When We Go Away!

When we are away on camp or expedition the leader in charge will communicate prior to the event in writing who you are best contacting if you need to get in touch with your child or a leader.

Often this contact can be directly with the leader, but if there is a risk of poor reception someone will be nominated at home who can liaise between the parent(s) and the party.

Because children can become homesick, this can be made worse when they are in contact with home which is why we try to ensure they do not contact home directly. In an important situation we will ensure your child can have a private space to speak with you. Equally in a crisis parents can be alarmed by a child’s “added drama” view on the situation, so again we make every attempt to ensure accurate and clear information is available to all parents to minimize unnecessary stress.

In a very unlikely crisis the leaders have to focus 100% on the children and the situation, in these cases they will inform the home contact and ignore their phones while they focus on the situating. The home contact will liaise with the parents.

The leadership team is fully trained using defined protocol such as the “scouting safeguarding” and “dealing with emergency guidelines” plus there are risk assessments for every activity. They will know exactly what to do, and whom needs communicating to, at all times their first concern is always the wellbeing of the Scouts.

We also encourage that at all camps and meetings the explorers do without their phones which are a distraction and often a much to expensive accessory for the environments we are in.

The most important aspects of expeditions are fun, learning and personal development whatever the weather or situations we are in. Long may that continue.