Atlas›Domain XV · Nature, philosophy, social & rites of passage›Guide 060
Guide XV-060

Scouting and guiding

Robert Baden-Powell, Agnes Baden-Powell, Juliette Gordon Low1907United Kingdom
A 30 · L 57 · M 1320 interventions in the Trinity explorer
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[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: the Scout Method as adopted by the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) at the 41st World Scout Conference (2017) and the WOSM Safe from Harm World Policy (Resolution 2017-5, with the 2021 constitutional safeguarding requirement); national safeguarding codes as published by The Scout Association (UK) Yellow Card, version 8, and Scouting America's Barriers to Abuse and Safeguarding Youth training as a local council publishes them; guiding as the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) publishes its history.

Scouting and guiding are non-formal youth education movements, not psychotherapies. WOSM describes the Scout Method as "a system of progressive self-education" whose purpose is to educate young people through a values system based on a Promise and Law, so that they are fulfilled as individuals and contribute constructively to society [source: WOSM GPS, Section Methods]. Robert Baden-Powell ran a first Scout camp in the UK in 1907 and published Scouting for Boys in 1908; girls at a Scout rally at Crystal Palace in 1909 declared themselves Girl Scouts, and Baden-Powell and his sister Agnes formally founded the Girl Guides in 1910; Juliette Gordon Low founded Girl Scouting in the USA in 1912; WAGGGS was formed in Hungary in 1928 [source: WAGGGS, Our history]. WAGGGS reports associations in 150 countries [source: WAGGGS]. The Boy Scouts of America is now called Scouting America [source: Business Insurance 2026]; the date of the change [uncertain: not verified].

The movement's own account of how change happens: young people grow through practical action followed by reflection (learning by doing), in small self-governing teams, with a personal commitment to shared values, adult support in a partnership culture, symbolic framework, time in nature and community involvement, each step a progressive challenge [source: WOSM GPS]. Baden-Powell called the scheme "an educative GAME" (1933, as quoted by WOSM) [source: WOSM GPS].

What the psychotherapist does: the therapist rarely delivers scouting. The work is (a) exploring a client's own formative experience of scouting or guiding, good and bad; (b) assessing a child's fit and difficulties within a unit and consulting with parents and, with consent, leaders; (c) preparing and debriefing a young person for camps, expeditions and events; (d) recognising when a setting's ethos is delaying an assessment of learning, developmental or mental-health needs; (e) safeguarding, using the movement's own codes as a benchmark; and (f) treating and accompanying adult survivors of abuse in scouting, including through the US bankruptcy claims process and UK civil claims. Documented institutional harm is set out in the Harm account below [synthesis].

Evidence status (one line): in the 1958 British birth cohort (n = 9,603), childhood Scouts or Guides participation was associated with better mental health at age 50 and with an absent social-class gradient in mental health; the authors say such programme features "may be protective", and the design is observational [source: Dibben, Playford and Mitchell 2017].

2. Framework

Scouting has no therapeutic phases or session count; no source gives one, and none is given here [source: WOSM GPS; synthesis].

The movement's own structure [source: WOSM GPS; WOSM Safe from Harm World Policy]:

  • Age range: WOSM's Safe from Harm policy covers young people aged 5 to 26. National organisations divide this into age sections, each with its own section method; the names and age bands of sections vary by country [uncertain: national section names not verified].
  • Youth Programme development: WOSM's Global Programme Support process runs through Preparing the Journey, Reviewing the Youth Programme, Designing it, Implementing it and Evaluating it; local activity follows a plan-do-review rhythm.
  • Values: a Promise and Law (originally Baden-Powell's, 1908), made voluntarily, adapted in simpler wording for younger sections.
  • Eight Scout Method elements (2017): Promise and Law; learning by doing; personal progression; team system; adult support; symbolic framework; nature; community involvement. WOSM treats them as interacting and equally important.
  • Safeguarding frame: since 2021, WOSM's constitution requires every member organisation to implement safety policies and procedures; national bodies run mandatory adult training (WOSM's courses are SFH 1, SFH 2 and SFH 3, the last on online safety for young people) and a 22-criterion self-assessment [source: WOSM Safe from Harm page].

