Working with Young Leaders – Worthing Scouts

Guidance for Scout Leaders on induction, supporting participation, recognising achievement, and the Duke of Edinburgh’s award.

Young Leaders

Valuable members of the troop leadership team

Introduction

Explorer Scout Young Leaders (ESYL) are the only under-18 members of the troop leadership teams allowed in Scouting, and can be an Explorer Scout, or doing time-limited placements with the DofE award or Girl Guiding Senior Section.

They must have had their 15th birthday, and not turned 18 yet.

As without special permission for the needs of a Young Person, there are no scouts past their 14½ birthday, this gives a clear ½ year gap in age from the section members.

If childcare issues require a leader’s child under 15 to be present at the section, then that is of course allowed but they are not a member of the section leadership team and shouldn’t act as such.

Working alongside an Explorer Scout Young Leader (ESYL) opens up many great opportunities for a section. ESYLs can bring a range of different skills and experience to the section they support and can help invaluably with the planning and running of your section. This not only benefits your section but allows the ESYL to develop skills for later life, equipping them for successful careers, and to take on adult roles within Scouting.

ESYLs undertake a training Scheme that consists of 11 modules and four missions.

Modules cover a variety of topics such as programme planning, inclusive Scouting and first aid. Usually, ESYLs go through this training with other ESYLs, completing modules together.

Missions, which are similar to the validation section in the adult training scheme, put the learning from the modules into action. These are what the ESYL will need to complete in the section they support. As a section leader, the support you offer your ESYL will contribute towards their development and ensure that the section gets the most out of their time.

In this booklet, we will give you tips to ensuring they are effective members of your team and have a great time.

Welcome them

Before an ESYL’s first session, make sure they know where they are going and who they can expect to meet there. You should meet with the ESYL before the first session – and gain your GSLs consent to them being an ESYL.

Much like any new leader, ESYLs may feel nervous, or may not know what to expect. At the start of the session, take time to introduce them to the other leaders and young people. At the end of the session, introduce them to the parents. This familiarity will help put them at ease.

Get to know them

Spend a little bit of time getting to know your ESYL. Just like adult leaders, they will have a range of experiences and skills to share. Some questions you may wish to ask an ESYL include:

How long have you been in Scouting?
Have you been through the section you are helping with?
Why do you want to be an Explorer Scout Young Leader?
Do you have any previous experience working with young people?
Do you have any previous experience leading activities?
Are you at school or college?
What are your ambitions and interests?
Are you working towards your top awards ie Chief Scout’s Platinum, Diamond, QSA and/or DofE?

Encourage them to get stuck in

ESYLs can help with an array of tasks. They are not there to make the juice or the tea, any more than any other leader. They are an integral part of your leadership team. By investing some time with your ESYL at the beginning, you are much more likely to see them develop and take an active role in planning and running the section. ESYLs could:

help to plan the programme
plan and run youth forums and games to get feedback from the section
plan and run games and activities
open or close the meeting
help with websites or social media pages (with support, as they are still under 18)
run sessions on topics they feel confident about
talk to young people about their experiences
inspire the section, acting as a role model
attend residential trips and camps

In order for ESYLs to complete these activities, they will need some support from you. It is advisable to talk through any tasks or activities before they do them for the first time. Consider whether you are the best person in the section’s leadership team to support the ESYL. Is there someone else in the leadership team who would thrive buddying a new member of the team?

What do ESYLs get out of the Scheme?

The benefits an ESYL will get out of the Scheme are very similar to the benefits of being an adult leader. Like adult volunteers, ESYLs will get to see young people develop, have fun and give back to their communities, all while developing some useful, transferrable life skills.

What are your obligations?

Whilst an ESYL is working within a section, the section leader is responsible for their safety and welfare. It is important to remember that an ESYL is still a young person, regardless of their responsibilities. The same Young People First (Yellow Card) guidance you apply to your section should also be applied to ESYLs. You should never spend time one-on-one with an ESYL, and should never directly text or email them without copying in other members of the leadership team, for example.

Young People First (Orange Card) and Module A

When ESYLs start the Scheme, they will be given a copy of Young People First (Orange Card) – the ESYL version of the Young People First (Yellow Card). ESYLs must also complete Module A of the Scheme within three months, which provides detailed information about safeguarding and child protection. It is important that the ESYL is equipped with the right skills and knowledge to deal with any situations that arise.

As section team leader, you are responsible for ensuring that the environment you create in your section reinforces the Orange Card code-of-conduct and if a YL exceeds this it needs to be reviewed with them as a priority.

Camps and residential trips

When the ESYL takes part in a camp or residential, consideration should also be given to the sleeping arrangements. The ESYL should have their own separate accommodation. They should not plan to share with adult leaders, or with the young people in the section.

