{"content":{"layouts":[{"type":"singleColumn","areas":[{"items":[{"gridType":"RichTextBlock","content":"\u003Ch3\u003EAim\u003C/h3\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EFor Scouts to be more visible, trusted, respected, and seen as playing a key role in today\u2019s society.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Ch3\u003EGoal\u003C/h3\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EMake sure our brand is frequently and positively seen in the public eye, sharing our key skills for life message and building trust.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Ch3\u003EProgress a year on\u003C/h3\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThis year, perception of Scouts was shaped by several key moments, and three stand out in particular: welcoming HM King Charles III as our Patron, announcing Dwayne Fields as our 11th Chief Scout, and continuing to campaign for our Scouts\u2019 Manifesto.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cul\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EIn June, The King became Scouts\u2019 Patron, continuing the Royal tradition dating back to 1912. Our young people recorded videos welcoming him, which we shared across our social media channels.\u003C/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EIn September, Dwayne Fields became our new Chief Scout. Dwayne is a passionate advocate for what we do. Scouts helped shape the person Dwayne is today, and now he, in turn, is shaping what we do in Scouts. In total, there were 2,400 pieces of media coverage and on social it was our top performing content, with 2.6 million impressions and 54 thousand engagements.\u003C/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003ELastly, we said thank you and farewell to Bear Grylls after three impressive five-year terms as Chief Scout. During this time, two million people have been Scouts in the UK, and we\u2019ve grown by 100,000 members. To commemorate Bear\u2019s contribution, artist Jemma Phipps was commissioned to paint his portrait, which is now on display at Gilwell Park.\u003C/li\u003E\n\u003C/ul\u003E","gtmId":"","gtmClass":""}]}],"config":null},{"type":"TwoColumnLayoutBlock","areas":[{"items":[{"gridType":"gridImageBlock","gtmId":"","gtmClass":"","image":"/media/vndns0n3/dwayne-fields-with-large-group-of-young-people.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"altText":"Dwayne Fields stands in the middle of a large group of young people, while they all wave at the camera.","caption":"","link":null}]},{"items":[{"gridType":"gridImageBlock","gtmId":"","gtmClass":"","image":"/media/fpyhm1so/bear-grylls-unveiling-portrait.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"altText":"Bear Grylls unveils a portrait of himself in a large golden frame.","caption":"","link":null}]}],"config":null},{"type":"singleColumn","areas":[{"items":[{"gridType":"RichTextBlock","content":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EImproving our perception\u003C/strong\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cul\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EA 2025 YouGov brand perception survey shows public trust in Scouts remains high at 86%, while the perception that we\u2019re open to all is improving at 83%. The perception that Scouts is safe has also risen to 80% from 78%, and perception that we make a positive impact in communities has risen from 78% to 81%.\u003C/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EIn its second year, The Big Help Out blossomed. 100 groups took part, working to improve their local areas. Scouts, along with our Ambassadors, did amazing work to raise awareness of the benefit of volunteering in your community.\u003C/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EIn November, on Remembrance Sunday, Dwayne Fields attended The Cenotaph, helping to form the Guard of Honour collecting and laying wreaths from organisations parading.\u003C/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EOn Boxing Day, Dwayne Fields guest edited BBC Radio 4\u2019s \u2018Today\u2019 programme. This was part of a wide range of media activity from Dwayne, including the cover of The Big Issue and an interview in The Telegraph.\u003C/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EIn March, Tim Peake launched our new Explorer Space Activity Badge, designed to help young people aged 14 to 18 with STEM. Media coverage meant over two million people saw content related to the launch.\u003C/li\u003E\n\u003C/ul\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAttracting, recruiting, and retaining volunteers\u003C/strong\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cul\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EWe promote volunteering with Scouts throughout the year. The announcement of our new Chief Scout, our highest profile volunteer role, helped support the growth in frontline volunteers by 3,000 \u2013 the biggest in-year increase since 2018.\u003C/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EThrough the year, we continued to share our Scouts\u2019 Manifesto following its launch in March 2025. We gave our youth advocates a platform to share their lived experience and help us make the case for policies to support Scouts and young people. We met with over 100 Members of Parliament, government ministers and councillors during the year to ask them to support volunteering, champion young people and protect community spaces.\u003C/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EWe launched our volunteer leave campaign, in collaboration with Sea Cadets, Girlguiding and St John Ambulance. As part of this campaign, we\u2019re petitioning government to grant every employee in the UK, the right to request 35 hours of volunteer leave a year. Our petition generated over 8,000 signatories within a month.\u003C/li\u003E\n\u003C/ul\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EProgressing our brand\u003C/strong\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cul\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EAfter consulting with 26,000 young people and adults, our \u2018What we wear\u2019 project concluded. While no major changes were called for, it was clear our uniform needed to be more practical, inclusive, affordable and comfortable. In response, we made improvements to comfort and fit, introduced personalisation, expanding our range of options and informal wear. We also updated our Policy, Organisation and Rules (POR) to define the purpose of uniform and make sure it\u2019s not a barrier to young people or adults taking part.