About Us

As Scouts, we believe in preparing young people with skills for life. We encourage our young people to do more, learn more and be more.

#skillsforlife

Each week, Scouts give over 460,000 young people across the UK the opportunity to enjoy fun and adventure while developing the skills they need to succeed, now and in the future. We promote and develop 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. We celebrate diversity and always stand against intolerance. We’re part of a worldwide movement, creating stronger communities and inspiring positive futures.

Our vision for 2025

Our vision for 2025 was to have prepared more young people with skills for life supported by amazing volunteers that deliver an inspiring programme. The aim was to grow, be more inclusive, shape our work by young people and make a bigger impact in our communities.

As we’re now in 2025, we’re developing a new strategy in line with volunteers and young people’s needs. Since mid 2024, we have been conducting research with people inside and outside of Scouting to inform the development of our next strategy.

What Scouts do

Young people in the Scouts take part in an exciting programme of activities from kayaking to coding. They develop character skills like resilience, initiative and tenacity; employability skills such as leadership, teamwork and problem solving; and practical skills like cooking and first aid.

Through the adventure of Scouting, young people get to learn in a safe environment. Our programme provides young people with the opportunities to develop new skills; everything from camp cooking, photography, climbing, potholing, computer science, geocaching, to local and national citizenship, team challenges, personal growth and international experiences. We encourage our young people to feel the buzz of the challenge and then reflect on what that means. Did they have fun? Do they feel more confident? Would they do it again?

Scouting exists to actively engage and support young people, empowering them to make a positive contribution to society. The fun of Scouting challenges young people to embark on exciting, new adventures.

Adventure does not have to be extravagant or expensive – there are adventures to be had everywhere. For a Beaver it might be to wake up after their first ever night away, for a Cub the sense of achievement from helping with a community project or for an Explorer the camaraderie of spending the weekend hill walking.