Summary
This page brings together everything you need to understand the Regulatory Advice Notice and take the required actions for your group, as well as signposts you to support for your Trustee Board.
Following the Charity Commission Regulatory Advice Notice, all Scout Groups are required to review their governance arrangements and complete a number of actions by 28th April 2026.
What groups must do
All groups must:
- Have a compliant functioning governance structure in place. As a reminder, a minimum of 5 trustees are required for a Trustee Board to be considered functional. This number can include the Chair and the ex-officio GLV.
- Ensure all trustees have read and understood the Regulatory Advice Notice and supporting guidance (linked below)
- Hold a Trustee Board meeting where the notice is discussed
- Record this discussion in your meeting minutes
- Store the notice alongside your governance records
- Complete the County assurance form
These actions must be completed by 28th April 2026.
Understanding your responsibilities
Trustees are expected to understand the key guidance that underpins their role.
Please review:
- Regulatory Advice Notice
- CC3 – Being a Trustee
- CC27 – Trustee Decision Making
- Safeguarding and Protecting People
These documents explain your legal responsibilities and what is expected of you as a trustee.
We recognise that CC3, CC27 and the safeguarding guidance are detailed and in-depth documents. To support this, a summary has been produced which you can view below:
Additionally, trustees should also be familiar with Scouts’ key policies and procedures, which underpin how Scouting is delivered safely:
These documents set out how Scout Groups are expected to operate and the processes that must be followed to keep young people and volunteers safe.
Groups without a functioning Trustee Board
If your group does not currently have a functioning Trustee Board, this must be addressed as part of the assurance process.
The responsibility for establishing a Trustee Board sits with the group, supported by the District where needed. Groups should take steps to identify and appoint suitable trustees.
Where this is not possible, there are a number of options available in line with County guidance, including:
- Recruiting and appointing new trustees
- Appointing interim trustees
- District Trustee Board temporarily accepting governance responsibility
- Closure and transfer of young people (as a last resort)
The District Team will work with groups to identify the most appropriate solution, however it is important that all groups actively engage with this process.
Running an effective Trustee Board
Trustee Boards should focus on governance, not day-to-day operations.
The following resources will help you structure effective meetings and cover the right areas:
- Trustee Board agenda templates and prompts
- Risk register guidance
- Finance and insurance guidance
- Annual General Meeting (AGM) guidance and scripts
- Updates for Trustee Boards on any recent changes in regulations
- Support webinars for trustees
- Group Trustee Section Visit Observation Checklist
Recruiting and building your Trustee Board
If your group needs additional trustees, the following resources can help:
- Recruitment templates to attract new trustees
- Trustee recruitment information pack (we suggest adding a cover letter to this to make it more personal to your group)
- Open selection process for appointing trustees
- Tips for welcoming new trustees
- Guidance on checking eligibility to be a trustee
- Volunteer Joining Journey template to show what needs to be done, and in what timeframe. *Excludes Trustee Eligibility check, more info below.
Recruiting a wider range of trustees (including parents and external volunteers) will help strengthen your governance and reduce conflicts of interest.
Governance requirements if your group is a registered charity
If your Scout Group is registered with the Charity Commission, trustees must ensure that:
- Trustee details are kept up to date
- Annual accounts are submitted
- The annual return is completed
Useful links:
Completing Trustee Eligibility Checks
To see if a volunteer can be a Trustee, you’ll need to check that they’re not on any of the following registers:
If they appear on one or more of these registers, they’re not able to be a Trustee.
Recording trustees on the Scouts membership system
All trustees must be correctly recorded on the Scouts membership system (My Membership), including their specific trustee role (e.g. Chair, Treasurer, Trustee).
This ensures:
- Appropriate checks are in place
- Accurate records of governance responsibility
- Compliance with the assurance process
The Chair or Lead Volunteer will need to record the outcome of the Trustee Eligibility Checks in the Trustee’s profile in My Membership.
- Guide on how to add new members, assign roles or end roles on My Membership
- Guide on how to record Trustee Eligibility Checks on My Membership
After the Annual General Meeting (AGM), it’s good practice to recheck the Trustee’s eligibility annually and record the outcome in the minutes of the first Trustee Board meeting.
Need support?
We recognise that this may feel challenging, and support is available.
If you need help with:
- Recruiting trustees
- Structuring your Trustee Board
- Running effective meetings
- Understanding your responsibilities
Please contact the District Team. We will support you through this process.
Contact details:
- District Lead Volunteers (DLV@northlincsscouts.org.uk)
- District Leadership Team (leadership.team@northlincsscouts.org.uk)
- District Trustee Board (trustee.board@northlincsscouts.org.uk)
- District Chair (chair@northlincsscouts.org.uk)
- County Team (assurance@humbersidescouts.org.uk)
- HQ (support@scouts.org.uk)
Thank you!
We recognise that for some groups this is a significant amount of work to complete in a short period of time, alongside everything else you already give to Scouting.
We want to thank you for your time, your commitment, and the effort you are putting in to support your group and the young people within it.
We are not expecting groups to have perfect governance or every process fully embedded by 28th April. However, we are expecting all groups to have a compliant and functioning governance structure in place by this date.
The guidance and resources on this page are here to support you in putting those structures in place and strengthening them over time.
This work is not about adding pressure for the sake of it, it is about making sure that what we do is safe, sustainable, and properly supported. It also helps protect our volunteers and young people.
We will work through this together, and support is available throughout.
