Annual Report 2024
Manager's Report (James Baker)
Last year was our last AGM as the Queen's Scout Working Party, so it would be remiss of me if I didn't start my report this year with the fact that we are now the King's Scout Working Party. I think the transition has gone very smoothly, and we've retained our strong identity whilst refreshing our look. Thanks again to Caroline McCann for her efforts developing the new brand, Sarah Paget for her work promoting our new name on social media, and everyone else who has helped make us the King's Scout Working Party. We continue to hand out new KSWP neckers and nametapes to those people who have attended an event as KSWP, so if you haven't got one yet then sign up for one of the many events on the Portal!
The Portal remains our main membership and events system, and I've added a few new features to it over the past year (as well as rebranding it with our new look). There have also been a few back end tweaks and improvements to keep it secure, some of which have broken things from time to time (sorry!). So if you do find something that isn't working, or think of something that would make it more useful, please do let me know.
Later this year, we will celebrate our 80th Anniversary with a dinner in Birmingham. It's amazing to think about everything that's happened since our 75th anniversary, which really doesn't seem like five years ago! We've had a new monarch, a new name, 2 years locked inside due to COVID, and a whole lot more!
Thank you to the 56 members who have attended 2 or more events this year, which is what we ask everyone to try and commit to. A further 58 people have attended 1 event, but there are 76 members who haven't attended any events (admittedly this does include recently joined members). Thanks to the hard work of Jon and Beth, we've got lots of events lined up over the coming months and we're trying hard to increase the geographic spread of our events too. Please do consider signing up to some of our new events - as if we don't put in a good showing then we are unlikely to be asked back and will have fewer events in the future (this has happened with some of our northern events, and makes it hard to increase the spread).
On the subject of events, this summer we're running an entire zone at one of the largest UK jamborees - Essex International Jamboree (EIJ). We're still looking for a few more zone staff (in particular someone to run our zone stage) - so if you're interested (or know anyone from outside the KSWP who might be) please do come and have a chat! Sorry to everyone that can't commit to a whole week - we did try to get the organisers to allow attendance for part of the week or job sharing arrangements, but unfortunately they said no. This is something we'll feed back to them again after the event for consideration at future events.
Following on from the success of the Everest Base Camp trip in 2022, we are running another KSWP Expedition. This time, we'll be heading to the highest mountain in North Africa, Mt Toubkal in Morrocco in May 2025. The trip will once again be led by Caroline McCann, and we already have a good number attending. If anyone else is interested in going, you can still sign up but your place will be dependent on being able to secure accommodation and suitable in-country support; so the sooner you are able to commit the more likely the trip will be able to accommodate you. If you have any questions, please speak to myself or Caroline McCann.
Finally, thank you everyone who has supported the KSWP this year. In particular, I'd like to thank the committee for all of their hardwork; much of this happens behind the scenes and you may not realise how much time and effort members of the committee put in. But I'll finish with a special thanks on behalf of the young people who have benefited from the time people who have attended an event have given over the past 12 months. It's why we're all here, and there are many events around the country that just wouldn't have been possible without your time and the time of other volunteers like you.
Finance Report (Chris McCandless-Stone)
The QSWP started the financial year in a good position but knowing there was to be a large volume of expense as we became KSWP. We have newly branded banners and flags, new KSWP neckers and name tapes, and new KSWP polos, hoodies and t-shirts. Some t-shirts are still available to purchase at the bulk price.
The year ended with a total balance of £2750.71 but with £1800 of that being payments for the 80th meal in October (still time to sign up) we have £950.71 in the pot.
Events Report (Jon Harris and Beth Headworth)
We kicked off this year in a special way by helping at the Coronation of King Charles III, before we jumped back into some of our regulars such as the Big Fiesta at Woodhouse Park. A select team of "acquaintances" (we weren't cordially invited to the wedding 😉) were then picked to help out at the wedding of James (our manager) and Mary, and what a glorious day it was. Congratulations again to you both!
