a new vision and continue to provide great programme to young people.