The therapist's working sequence (not from any scouting source) [synthesis]:

  1. Engage and assess: why scouting or guiding is in the room (a child joining, struggling or leaving; a parent's worry; an adult's memory; a disclosure; a legal claim). Goal: a shared formulation of what the movement means for this client.
  2. Prepare: for joining, a first camp, an expedition, a leadership role, a disclosure or a claim. Move on when the client and family have a plan and know the safeguarding route.
  3. Participate and consult: the client takes part; with written consent, the therapist liaises with the group's leader or designated safeguarding person about reasonable adjustments. Move on when adjustments are agreed or the family decides to leave.
  4. Debrief and integrate: process events, achievements, conflicts and endings using the movement's own reflect-on-action habit.
  5. Safeguarding runs through every stage and overrides the sequence: any indication of harm moves straight to the reporting steps in section 4.

Format: individual, family and parent sessions; consultation calls or meetings with leaders only with consent; no source gives session numbers [synthesis].

3. Guiding principles

From the movement's own documents:

  • Voluntary commitment (Promise and Law) [source: WOSM GPS]: a young person's promise is theirs to make; in therapy, never use the Promise as leverage to make a child comply.
  • Learning by doing, with reflection [source: WOSM GPS]: change is expected from action plus review; mirror this with brief, concrete debriefs after activities.
  • Personal progression [source: WOSM GPS]: challenge is graded to each member; support the child's own next step rather than a peer comparison.
  • Team system [source: WOSM GPS]: belonging and responsibility come from small teams; the patrol or six is often where a child's social difficulty shows first.
  • Adult support in partnership [source: WOSM GPS]: adults facilitate rather than command; a unit where adults dominate or humiliate is outside the method.
  • Child-centred safeguarding: the needs of young people come first in every decision [source: WOSM Safe from Harm World Policy].
  • Shared responsibility: everyone in scouting shares responsibility for protection, including outside scouting activities [source: WOSM Safe from Harm World Policy].
  • Welfare overrides confidentiality, and no one may promise secrecy about harm [source: WOSM Safe from Harm World Policy]: the same limit applies to the therapist; say so before any disclosure.
  • Plan never to be alone with a young person, in person or online; keep sleeping arrangements for adults and young people separate [source: Scouts UK Yellow Card]; no one-on-one adult–youth contact, including texting and private messages [source: Scouting America council page]. Practical meaning: these rules are a benchmark for spotting grooming risk in what a client describes.
  • No bullying, initiations, dares, forfeits or hazing [source: Scouts UK Yellow Card; Scouting America council page]. Hazing belongs to Domain XVI; cross-refer, do not describe.

The therapist's own stance [synthesis]:

  • The movement's ethos is not an assessment: a leader's view that a child "just needs to toughen up" never replaces a developmental or mental-health assessment.
  • The client's experience is the author: scouting may hold the client's best childhood memories, their worst, or both; do not assume either.
  • Competence and dual roles: a therapist who is also a volunteer leader keeps the roles separate (APA Ethics Code Standard 3.05, multiple relationships; see Sources) and follows the organisation's own training and vetting.
  • Consent and assent: parents consent for younger children; seek the child's assent to any contact with leaders; tell the child what will and will not be shared.
  • Outdoor and water activities: weather, terrain, ticks, allergies, accessibility and water risks are handled qualitatively and routed to the group's risk assessment and national guidance (for water, RNLI, Swim England or national lifesaving bodies; cross-refer Domain X 196). No exercise, exposure or immersion parameters here.
  • Values conflicts: some Promises include a duty to God or a faith; where a client's distress centres on faith, the DSM-5-TR Religious or Spiritual Problem may apply, coded Z65.8 (ICD-10-CM Z65.8 "Other specified problems related to psychosocial circumstances", which lists religious or spiritual problem under Includes) [source: ICD-10-CM Z65.8 (Unbound Medicine)]; DSM-5-TR wording [uncertain: not verified]. Use the Cultural Formulation Interview and its supplementary module on spirituality, religion and moral traditions.

4. Intervention inventory

The movement's sources describe a youth programme and safeguarding procedures, not clinical interventions. The therapist-side procedures below are built on those sources and are marked [synthesis] where the clinical steps are this guide's own. Risks linked to the Harm account are flagged where they arise.