Along with many of our repeat events such as the activity camps at Woodhouse Park and S&E in Gloucestershire, we also saw a strong presence at our uniformed events, such as the Garden Parties at Buckingham Palace, Guard of Honour and Festival of Remembrance, and at the return of the Thanksgiving Service at Westminster Abbey. We also managed to secure 2 northern events in the Newcastle area, which we hope can lead to more access to events for our northern members.
We have been contacted by new areas and organisers in the past few months, so we're hoping this will provide an increase in events, spread out across the UK, but for this, we do need support and attendance. Only 56 people in the last year have helped at 2 or more events, which is a small portion of our members.
We appreciate everything you're doing within the KSWP, and acknowledge that many of you hold other roles within Scouting at various levels, so we'd like to thank you for all that you do, knowing that it's making a difference.
Members Report (Nina Sparks)
In the last 12 months, we have changed from being the QSWP to the KSWP and welcomed our first King's Scout Award holders to the membership.
The KSWP currently has 193 members (12 more than last year!), spanning from the ages of 18-65 with the majority of members being in the 25-35 age bracket. We also have representation in all four areas of the UK and one member based in Europe. Between us all, I have no doubt that we have the skills and talents to cover pretty much anything that is thrown at us and that is reflected in the types of events that we get asked to help out with. You can see a more detailed report of our membership on the KSWP Portal.
Membership applications have been coming in over the year fairly steadily with a few peaks around events which are higher profile for us, such as Windsor, the Coronation and Gilwell Reunion. At the time of writing the report, we have 22 applications still being processed. The biggest hold up in terms of getting applications processed is receiving non-scouting references. Another common occurrence is that a person providing a "non-scouting" reference is actually a Scout too. If you know people who are applying, please ask them to be specific with their referees on what type of reference they need them to provide.
There was a delay in getting a number of new members onto Compass this year due to a technical issue, which has now been rectified. Hopefully everyone is now present and correct on Compass, but please let me know if there are any problems with your Compass record.
One of the things that I would like to keep better track of in the next year is our members who have KSWP as their only Scouting role, as we need this information for the Census. So please make yourself known to the Membership Co-ordinator via an email if this applies to you.
There have been a number of members who have been very late in renewing DBS checks this year. You should receive a 90 day notice from Gilwell when your DBS is coming up for renewal, which should give you sufficient time to work out if your DBS can be done locally or needs to be done by KSWP. If you need the KSWP to do it for you, please give us as much time as possible to sort it and be proactive about getting in touch with us.
Now Scouting is fully operational post Covid and there are lots of events coming in, a small reminder that we would like members to commit to at least two events a year as part of the KSWP. This should be do-able for the majority of members and will really help us raise our profile within Scouting at local and national events.
On a personal note, I would like to thank the membership and the committee for having me as Membership Coordinator. My job has taken me out of the country a lot, and the role has enabled me to stay involved with the movement. I am happy to stand again and look forward to continuing the role if re-elected; but if not, I wish the incoming Membership Coordinator a great term.
Social Media Report (Sarah Paget)
This last year has provided an exciting opportunity to engage with our audience in a new way as we have changed from QSWP to KSWP.
The rebrand on the day of the King's coronation went well overall. The team at Coronation Camp providing some fantastic new branded photos from Gilwell Park that we still have as headers on all of our accounts. It was a slightly stressful couple of hours trying to line everything up to switch as smoothly as possible, hope I wasn't locked out and didn't loose any followers or profiles along the way. Overall it went as smoothly as it could and almost instantly our audience was interacting with our new identity. In changing our name we have also been able to streamline our tags so our X (formerly known as Twitter) and Instagram are the same, making us easier to find and identify across platforms.
