Young Leaders

NEScout welcomed The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to Climate change skills workshop and then headed to COP26

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge joined a lucky group of Scouts in Glasgow before COP26, where they learned skills about sustainable transport, planet friendly cooking and rewilding with the young people. This involved refurbishing bikes to provide a low carbon option for local commuters, cooking plant based food and making seed bombs. Among those Scouts present at the workshop, was 12-year-old Lewis Howe, a member of 1st Laurencekirk Scout Group from the North East of Scotland. Lewis was chosen as a #OneStepGreener Ambassador after using the skills learned in Scouts to raise awareness of food wastage in schools.

In the lead up to becoming a #OneStepAmbassador, Lewis emailed all schools in Scotland suggesting an action plan to not only reduce food waste but use surplus food to create meals for those in need. He is now working with his scout leaders, local MSP's and his school to push his idea forward and challenge all Scottish schools to put their food waste to better use. Lewis has asked Aberdeenshire Council to consider piloting the scheme at his own school, Mearns Academy in Laurencekirk and is waiting to hear back. In the meantime, Lewis is starting to fundraise to buy equipment needed for the pilot.

Lewis, 12, said “I met the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge who were really interested in my project and asked lots of questions.  They knew I had cycled 5k for 50days during lockdown to raise money to put towards an end of lockdown activity so we talked about that. They asked me what badge was the hardest to earn and I said it was my environmental. We made seed bombs and spread them in the grass. It was great to meet them, they were very nice and it was a fun afternoon”.

Guiding the Royal’s visit in Glasgow, Scout volunteer Eddie O'Rourke said “The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge met Scouts taking part in our #PromiseToThePlanet campaign. They were a real inspiration to all the Scouts that are working hard to make changes to protect the planet. It’s great to see the Duke and Duchess work with our young people and recognise that everyone is capable of helping and everyone’s effort is important in the fight against climate change.”

On top of meeting the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Lewis attended the COP26 conference in Glasgow to showcase his idea and learn more about what others are doing to help climate change. Lewis met Scouts from all over the world as well as members of the Scouts Community Impact Group.  He also met personally with Alister Jack, Secretary of State for Scotland to discuss his idea.

On his time at COP26, Lewis said “It was good to meet all the other Scouts at COP26, they were really friendly and wanted to hear about what I had been doing.  There was lots to see and do at the green zone and I was really interested in visiting the space4climate exhibition and learning about how space is helping climate change, now and in the future. I would encourage people to make their #promisetotheplanet – if they have an idea put it out there.

Lewis’s Leader Paul Quigley, 1^st has been supporting Lewis since the beginning of his project and said “The fact that Lewis has taken on this challenge with mainly his personal initiative shows that he is keen and passionate about climate change and reducing food waste. We are proud within our role as leaders. Lewis is a true role model for youths and even us leader to keep learning and improving the world around us by our actions.”

The Scout’s #PromiseToThePlanet” encourages 57 million Scouts from nearly every country in the world to take a stand and work towards a better world by taking action to reduce climate change. The initiative covers four key areas: recover, recycle, reduce and rethink Scouts in India have been replanting forests, in Ivory Coast clearing plastics from beaches and solar water disinfection in Mexico.

North East Scotland Scouts commented, "Lewis has worked exceptionally hard to drive his initiative through from an idea right through to clear actions on his part. Using the skills learned during his time with Laurencekirk Scouts, Lewis is a shining example of what it means to live by our organisation's values and how we as an organisation, help young people to do more, be more and share more by giving them the skills needed for life."

From tackling climate change to learning about morse code, Scouts offer over 200 adventurous activities and the chance for people of all ages to be more, do more and share more. Scouts gives people of all ages to learn the skills needed for life and to have one in a lifetime opportunities, both at home and abroad. You can enrol your young person or join as an adult volunteer by checking out http://nescouts.scot today and filling an application.

Following the recent announcement from the Scottish Government relating to some easing of restrictions and in line with the strategic framework, I have been working with YouthLink Scotland to update the guidance for Youthwork Activity in Scotland. I can confirm that Scouting in Scotland (along with other youth work providers) will be moving back to the Amber readiness level from Friday 12 March 2021.

As you will be aware youth work continues to link closely with schools and therefore, from tomorrow, we will move to Amber with groups allowed to meet outdoors in group sizes of 15, this includes young people and adults.

From tomorrow you will be able to operate within your local authority until further information is made available about the updated level system later in April. This can include non-contact outdoor activity. However, group travel as part of the activity e.g. outings and trips, is currently not permitted. Please note that adults can cross Local Authority boundaries to get to their normal meeting place.

I am still working with the Government on longer term plans for camping and larger group sizes but we expect these to be introduced steadily throughout the summer. We hope that this will be a phased approach and we will keep you advised.

As with the strategic framework, all target dates are subject to the vaccination programme continuing at the same rate and the rate of infections reducing across the country.

Physical distancing should be maintained at all times between adults, between adults and children/young people and between young people aged 12 and over. This is currently 2m. Youth work leaders should consult the latest Scottish Government guidance for the current default position for physical distancing, including the rules for children aged 11 and under and those aged 12+. Leaders should also continue to follow FACTS. Face coverings are optional outdoors, unless physical distancing can’t be maintained for short periods.

We always need to consider the risks as we’re dealing with different strains of the virus and the majority of people at our meetings will not have been vaccinated yet. Outdoor meetings are being relaxed initially due to the lower risk of transmission outdoors, and we would recommend meeting outdoors where you can, in the spring and summer months.

Taking part in Scouts is voluntary for all leaders and young people and nobody should be pressured to return to face-to-face meetings before they are comfortable doing so. We hope that by the spring every young person is able to take part in Scouting provision whether that be online or face-to-face.

In order to make it easier for Leaders to restart, we have simplified the guidance on equipment sharing and we have clarified how our adult supervision rules apply when operating multiple limited size groups close together. This can be found here.

Scout Network organised activity can be carried out in line with these updated guidelines, but adult only groups must continue to adhere to household rules that from 12 March 2021 will be a maximum of 4 adults from 2 households.

If Groups have had an amber risk assessment approved this will still be valid, but we’d encourage them to review their risk assessment before meeting again. There is no requirement to resubmit the risk assessment to Districts for approval unless they’re making a big change to the way they plan to operate. For those Groups who have not yet had an Amber risk assessment approved then this should be submitted to your District Commissioner before any face-to-face contact can take place. Make sure you've read all of the details about getting back together safely and protecting ourselves and others.

Please remember too, that all adults in your leadership team must have up-to-date training in Safety and Safeguarding, before they are permitted to participate in face-to-face meetings.

This news is welcome and is the first step in what we hope will be a gradual reintroduction to activities and I will continue to work with external organisations and our UK Team to make sure that we do everything to make the process as seamless as possible.

The Red Cross is happy to announce they are back and delivering educational workshops to the North of Scotland. The team in community education has been working hard over the hiatus and they have added two new workshops to our catalogue, all of which are now available both face to face and digitally! This means that their workshops are now available for those groups which were previously difficult for them to reach due to the ciurmstances.