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Scouting has played an active role in the lives of young people for nearly one hundred years. During that time it has changed and developed to meet the needs of the young people it serves. However the last major overhaul of the programme was way back in 1967 before all of our young members and many of their parents were born. In 1995 the Committee of the Council recognised that a complete review of all our activities was needed if the movement was to continue to meet the needs of young people as we moved into the 21st Century.

In 1995 the Programme Review Group was set up with one simple but wide ranging brief - "To review the Association's current 6 - 20 programme and to make recommendations to ensure that the youth programme achieves the Aim of the Association by the year 2000"

In May of this year they did exactly that. They made 43 recommendations to the Committee of the Council for changes to Scouting in the UK.

The Starting Point

Before any details of a new programme were proposed it was regarded as essential to establish four key criteria.

• What Scouting wants to achieve
• The areas of personal development which Scouting should offer
• Overall programme objectives for the youth programme
• A method of effective review of the programme locally to ensure it meets the needs of our members.

The Scout Association adopted the World Organisation of Scout Movements definition of youth programme, which states simply that the Youth Programme is

• The totality of what young people do in Scouting.... the activities
• How it is done.... the method
• the reason why it is done.... the purpose

Our new youth programme (the WHAT, HOW, and WHY) is being built on the following elements:

• The Mission Statement of UK Scouting
• The fundamentals of Scouting
• The needs of young people in the United Kingdom
• Personal development areas

Consulting the Movement

Having established that the future programme should be built on the fundamentals and key principles outlined above, the Review Group set about collecting the background information and views of the members of the movement.

It was recognised at the beginning that if we wanted to develop a programme that would be relevant to today's' young people then we needed to go out and talk to as many of our members as possible. It was vital that the information used came from the movement as a whole if the changes were to be as wide-ranging as they needed to be for the programme to be suitable for 21st Century Scouting.

The first step was to gather information about what Scouting was doing well, what challenges it faced and how it could be made stronger and even more relevant to young people. This was gathered in a number of ways:

Questionnaires

• These were sent to every Scout Group/District/County/Area in the United Kingdom in 1997
• They sought information from every Member of the Movement, from Beaver Scouts and Cub Scouts to Commissioners and Section Leaders.
• Over 34,000 were returned to MORI who processed the responses and were impressed and amazed by the size of the response.

Exit interviews

• Special interviews took place with young people throughout the UK
• They contacted over 700 young people who had left Scouting in the previous twelve months

Social Trends

The PRI Group then explored current social trends through a group that looked at current trends affecting young people particularly:

• Changes to the formal education system
• Lessons learned from other youth organisations.

Focus groups

these were set up around the UK to explore the issues arising out of the questionnaire.

Other Scout associations

We looked at the experiences and learning gained by other Scout Associations culturally similar to our own. Particularly those who had changed their youth programme recently.

Developing the Framework

As you can see there were an enormous amount of views, opinion and information gathered during the consultation exercise. The Review Group had to try to digest this information and identify all the key issues. To help this process and to again involve as many members as possible, a series of workshops were held around the UK to generate all the possible solutions to the issues raised from the initial consultation.

The next stage was the development of a "model" for delivering the revised programme. This was shared with the movement through the "Visions for the Future" document distributed to every Group in the UK outlining the proposals and encouraging responses to the questions raised. In total, over 17,000 questionnaires were returned which provided a substantial database for analysis.

However, questionnaires can be very "black and white" in the nature of the responses, so a four-month period of consultation through "focus" groups (80 in total) was held throughout the country. These groups drew members from every level in the movement from Scouts to Assistant District Commissioners, Venture Scouts to District Chairmen, Cub Scout Leaders to Venture Scout leaders.

Making Recommendations

Finally, in May of this year the group summarised their findings from all the consultation phases and took their recommendations to the Committee of the Council.

The recommendations included the following areas:

• The Fundamentals of Scouting
• The age ranges and Membership of the Association
• The Promise and Law
• The Programme and Awards
• Activity badges
• National Programme Initiatives
• Support structures in the District and County/Area

So what is happening now?

Since May of this year, the Programme Review Implementation teams have been busy developing the programme from the framework agreed by Committee of the Council. Over a hundred volunteers, supported by a team of professional staff, are now working to ensure that we get a challenging and exciting programme that meets the needs of young people throughout the UK.

These teams, covering everything from Adult Support to the details of the actual programme, are busy putting the "meat on the bones". These teams are working extremely hard getting everything ready for a launch in early 2002. Their focus is on developing a simpler, more flexible programme, supported by a range of quality resource material. We realise how important it is to have all the necessary materials to support leaders in delivering the revised programme.

The process of sharing the framework for the new programme has started, with a series of 'Briefing Events' being held around the country for County/Area Commissioners and District Commissioners, to enable them to start to prepare for change that lies ahead. Counties / Areas are being asked to hold similar 'events' for all members of the movement in their areas.

Over the next twelve months, all members of the movement will become part of this change process and will be kept up to date on developments. There will be regular updates in Scouting magazine, updates posted to Scoutbase and a regular additional bulletin called 'PRI Points' circulated with Talking Points.

There is still much to be done but we know that with your support and enthusiasm we will all be able to provide better Scouting, for more young people, into the 21st Century.

'Our movement, our future......'

Daragh O'Malley

PRI Management Team