Our followers have increased across all platforms. X surprised me as I have taken a conscious back seat in recent months, with Elon Musks buy out and the initial uncertainly and criticism of the platform I opted to wait to see if it would survive and also any reputational impact that might happen to accounts on it. This lack of interaction hasn't really affected followers, in fact we've still gained followers proving that it is still a platform worth interacting with.
Instagram and Facebook remain firm favourites with our audience with both gaining significant new followers and our reach continuing to extend sharing our story, impact and aims wider. If you take all of the accounts that follow us on all three platforms and add them together, we have access to 2463 accounts. An increase of almost 400 account follows on last year's statistics.
Our top posts across the platforms also show that each platforms audience appreciates different things with totally different events and topics being in the top two post on each.
In the last year it has been wonderful to share a wider variety of events from Windsor, to Thanksgiving, Mud Runs to James' wedding and the Coronation, showing the breadth of roles we take on.
Jon and Beth's decision to make WhatsApp groups for each event has also helped hugely. Not only with communication the day of an event but also in the photo sharing. All of our posts do better when we share what we are doing.
As always we want to keep our presence relevant and interesting; this is only possible by everyone helping to guide and support it. Thank you to those who do already support by sharing, liking, retweeting and even sending photos and videos when you are out and about being KSWP. Please keep this up.
Please continue to support our social media either by messaging the channels or emailing: media@kswp.org.uk
The following sections contain the break down of the analytics for all three social media platforms (X, Facebook and Instagram) for the period of April 2023 to March 2024.
X (formerly known as Twitter)
| Period | 2023/2024 Post Count | Impressions (Overall Total) | Followers/Gain |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 Figures | - | 29.6k impressions 2.4k average p/q |
1125 (+83) |
| Apr - Jun 2023 | 7 | 8202 | +31 |
| Jul - Sept 2022 | 2 | 3113 | -4 |
| Oct - Dec 2022 | 0 | 335 | 0 |
| Jan - Mar 2023 | 1 | 983 | 0 |
| 2023-2024 Totals | 10 | 12.6k impressions 789.5 average p/q |
1156 (+31) |
Top Tweets 2023-2024
| Tweet | Impressions | Engagements | Retweets / Likes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Safe travels and wishing many wonderful adventures to all of our KSWP members who are off to the World Scout Jamboree in South Korea. Members of KSWP are heading out as IST and Unit Leaders. #WSJ2023 #Drawyourdream #ukcontingent | 2355 | 169 | 1 / 39 |
| We are excited to announce that as of 6th May 2023 we will no longer be known as the Queen's Scout Working Party. We're changing our name to the King's Scout Working Party! We've got a new look which we'll be sharing over the coming weeks. #QSWP #KSWP #KingCharlesIII @scouts | 1782 | 130 | 2 / 32 |
| Our final duties as #QSWP have been supporting behind the scenes at Coronation Camp at Gilwell Park. The camp is hosting scouts from across the UK involved in the Coronation of #KingCharlesIII #qswp #kswp | 1633 | 195 | 2 / 37 |
| As part of the celebrations for his His Majesty's Coronation we've rebranded. We're still the same working party & same aims. Our Green & Gold necker's remain our defining feature with our new KSWP brand & crown. Our working clothing remains red and has a rebranded "splat". | 1109 | 118 | 5 / 29 |
| Date | Posts | Likes | Increase | Followers | Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 - 2016 | 19 | 195 | - | - | - |
| 2016 - 2017 | 7 | 248 | +53 | - | - |
| 2017 - 2018 | 9 | 284 | +36 | - | - |
| 2018 - 2019 | 23 | 345 | +61 | - | - |
| 2019 - 2020 | 14 | 411 | +66 | - | - |
| 2020 - 2021 | 21 | 480 | +69 | - | - |
| 2021 - 2022 | 23 | 519 | +39 | - | - |
| 2022 - 2023 | 31 | 607 | +88 | 663 | - |
| 2023 - 2024 | 15 | 854 | +247 | 930 | +267 |
| Total to 09/04/2024 | 854 | 930 | |||
Top Facebook Posts 2023-2024