4.1 Formative-experience history

  • Purpose: map what scouting or guiding meant in an adult's or young person's development (belonging, competence, values, leadership, or exclusion and harm). Use when the client mentions the movement, or routinely in a developmental history [synthesis].
  • Steps: (1) Ask open questions about age at joining, section, unit, leaders, camps and why they left. (2) Use the eight Scout Method elements as a prompt list: promises made, things learned by doing, badges or progression, the patrol or team, adults, symbols and ceremonies, nature, service [source: WOSM GPS]. (3) Ask separately about adults who made them feel safe and any who did not. (4) Note values that still guide them and any they reject. (5) Do not press for detail of abuse in a first history; note it, check current safety and plan a later trauma assessment (4.15).
  • Example language (illustrative): "What did Scouts or Guides give you, and was there anything about it that was hard or that you'd rather not have happened?"
  • Watch for: abrupt topic changes, a sudden end to membership, a single leader described as "special" (grooming benchmark: section 3). Working: the client can name both resources and injuries from that time.

4.2 Assessing a child's fit within a unit

  • Purpose: understand whether a child's difficulties at Cubs, Brownies, Scouts or Guides reflect temperament, anxiety, neurodivergence, a mismatch with the unit's culture, bullying or safeguarding issues [synthesis].
  • Steps: (1) Gather the child's own account first, then the parents'. (2) Ask where in the meeting things go wrong: games, team tasks, ceremonies, noise, transitions, camp. (3) Map against the team system and adult-support elements: is the child excluded within the patrol, or are adults absent or harsh? [source: WOSM GPS]. (4) Screen for bullying, initiations, dares or forfeits, which national codes prohibit [source: Scouts UK Yellow Card]. (5) Decide: adjust within the unit, try a different unit or section, take a break, or assess further (4.12).
  • Example language (illustrative): "Tell me about the part of the evening you'd most like to skip, and the part you'd miss if you stopped going."
  • Watch for: the child reluctant to attend one particular activity or one adult's sessions (consider safeguarding before behaviour). Working: the child and parents agree on a specific, small change to try.

4.3 Parent consultation on choosing or joining a group

  • Purpose: help parents make an informed choice and know the safeguarding arrangements before a child joins [synthesis].
  • Steps: (1) Explore the parents' hopes (confidence, friends, outdoor skills, values) and the child's own wish. (2) Suggest questions the published codes make reasonable to ask: whether all adults are vetted and trained, how ratios and overnight sleeping are arranged, how leaders communicate with young people online, and who the safeguarding contact is [source: Scouts UK Yellow Card; Scouting America council page; WOSM Safe from Harm World Policy]. (3) Discuss what the child will be told about personal safety; Scouting America uses handbook material, a Cub "Protect Yourself Rules" adventure and Personal Safety Awareness videos [source: Scouting America council page]. (4) Agree how the parents will check in with the child after meetings.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Good groups expect parents to ask how they keep children safe. You could ask who their safeguarding contact is and how leaders message the young people."
  • Watch for: a group that is defensive about such questions or has no named safeguarding route [synthesis]. Working: parents can name the reporting route and the child's trusted adults.

4.4 Liaison with leaders about reasonable adjustments

  • Purpose: with consent, help a unit include a child with anxiety, autism, ADHD, physical disability or a mental-health condition. WOSM lists lack of support for diverse or special needs among practices that can expose young people to abuse, so inclusion is also a safeguarding matter [source: WOSM Safe from Harm World Policy].
  • Steps: (1) Obtain written parental consent and the child's assent, specifying what will be shared. (2) Share needs, not diagnoses, unless the family wishes otherwise. (3) Suggest concrete adjustments: advance programme, a quiet base, a buddy, a defined role in the team, visual schedules, flexible uniform or ceremony participation [synthesis]. (4) Ask how medical information is stored; WOSM expects confidential storage [source: WOSM Safe from Harm World Policy]. (5) Agree a review point.
  • Example language (illustrative, to a leader): "He does best when he knows the plan in advance and has one job in the patrol. Could you send the evening's programme the day before?"
  • Watch for: leaders being asked to act as therapists, or a leader seeking private one-to-one contact "to help" the child; redirect to the code (section 3). Working: the child attends more readily and leaders report fewer flashpoints.