\u003C/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EWe welcomed five new ambassadors: Liam MacDevitt, Zanna van Dijk, Ollie Eats, Louis Cole and Sean Conway. These inspiring new supporters, with substantial social media presences, helped extend our reach. Combined, their launch content generated 265,000 impressions and 200,000 views. It\u2019s been another highly engaged year on social media and followers across all platforms went up by 7%.\u003C/li\u003E\n\u003C/ul\u003E\n\u003Ch3\u003EWhat\u0027s next\u003C/h3\u003E\n\u003Cul\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EWe\u2019ll continue to work on our 35 hour volunteering leave campaign.\u003C/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EWe\u2019re busy looking for and creating high profile moments for our Chief Scout and Ambassadors. Through them, we\u2019ll continue to raise awareness of what Scouts does.\u003C/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EIn everything we do, our focus continues to be promoting safe adventures through Scouts.\u003C/li\u003E\n\u003C/ul\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C/p\u003E","gtmId":"","gtmClass":""}]}],"config":null},{"type":"TwoColumnLayoutBlock","areas":[{"items":[{"gridType":"gridImageBlock","gtmId":"","gtmClass":"","image":"/media/p2qf5db3/volunteer-talking-to-squirrels.jpg","width":1168,"height":720,"altText":"A volunteer, wearing a purple jumper and orange necker, smiles while talking to a group of Squirrels.","caption":"","link":null}]},{"items":[{"gridType":"gridImageBlock","gtmId":"","gtmClass":"","image":"/media/nf4hdypy/young-people-with-changemaker-badge.jpg","width":1154,"height":720,"altText":"Two young people smile at the camera while standing in front of a graphic of the changemaker badge.","caption":"","link":null}]}],"config":null}]},"prev":{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/volunteering/","title":"Volunteering"},"next":{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/the-impact-of-scouts-on-young-people/","title":"The impact of Scouts on young people"},"allParts":[{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/refocusing-our-priorities/","title":"Refocusing our priorities"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/renewing-our-promise-to-help-other-people/","title":"Renewing our promise to help other people"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/our-purpose-and-method/","title":"Our purpose and method"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/skills-for-life-our-plan-to-prepare-better-futures-2018-2025/","title":"Skills for Life: Our plan to prepare better futures 2018-2025"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/growth/","title":"Growth"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/inclusivity/","title":"Inclusivity"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/youth-shaped/","title":"Youth shaped"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/community-impact/","title":"Community impact"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/three-pillars-of-work/","title":"Three pillars of work"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/youth-programme/","title":"Youth programme"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/volunteering/","title":"Volunteering"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/perception/","title":"Perception"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/the-impact-of-scouts-on-young-people/","title":"The impact of Scouts on young people"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/keeping-young-people-safe/","title":"Keeping young people safe"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/safeguarding/","title":"Safeguarding"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/fundraising/","title":"Fundraising"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/our-finances/","title":"Our finances"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/trustees-responsibilities/","title":"Trustees\u0027 responsibilities"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/independent-auditor-s-report-to-the-trustees-of-the-scout-association/","title":"Independent Auditor\u2019s Report to the Trustees of The Scout Association"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/consolidated-statement-of-financial-activities/","title":"Consolidated statement of financial activities"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/balance-sheet/","title":"Balance sheet"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/statement-of-cash-flows/","title":"Statement of cash flows"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/notes-to-the-financial-statements/","title":"Notes to the financial statements"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/our-members/","title":"Our members"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/how-we-operate/","title":"How we operate"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/governance-structure-and-board-membership-1-april-2024-to-31-march-2025/","title":"Governance structure and Board membership \u2013 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/our-thanks/","title":"Our thanks"},{"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/investors-in-people/","title":"Investors in People"}],"link":"/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/perception/","id":86794,"nodeName":"Perception","title":"Perception","type":"codexPart","image":{"url":"/media/10478/scouts-logo.jpg?width=800\u0026height=450\u0026v=1db789232a4a190","caption":"Scouts Logo","type":"jpg","size":30784,"width":800,"height":450,"altText":"The Scouts logo"},"assets":null,"headerOptions":{"headerTitle":"Perception","headerSubTitle":null,"headerCta":null,"headerCtaText":null,"headerCtaLink":null,"headerBackgroundColour":null,"showSEOImage":false,"headerBackgroundImage":null,"quickLinks":null},"searchDescription":"Read about our perception aims and goals as part of our 2024/25 annual report.","subHeader":"Read about our perception aims and goals as part of our 2024/25 annual report.","browserTitle":null,"silktide":"eyJjbXMiOiJVbWJyYWNvIiwiZWRpdG9yVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9wcm9kLWNtcy5zY291dHMub3JnLnVrLy91bWJyYWNvIy9jb250ZW50L2NvbnRlbnQvZWRpdC84Njc5NCJ9","canonicalUrl":"https://www.scouts.org.uk/about-us/our-impacts-and-reports/scouts-annual-report-2024-25/perception/"}