You MUST seek the permission of their explorer leader for them to be on a nights away experience.

Safeguarding

It’s important to remember that, despite being in a position of responsibility, an ESYL is still a young person. ESYLs should never be left alone with a section, should always be supported, and must not be counted in the section’s adult to young person ratios. It is important to have an in-touch process in place, and to be aware of any medical details and contact details relating to the ESYL.

ESYLs have their own version of Young People First (Yellow Card): Young People First (Orange Card). This is introduced in Module A, which covers safeguarding and child protection in detail.

Please note that Module A MUST be completed by all ESYLs, and by all young people from outside Scouting volunteering as Young Leaders, within three months of starting the Scheme. If they do not, you MUST tell them to stop attending.

It is integral that every ESYL has their own copy of Young People First (Orange Card) with them at all times. Following the rules not only safeguards young people in the section, but also safeguards the ESYL themselves, preventing them from putting themselves in vulnerable positions.

On residential experiences, ESYLs are in a unique position within the section. They are not adults and are under 18, so they must not share sleeping areas with the leadership team. Similarly, it is important to acknowledge that they are in a position of responsibility and are not attending camp as a participant. As a result, they should always be given their own private space and sleeping arrangements.

Recognition for the ESYL

There are badges which an ESYL will be awarded as part of their journey of growing and developing, which can be worn on their uniform to recognise.

What?	When is it awarded?	Notes
ESYL badge	After completing Module A	Worn on the right sleeve under the district/county badge.
Young Leader Mission badge (x4)	After completion of each ESYL mission (signed off by the YL team)	Goes around the badge.
Young Leader Belt	After completion of all 11 training modules and all 4 missions	Top award; comes with a county presentation.
Service award (Adult uniform)	When the ESYL turns 18	Recognises service as a Young Leader.

They can also use their Young Leader training as Prior Learning towards their Adult Training (parts of modules 1, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12A, 12B, 13, 15, 17, 18) – see https://tinyurl.com/esylAdult for details.

Template letter: DofE leader

Dear ________________ (DofE leader name)

_______________ has asked to complete his volunteering with __________ Scout Troop, which is a troop within the Scout movement in Worthing. Scouts are 10½–14 year olds, and your participant would be joining a leadership team to deliver a quality programme in a well supervised environment.

As Scouts, we believe in preparing young people with skills for life. We bring communities together and contribute to society. Above all, we aim to build better futures for our members and those who volunteer with us.

Each week almost half a million young people enjoy fun, friendship and outdoor adventure. They develop a sense of optimism and strong values as well as the leadership and teamwork skills that are more valuable today than ever. We now help over 462,000 young people aged 6–18 (including 102,000 girls) get the best possible start in life.

As a volunteer with us, your participant is required to complete a piece of training called ‘Prepare for Takeoff’ which provides them with an understanding of how we operate, how to keep themselves and the young people they work with safe, and what other opportunities for training we can offer. Scouting also requires they complete additionally 2 hours of training relevant to their role for each level of the award.

Unfortunately, should they not complete Prepare for Takeoff within 3 months of starting, we will no longer be able to allow them to volunteer with us.

Your participant is very much part of the leadership team and should play an active part in the section. They plan and run activities, as well as being positive role models. The Scheme contains 11 modules and four missions that ESYLs work through whilst volunteering in their chosen section.

The modules will give them the skills and knowledge to be a successful leader, and the missions will allow them to put this into practice with support. Not only will these skills be useful if they go on to adult leadership, they will also help ESYLs to stand out from the crowd and develop confidence.

We meet as a section regularly on ___________________ evenings, and other evenings and weekends as our programme requires.

At the end of their ____ months volunteering with us, they can either continue their membership of Scouting and continue helping – or if they have completed the relevant bits of the Award they can volunteer for the next level of their award.

We value the work they do, and at the appropriate time will submit assessors report on eDofE for them – but at any stage should you have any queries, do not hesitate to contact me on _________________________________, or the Worthing Young Leader team on esl-yl@worthing-scouts.org.uk or 07803 986400.

Template letter: Parents/Guardians/Carers

Dear Parents/Guardians/Carers of ________________

_______________ has asked to complete his volunteering with __________ Scout Troop, which is a troop within the Scout movement in Worthing. Scouts are 10½–14 year olds, and your son/daughter would be joining a leadership team to deliver a quality programme in a well supervised environment.

As a volunteer with us, your son/daughter is required to complete a piece of training called ‘Prepare for Takeoff’ which provides them with an understanding of how we operate, how to keep themselves and the young people they work with safe, and what other opportunities for training we can offer. Scouting also requires they complete additionally 2 hours of training relevant to their role for each level of the award.