4.5 Using personal progression as behavioural activation

  • Purpose: for a depressed, withdrawn or low-confidence young person already in a unit, use badges, awards and challenges as graded mastery activities (behavioural-activation framing; cross-refer Domain II 040) [synthesis; personal progression from WOSM GPS].
  • Steps: (1) Let the young person pick a badge or challenge that interests them. (2) Break it into small steps they choose. (3) Schedule the next step between sessions. (4) Review mood and sense of achievement after each step. (5) Keep the target the young person's own; do not set physical targets: for any exertion-based challenge, the young person's physician or a qualified exercise professional and the unit's own guidance decide what is appropriate.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Which part of that badge feels doable this week? Let's notice how you feel before and after."
  • Watch for: perfectionism, comparison with peers, or the badge becoming a parent's goal. Working: the young person initiates the next step without prompting.

4.6 Preparing for the team system

  • Purpose: help a socially anxious or excluded child cope with patrol or six life and with a leadership role (patrol leader, sixer) [synthesis; team system from WOSM GPS].
  • Steps: (1) Identify the specific team situations that are hard (choosing partners, being given orders, giving orders, losing a competition). (2) Rehearse one situation in session through role play. (3) Plan one small attempt at the next meeting. (4) For a new leadership role, discuss fair turn-taking and what to do if a peer refuses or bullies, including telling an adult. (5) Debrief (4.8).
  • Example language (illustrative): "Let's practise what you'd say if someone in your patrol keeps ignoring your turn."
  • Watch for: a young leader being given power to punish peers or run initiations; national codes prohibit initiations, dares and forfeits (hazing: Domain XVI) [source: Scouts UK Yellow Card]. Working: the child reports one successful exchange.

4.7 Preparing for camps, sleepovers and expeditions

  • Purpose: reduce separation anxiety, homesickness and worries about toileting, bedwetting, eating, sleeping, medication and privacy before a first overnight [synthesis].
  • Steps: (1) List the child's specific fears. (2) With parents, check practical arrangements with leaders: sleeping arrangements (adults and young people separate under the codes), privacy, medication storage and administration, dietary needs and a discreet plan for bedwetting [source: Scouts UK Yellow Card; WOSM Safe from Harm World Policy; synthesis]. (3) Build a graded approach: a day visit, a local sleepover, then camp. (4) Agree a coping plan (who to tell, a comfort object, a call-home arrangement that suits the unit's rules). (5) Discuss weather, terrain, ticks and allergies qualitatively and confirm the unit has a risk assessment; WOSM expects risk assessment for all activities [source: WOSM Safe from Harm World Policy]. For water activities, route to the unit's guidance and national water-safety bodies (cross-refer Domain X 196).
  • Example language (illustrative): "What's the worry that comes at bedtime when you imagine camp? Let's plan what you'd do with it."
  • Watch for: any arrangement in which an adult who is not a parent sleeps in a child's tent or has unobserved one-to-one access; this breaches published barriers [source: Scouting America council page] and is a Harm-account red flag. Working: the child goes, or chooses not to with a plan for next time and without shame.

4.8 Debriefing after activities (plan-do-review)

  • Purpose: consolidate learning and process difficult moments after meetings, camps or expeditions, mirroring the movement's learning-by-doing with reflection [source: WOSM GPS; clinical use synthesis].
  • Steps: (1) Ask what happened, in sequence. (2) Ask what the child felt and did at the key moments. (3) Ask what went well and what they learned about themselves. (4) Ask what they would do differently. (5) Scan for anything that frightened or upset them involving an adult or older young person.
  • Example language (illustrative): "What's one thing you did at camp that you didn't think you could do? And was there anything that didn't feel right?"
  • Watch for: new secrecy, gifts, special privileges or private messages from an adult; refusal to return. Working: the child can tell a coherent story of the event, including what was hard.

