County development plan

Skills for Life

Our plan to deliver better futures
Who are we?

Oxfordshire Scouts are the counties biggest mixed youth organisation. We change lives by offering 6 to 25 year olds fun and challenging activities, unique experiences, everyday adventure and the chance to help others so that we make a positive impact in communities.

We help provide young people across Oxfordshire with skills for life and encourage them to do more, learn more and be more.

Scouting gives young people the skills to succeed.
These include:

  • Character skills like resilience, initiative, independence and tenacity
  • Employability skills like leadership, teamwork and problem solving
  • Practical skills like coding, cooking and First Aid.

Each week Oxfordshire Scouts gives over 5500 young people the opportunity to enjoy fun and adventure while developing the skills they need to succeed, now and in the future. Young people experience teamwork, leadership and resilience – skills that have helped Scouts become everything from teachers and social workers to astronauts and Olympians.

We believe in bringing people together, celebrating diversity and standing against intolerance. We are a worldwide movement of over 30 million, creating stronger communities and inspiring positive futures

Our vision

By 2025, we will have prepared more young people with skills for life, supported by amazing volunteers across Oxfordshire providing inspiring programme to all that want to be involved. We want our Young People to help shape Scouting across the County to make a bigger impact in our local communities, grow more inclusive and continue to grow.

Our strategic targets
Growth
  • 763 more young people (to take to membership of 8,000)
  • 97 more young leaders (to take to 300 in the County)
  • 193 more section leaders (to take to 1,410)
Inclusivity
  • Reflect Oxfordshire’s demographics in our volunteers
  • Increase the provision for young people across Oxfordshire
  • Reach more young people in Oxfordshire’s areas of social need
Youth Shaped
  • Encourage youth involvement across all areas in Oxfordshire
  • Celebrate achievement and raise awareness of top awards
Community Impact
  • Actively engage in community impact projects across Oxfordshire
  • Work with other local organisations to increase reach
  • Promote Scouting within local communities
Our pillars of work

Programme

A fun, enjoyable, high quality programme consistently delivered and supported.

Provide support to deliver excellent programmes across all Groups and Units.
Deliver support for hard to deliver programme areas.
Support the use of programme to increase our impact in communities.
Increase number of young people shaping their programmes.

People

More, well trained, better supported and motivated
adult volunteers and more young people from diverse backgrounds.

Ensure we have enough adult
volunteers in the right role who are:
– Well inducted
– Well trained
– Well supported
– Recognised and awarded
Develop a culture of succession planning and moving between roles.
Enhance levels of enjoyment and fulfilment by increasing the support available from County advisors.

Perception

Scouting is understood, more visible, and widely seen as playing a key role in today’s society.

Maximise our community impact through national and local partnerships and initiatives.
Develop our internal community as a single team, delivering Scouting across Oxfordshire.
Connect with local communities through engagement in projects that help support those communities
Raise awareness of our activities through our social media channels
Maximise our community impact through national and local partnerships and initiatives.
Develop our internal community as a single team, delivering Scouting across Oxfordshire.
Connect with local communities through engagement in projects that help support those communities
Raise awareness of our activities through our social media channels
County team strategic objectives

To help us achieve our ambitious targets the County Team are focussing on the following five strategic
objectives:

Support Groups with return to face to face scouting; risk assessments & social distanced games and activities
Improve compliance for training and review process via volunteer journey; which will also better support new volunteers
Improve support and programme for 14-25 age range; keeping more young people in scouting longer & helping increase adult volunteer numbers
Improve diversity across the County including the review of hardship funding
Increase community support via community impact projects
County teams

The County teams provide support in the following areas to help us meet our strategic objectives:

Adult Support

  • Provide support and advice on activity permits, nights away, diversity and inclusion, safety and support for executive committees.

Events

  • Provide consistent County led events to all sections with an emphasis on challenging programme areas.
  • Manage the County SAS units.
  • Support leaders wishing to organise international events

Growth

  • Grow Scouting through new provisions to meet identified needs including in areas of depravation.
  • Provide support and guidance to recruit adults into vacant roles including engaging with external organisations to assist with recruitment.

Media & Communications

  • Increase the presence of Scouting in the County externally through local and social media.
  • Increase sharing of stories across Groups, Districts and Counties.
  • Provide support to leaders in media and technology

Programme

  • Support volunteers to ensure a high quality, consistent programme particularly in specialist and challenging areas.
  • Ensure a consistent quality and approach to Young Leaders, DofE, Queens Scout Award and Scouts of the World Award.
  • Encourage the sharing of best practices with programme and relevant supporting materials e.g. OSM.
  • Support the transition between sections and promote Explorer and Network Sections.

Training

  • Provide access to sufficient training and validation sessions to allow volunteers to complete their training in the required time scales.
  • Develop additional training based on the needs of the volunteers in the County.

Youth

  • Provide support and guidance to volunteers on increasing youth involvement in all areas of the County.
  • Provide support in organising county level community impact projects.

Leaders
Problem solvers
Team players

We help young people develop and improve key life skills.
  • Character skills like resilience, initiative, independence and tenacity
  • Employability skills like leadership, teamwork and problem solving
  • Practical skills like cooking, first aid and coding

Integrity
Respect
Care
Belief
Cooperation

Our vales
  • As Scouts we live by the values of Scouting.
  • They underpin everything we do, how we act and the way we treat each other

Skills for Life
Belonging

We believe that skills for life can prepare better futures:

For young people – by giving them the character, employability and practical skills they need to succeed
For volunteers – by equipping them with better skills, tools and support to deliver inspiring programmes
For society – by bringing people together and improving the lives of those in our communities.