Unfortunately, should they not complete Prepare for Take-off within 3 months of starting, we will no longer be able to allow them to continue volunteering with us.

Your son/daughter is very much part of the leadership team and should play an active part in the section. They plan and run activities, as well as being positive role models. The Scheme contains 11 modules and four missions that ESYLs work through whilst volunteering in their chosen section.

We meet as a section regularly on ___________________ evenings, and other evenings and weekends as our programme requires.

The Young Leader Missions

Completing missions will help your Young Leaders put into practice what they have learnt in the training modules, and from your leadership team. They will gain confidence as they become an integral part of the leadership team in your section and group.

Mission 1: Run a variety of games: indoor, outdoor or as part of a camp (minimum of three).
Mission 2: Plan and run an activity (not a game) as part of either the section programme or a camp programme.
Mission 3: Take the section’s programme ideas to a programme planning meeting.
Mission 4: Responsibility for organising and running part of the section programme.

The missions become more challenging as they progress up from 1–4 and the expectation is that they will take longer to complete mission 4 than 1.

When each mission is complete they can talk to the Young Leader Unit about getting a badge for it for their uniform.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award

Writing a great assessors report for DofE volunteering

Your young leader will present you with a physical card, or ask you to complete the same electronically at https://www.edofe.org/assessor/

In either case, please include all the information about what they did, how many hours of activity they did (eg 2 hours weekly over 23 weeks), call out a great achievement they did (eg ran an evening on space and wowed the cubs).

They will need to upload their YL training certificates as evidence to eDofE.

Copying a Young Person to the Young Leader Unit on OSM

Young Leaders should be in your sectional OSM, the explorer unit Worthing Young Leaders, and any other explorer unit they are a members of.

In OSM Personal Details, select the person, then choose “Share with another section”, then “Explorers (and Network)” and start typing “Worthing : Young Leaders”, then click “Share”.

Timeline – Not already in Movement

Step	Timescale
Initial Discussion with YP ‘x’
Receive GSL’s consent to x as YL	Within 1 week
Invite x to section meeting; explain who people are, how you run, and what is required of x as a Young Leader	Within 2 weeks
Get x added to your OSM and the YL Unit’s OSM	Within 2 weeks
If x is an Explorer Scout, notify x’s explorer leader	Within 2 weeks
Add x to your leadership team’s communication methods	Within 2 weeks
Ensure x knows the bits in “Does your Young Leader know”	Within 4 weeks
Get x involved in running something for your section (a game or an activity)	Within 4 weeks
x attends Module A run by Worthing Young Leaders	Within 3 months
Complete x’s eDofE assessor’s report	Within 3/6/9 months
x stops helping as a Young Leader (unless they choose to become an Explorer)	After 3/6/9 months
When they stop helping: notify GSL and ESL(YL); remove them from sectional OSM; thank them	At end

Timeline – Already in Movement

Step	Timescale
Initial Discussion with YP ‘x’
Receive GSL’s consent to x as YL	Within 1 week
Invite x to section meeting; explain who people are, how you run, and what is required of x as a Young Leader	Within 2 weeks
Get x added to your OSM and the YL Unit’s OSM	Within 2 weeks
If x is an Explorer Scout, notify x’s explorer leader	Within 2 weeks
Add x to your leadership team’s communication methods	Within 2 weeks
Ensure x knows the bits in “Does your Young Leader know”	Within 4 weeks
Get x involved in running something for your section (a game or an activity)	Within 4 weeks
x attends Module A run by Worthing Young Leaders	Within 3 months
When they stop helping: notify GSL and ESL(YL); remove them from sectional OSM; thank them	At end

Does your Young Leader know?

Group Name
Section Name
When & where your section meets
The Section Leader’s name & contact details
Your GSL’s name and contact details
The DC’s name and contact details
Their Explorer Leader’s name & contact details
Where the First Aid Kit at your HQ is
Where the toilets at your HQ are
Where the Fire Exits at your HQ are
Where they can park at your HQ
Do you meet over the holidays
How does your leadership team communicate
How to use OSM
Your leadership team “expectations of behaviour” for members of the team
Your “expectations of behaviour” for the members of your troop

Scouts made me a do-er and a give it a go-er. Made me question and listen and have a wide open mind. Scouts made me take a deep breath and speak up. We’re Scouts and everyone’s welcome here. All genders, races and backgrounds.

Every week we give almost half a million 4-25 year olds the skills they need for school, college, university, the job interview, the important speech, the tricky challenge and the big dreams: the skills they need for life.

Share this page