Best Practice

a. Section Leaders should maintain a list of Members details at all times. The list should contain name, address, date of birth, parent/carer name, telephone number(s) and email address

b. Section Leaders should give a copy of the list of Members to the Group Scout Leader and Group Secretary on a regular basis (every 3 to 4 months)

c. Group Scout Leaders should know how many members are in each section of their Group at all times

d. Detailed individual Membership Records should be maintained for every member of every section of each Group, not forgetting the Young Leaders and adults. These records should contain the basic information from "a", any health and diet information the leaders should be aware of including regular medication, faith and ethnicity. Where the young person lives with one parent, the contact details of the other parent and any restrictions that are in place relating to access, and where the young person lives with a carer, a second contact name and details, and any restrictions that the leaders should be aware of re access to the young person.

e. The Annual Census detailed analysis should be compiled by the Section Leader from the Membership Records and a copy given to the person compiling the Group Return at the end of January each year.

FAQ's

Who should be recorded as a member on the Group Census?

There should be a membership record for every person in the Scout Group. The Section Leaders are responsible for maintaining these for the young people, the Group Scout Leader is responsible for maintaining the records of all the adults working with young people (Leaders, Assistant Leaders, Sectional Assistants and Occasional Helpers). The Group Secretary is responsible for maintaining the records of non-uniformed adults such as the Trustees. Everybody that has a Membership Record that is still active (does not contain a leaving date) should be included in the Group Census, without exception.

Do young people and adults who have not been invested need to be included on the Census?

It is a myth that you need to be invested before being included in the Census. Everybody who has attended Scouting meetings or activities is required to be included on the census. The only exception is anybody joining Scouting in January, and has not yet attended 3 meetings, as they are deemed to be trialing Scouting.

If somebody is missed from the Census, will they be insured?

The short answer is NO. If there is an accident, the insurance company will visit the Group to inspect the records, to establish the young person, or adult is a member. They will use the Group Register prior to the incident date to establish that the person is insured. If the person is not recorded on this register, then the Group will need to prove the start date was after the date of the last annual return.

Why do we have to declare the data - what about the Data Protection Act?

The Scout Association is a membership organisation, and as such has a right to the information held about its members. The membership records are administered locally, but are owned by the Scout Association. The information gathered for the census will only be used by the Scout Association, and will not be passed to any other organisation. Nobody locally can over-rule this. In very simple terms, if the information is not made available by a Group, then that Group no longer exists as they are no longer a part of the Scout Association.