The Scouts have issued a plea for more volunteers to tackle record waiting lists of more than 107,000.

Scouts deputy UK chief volunteer CJ Ledger says more adult volunteers are needed to run activities amid growing demand. This is on top of the 2,200 additional volunteers it recruited last year.

“Of course, as volunteers, we know all too well that demand greatly outstrips supply, she said.

“Although we’d love to welcome more young people into the movement, we need more adult volunteers to create new places. While in the last year we welcomed over 2,200 additional volunteers, we still need more.”

Her call for more volunteers comes amid a recruitment crisis across the charity sector.

This year’s Big Help Out volunteering event, which took place over three days last month and involved charities including the Scouts, saw 700,000 fewer people take part than in 2023, when the event was first held to make King Charles III’s coronation.

Figures published in May by Nottingham Trent University’s VCSE Data and Insights National Observatory and Pro Bono Economics found that three in five charities are finding volunteer recruitment difficult.

In 2023 the Charities Aid Foundation published figures showing that only seven percent of people had volunteered over the previous month, compared to nine percent in 2019, before the Covid pandemic.

Meanwhile, charity sector body the NCVO has warned that a lack of flexible and suitable roles are among the main barriers to volunteering.

Commenting on Scouts' call for volunteers, NCVO chief executive Sarah Elliott said: "Charities across the country are struggling to keep up with unprecedented demand for services, and many have to rely on the goodwill of volunteers to be able to deliver their vital work.

“The waiting list for Scouts shows how important it is that more people, of all ages and backgrounds, are encouraged and enabled to volunteer so that charities can transform the lives of even more people.”

She called on the new Labour government to encourage employers “to allow their staff to take paid time off for volunteering, and by working with charities to create more good quality volunteering opportunities that allow people to volunteer in a way, and at a time, that suits them”.

Ledger said the Scouts is looking to “make volunteering simpler, more enjoyable and rewarding” by bringing in a “teams-based and task-led model”.

“It’s about supporting each other, reducing the admin and letting volunteers get on with things they enjoy and are good at,” she said.

She added that the charity is “simplifying the learning and development opportunities, focusing on what volunteers need for their role while making sure we’re keeping everyone’s safety at the top of the list”.

Safety concerns

Earlier this year the Scout Association was criticised by a coroner following the death of 16-year-old Ben Leonard, who fell while on a Scouts trip in Wales.

Assistant coroner for North Wales David Pojur warned that the charity lacks a “culture of candour” and is “institutionally defensive”.

He also warned that “the lives of young people are being put at risk” by the charity’s “failure to recognise the inadequacies of its operational practice”.

In April a letter to staff by Scouts chief executive Matt Hyde, who is stepping down in September, warned of redundancies as it tackles “extra cost pressures on essential work”. This includes an increase in legal claims against the charity.

A spokesperson for the charity said: “As part of this proposal there could be a net loss of 10 roles across 509 colleagues to make sure we focus on the essentials for supporting our young people and volunteers.”

But a source at the charity said it is understood that around 20 staff members are being made redundant, across the charity's Scouts Programme teams, Scout Store and Unity Insurance functions.

Roles within the Squirrels, Explorers and Network sections are involved, added the source.

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