It is the policy of The Scout Association to safeguard the welfare of all members by protecting them from neglect and from physical, sexual and emotional harm.
If You have a Safeguarding Concern
The Scout Association and West Yorkshire Scouts take the safety and safeguarding of our youth members very seriously and we have established procedures to safeguard the welfare and safety of our youth members.
As a parent or member of the public, if you have any concerns about the welfare or safeguarding of any young person in scouting, please contact your District Commissioner as soon as possible. If your concern is about any scout county matters (including Bradley Wood or Green Withens), please contact the County Commissioner as soon as possible.
If the matter is urgent and you cannot contact your District Commissioner or the County Commissioner, ring our national Safeguarding Team on (0345) 300 1818 or 0208 433 7164 (this includes an out-of-hours system for urgent calls). If a young person is at immediate risk of harm please call the police.
West Yorkshire Scouts follows the National Scout Association Safeguarding Policy – to read a copy of that policy please visit the National Scout Association pages here
How We Deal with (non-Safeguarding) Complaints
The vast majority of our members and members of the public with whom we deal have fun and gain a great deal from their involvement with scouting.
However, from time to time things may not go as planned and there may occasionally be issues that either our members or our customers would like us to address.
As part of the Scout Association, West Yorkshire Scouts follow the Scout Association’s complaints process. In summary:
- We only consider complaints raised within three months of any issue occuring
- We only address first party complaints (i.e. those that affect you directly, or your child, but not those raised on behalf of any third party)
- We do not consider malicious or vexatious complaints, or those which are substantively the same as previous complaints
- We do not investigate anonymous complaints (although anonymous safeguarding concerns will be investigated)
The first step in our complaints process is to try and resolve things informally and we would always encourage all parties to sit around the table and talk about what has happened – this works much better than e-mails, letters or phone calls and resolves most matters.
If you feel that this has failed and you wish to make a formal complaint, it should be addressed to the most local line manager as follows:
| Complaint about: | Complaint addressed to: |
|
the Group Scout Leader |
|
the District Explorer Scout Commissioner |
|
the District Scout Network Commissioner |
|
the District Commissioner |
|
The General Manager BradleyWood |
|
the County Commissioner |
|
the Regional Commissioner via the Info Centre at HQ |
Your complaint will then be investigated and if you are not happy with the outcome, there is a single right of appeal which must be made within 28 days of the outcome of the complaint being adjudicated.
If you’re not sure who to address your complaint to, please e-mail info@wyscouts.org.uk and we’ll let you know where to address your complaint.
If you would like to find out more, you can read this handy Guide for Complainants
If your complaint is in regard to a charities matter, then you should write to the relevant trustees of the charity (ie the Chair of Trustees via the Secretary). For West Yorkshire Scouts contact the County Chair