1. County Lead Volunteer’s Report

2024 has been a year defined by growth, resilience, and celebration across Nottinghamshire Scouts.

We saw fantastic census growth, fuelled by targeted district growth plans and a significant rise in Squirrel Dreys – giving even more young people the chance to start their Scouting journey.

The BIG Weekend made a triumphant return, uniting over 3,000 young people and volunteers in a celebration of Scouting. Plus, the NESST Challenge Hike brought hundreds together and highlighted the passion we have for the outdoors and teamwork in challenging weather conditions.

At the Hoveringham Activity Centre, our programme reached new heights with expanded offerings and major investment underway to secure its future, which is really exciting to see. We have been fortunate enough to have visits from our new Chief Scout, Dwayne Fields, and Scout Ambassador Tim Peake throughout the year, allowing us to showcase Nottinghamshire Scouts on the national stage.

We want to ensure that finance is not a barrier to young people participating in Scouting, so we launched a membership fee support scheme aimed at supporting those who benefit most from Scouts.

We’ve had some challenges too. The national transformation programme saw our volunteers embracing new digital tools, and whilst there were a good number of issues with the system, seeing everyone rallying together to support each other was truly inspiring and reflective of our community spirit we have in Scouts.

This year also brought change within our own teams. We formed a new county leadership team, and by working with key volunteers across the county, we developed a new strategy to keep Nottinghamshire moving forward.

We’ve given increased focus on supporting our volunteers, tightening up of our safety procedures by undertaking a rapid assurance process, and we’ve honoured achievement through our Oak Awards.

The future is bright, we’ve got significant investment going into the new activity centre building at Hoveringham, the Gang Show will make it’s return in a special 75^th anniversary show, and we’ve got some extra special events up our sleeves that we can’t wait to share with you!

We’re going to continue to focus on rolling out the squirrel section across more groups, as we have seen amazing results from the dreys that have already opened. There’s also going to be an increased focus on recognition of the great work our volunteers do and providing specialist support for our managers.

I’d like to pay an extra special thank you to Steven Tupper and his team for all of their hard work over the last six years, and we’re committed to continuing this great work.

All these highlights have been made possible by the dedication of thousands of volunteers and young people across Nottinghamshire, and it never ceases to amaze me what we can achieve when we all work together. Never underestimate the massive positive impact you have on the lives of young people, it’s truly remarkable.