| Post | Impressions | Reach | Engagement |
|---|---|---|---|
|
06/05/2023 As part of the celebrations for His Majesty's Coronation we would like to introduce you to our new name and look. |
3.6k | 3122 | 1124 |
|
05/05/2023 Did you know? The QSWP was formed in 1944 to provide the Scout Association with a dedicated group of volunteers from across the country to support the running of major high profile national events. |
1.4k | 1251 | 402 |
|
30/04/2023 Last Sunday QSWP were on duty at the National Day of Celebration at Windsor Castle. Always a special event to be a part of as all members remember their own special day. | 838 | 743 | 446 |
|
11/11/2023 #LestWeForgetSince the earliest days of scouting Scouts have helped their communities in times of turmoil. |
842 | 704 | 84 |
| Date | Posts | Followers | Increase |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 - 2020 | 22 | 161 | - |
| 2020 - 2021 | 26 | 191 | +30 |
| 2021 - 2022 | 16 | 229 | +38 |
| 2022 - 2023 | 19 | 291 | +62 |
| 2023 - 2024 | 12 | 377 | +86 |
| Total to 09/04/2024 | 377 | ||
Top Instagram Posts 2023-2024
| Date | Post | Likes | Comments | Impressions | Reach |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12/11/2023 | An honour as always to support @royalbritishlegion in marking Remembrance on behalf of the nation. | 77 | 1 | 349 | 270 |
| 24/02/2024 | We were honoured to be asked to support the National Service of Thanksgiving at @westminsterabbeylondon yesterday. The team did everything from queue management and greeting to supporting accessibility and even hosting some of the @scouts guests. | 67 | 1 | 358 | 309 |
| 06/05/2023 | As part of the celebrations for his His Majesty's Coronation we would like to introduce you to our new name and look. | 60 | 0 | 260 | 356 |
| 30/04/2024 | Last Sunday QSWP were on duty at the National Day of Celebration at Windsor Castle. Always a special event to be a part of as all members remember their own special day. | 49 | 0 | 439 | 362 |
Social Report (Hayley Butterworth)
Back in February we got together, this time in York at Snowball Plantation, for our Annual Weekend Away. With 26 members attending, it was fantastic to see so many new members join us as well as long-serving members returning for what was an excellent weekend.
After we all caught the bus into York in true school-trip style with Mr Baker counting us on, we were given our own guided tour of the National Railway Museum by our very own Chris McCandness-Stone, who was so knowledgeable that I'm sure we had some sneaky additions to the tour group from the public. This was followed by another walking tour after lunch, this time around the City Walls, ensuring the City's ale went through KSWP-quality-control en route.
In the evening we had as much Chinese food as you could eat (including some for breakfast), expertly prepared by Nicola and Beth; a lovely theme as Weekend Away coincided with Lunar New Year. Despite being stuffed, we still managed to celebrate the new year in the proper KSWP way...
With only a few sore heads in the morning, what better way to recover than tackling some Who Dun It crime puzzles! Unfortunately only one out of 3 crimes were solved, but we gave it our best effort and hope the undetected Crims wont strike again before next Weekend Away...
Weekend Away 2025 is likely to be in February again, but before the year is out we'll be celebrating our 80th Anniversary with a black tie dinner in Birmingham on 12th October.
So here's my plea: if you want to come to our 80th Anniversary at the Malmaison in Birmingham where we'll be getting our gladrags on and celebrating in style like we do best, please register on the Portal and pay for your place as soon as possible. It's set to be a great evening to mark our 80th year of supporting events for the movement. We need to make payment to the Malmaison as soon as possible to confirm our booking so please don't delay in signing up. Hope to see you there!
As always, please get in touch for any additional social events you think you could help arrange or offer; it's a while since we've been powerboating, tobogganing and crazy golfing our way around the UK. Any ideas, please do email/message/send a carrier pigeon and we can make a plan!