Lincolnshire Scouts App

Supporting Volunteers | Strengthening Assurance | Building a Safer Scouting Culture

Overview

The Lincolnshire Scouts Volunteer Support App is designed to support volunteers in their day‑to‑day roles while strengthening assurance and safety across the County. It brings together key tools and guidance in one place, helping volunteers plan activities confidently, meet Policy, Organisation and Rules (POR) expectations, and demonstrate good governance in a consistent and auditable way.

The app is being launched in phases, with functionality enabled gradually in line with the rollout plan. This ensures tools are introduced safely, clearly, and with the right level of support.

Current and Planned Functionality

The app supports volunteers by providing access to:

• Activity Approvals – supporting assurance and compliance with POR
• Finding Welcome Conversation Volunteers
• Minimum Adult Ratio Calculator
• Direct links to Safety guidance and Safety Support

Additional functionality will be developed and enabled in future phases. All other features will remain disabled until the relevant rollout stage is reached.

Safer, Simpler, Consistent: Our Approach to Assurance

Assurance helps us:

• Plan and run activities safely
• Learn from incidents and near‑misses
• Meet our duty of care to young people and adult volunteers

The app brings assurance checks together in one simple, consistent place. It is not intended to add to volunteer workload, but to help organise what volunteers already do, reduce duplication, and create a clear audit trail that works consistently across Lincolnshire.

By standardising how information is captured and shared, the app helps ensure the right people can provide reassurance, oversight, and support at the right time.

Why We’re Doing This

Learning and Duty of Care

Prevention of Future Deaths (PFD) reports and the Charity Commission’s Regulatory Advice Notice to The Scouts have reinforced the importance of being able to clearly demonstrate:

• How activities are planned and supervised
• How risks are identified, managed, and monitored
• How learning is recorded and shared

UKHQ and local Scouting in Lincolnshire have already made significant improvements through clearer guidance, updated POR, improved reporting pathways, training, and volunteer support. The app builds on this work, helping ensure these improvements are embedded into everyday practice across all Groups and Districts.

Applying Learning from PFD Reports

PFD reports emphasise the importance of:

• Thorough activity planning
• Appropriate oversight
• Clear, auditable record‑keeping
• Consistency for all activities, not just major events

The Assurance approach within the app responds directly to these expectations. It gives volunteers a straightforward way to record what they are already doing while helping Districts and the County identify where additional support or intervention may be helpful.

Building a Strong Safety Culture

A strong safety culture means:

• Parents and young people feel safe and supported
• Volunteers feel confident and never isolated in decision‑making
• Risks are identified and managed early
• Expectations are clear and consistent
• Legal, charity, and external obligations are met
• Learning is shared, trust is built, and standards improve

Safety culture is not about blame or bureaucracy. It is about working together so every activity is safe, enjoyable, and well‑led.

Activity Approval and POR

Activity approval is not new. POR has always required volunteers to plan activities safely and seek appropriate approval for anything outside the normal meeting place.

The app:

• Does not introduce new requirements
• Brings existing POR expectations together
• Makes the process easier to follow
• Ensures a consistent approach across the County

Normal Meeting Place

Responsibility for managing and approving activities within the normal meeting place sits with Group Lead Volunteers and Trustees, with District or County oversight where appropriate.

All Other Activities

Activities outside the normal meeting place require review and approval from District Lead Volunteers (or County Lead Volunteers). Cross‑district assurance may be used where helpful. Clear definitions of activities and their contexts are provided within the app.

What the App Is (and What It Does)

The app supports volunteers by:

• Bringing together information volunteers already collect
• Prompting for the right details at the right time
• Reducing back‑and‑forth emails
• Creating a clear audit trail automatically
• Making it easier for Districts and the County to offer timely support

It ensures the same approach to assurance across Lincolnshire, regardless of Group or District.

Roles and Responsibilities

Volunteers

• Use the app when planning activities outside the normal meeting place
• Share activity details early with the Group Lead Volunteer
• Respond to review questions that help strengthen safety
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District Lead Volunteers, Trustees, and County Teams

• Provide timely approvals and supportive guidance
• Use cross‑district assurance where helpful
• Monitor trends, share learning, and support continuous improvement

Version History