4.9 Working with the Promise and Law

  • Purpose: explore values, belonging and conflict when a young person or adult struggles with a promise, for example a faith-based promise, a national allegiance clause, or a changed belief [synthesis; Promise and Law as voluntary personal commitment from WOSM GPS].
  • Steps: (1) Ask what the promise means to the client in their own words. (2) Use the Cultural Formulation Interview and its spirituality, religion and moral traditions module if faith or culture is central. (3) Separate family expectations from the client's own wishes. (4) Check what alternative promise wordings the national organisation offers [uncertain: national wording options not verified]. (5) If distress centres on faith or loss of faith, consider Z65.8 (section 3).
  • Example language (illustrative): "When you said the promise, what did you feel you were signing up to? Does that still fit who you are?"
  • Watch for: the promise being used by an adult to demand silence or obedience; WOSM's policy forbids promising secrecy about harm [source: WOSM Safe from Harm World Policy]. Working: the client reaches a position on the promise that they own.

4.10 Identity, gender and inclusion

  • Purpose: support LGBTQ+, gender-diverse, disabled, minority-faith or low-income young people, and adults who were excluded under past membership rules, in deciding how and whether to take part [synthesis].
  • Steps: (1) Ask about the specific organisation's current membership and inclusion policies rather than assuming; policies differ by country and organisation and have changed over time [uncertain: specific policies and dates not verified]. (2) Explore the young person's experience of being out or not in the unit. (3) Plan practical issues (camp sleeping, toilets, uniform, cost) with the family and, with consent, the unit's safeguarding lead. (4) For adults excluded in the past, work with the meaning of that exclusion.
  • Example language (illustrative): "What would you need to know about how this group treats people like you before you decide to go back?"
  • Watch for: rejection or bullying framed as "tradition"; WOSM lists misuse of traditions and disregard for co-educational practice among practices that expose young people to abuse [source: WOSM Safe from Harm World Policy]. Working: the young person makes an informed choice.

4.11 Screening for bullying, initiations and grooming signs

  • Purpose: use the published adult codes as a checklist when a young person's account raises concern [source: Scouts UK Yellow Card; Scouting America council page; screening use synthesis].
  • Steps: (1) Ask neutral questions about what happens at meetings, camps and online. (2) Listen for breaches of published barriers: an adult regularly alone with a young person; private messages, texts or social-media contact from an adult with no other adult copied in; an adult sharing a tent with a child who is not their own; alcohol on activities; physical-contact games led by adults; initiations, dares or forfeits; an adult cultivating friendship or a personal relationship with a young person. (3) Do not interrogate or try to verify; note the young person's exact words. (4) If concern remains, move to 4.13.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Do any of the leaders message you directly? What kinds of things do they say?"
  • Watch for: the young person minimising, or saying they were told to keep something secret. Working: the young person continues to talk openly and knows they can tell you more later.

4.12 Assessment and referral when the setting's ethos delays it

  • Purpose: make sure a child's learning, developmental or mental-health needs are assessed when leaders or parents interpret them through the movement's ethos ("needs more discipline", "needs fresh air", "will grow out of it") [synthesis].
  • Steps: (1) Gather observations from home, school and, with consent, the unit. (2) Screen for anxiety, mood disorder, neurodevelopmental conditions, learning difficulties and trauma. (3) Refer for specialist assessment where indicated (paediatrics, child and adolescent mental health services, educational psychology). (4) Explain to parents that scouting can be a valuable support alongside assessment, not instead of it. (5) Share relevant outcomes with the unit only with consent.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Scouts can be a great part of the plan, but what you're describing deserves a proper assessment so we know what will actually help."
  • Watch for: a family relieved to avoid a diagnosis; validate, then return to the child's needs. Working: the referral is made and the unit adjusts to the findings.

4.13 Responding to a disclosure in therapy

  • Purpose: act safely when a young person discloses, or the therapist suspects, abuse by a leader, volunteer or older member [source: Scouts UK Yellow Card; Scouting America council page; WOSM Safe from Harm World Policy; therapist duties synthesis].
  • Steps: (1) Before any disclosure, explain the limits of confidentiality; WOSM's policy says welfare overrides confidentiality and no one may promise secrecy about harm. (2) Let the young person speak without interruption, accept what they say, reassure them, and say the information must be passed on; avoid leading questions and do not try to verify [source: Scouts UK Yellow Card]. (3) Write notes in the young person's exact words. (4) If a child is at immediate risk, call emergency services (999 or 112 in the UK; 911 in the US) [source: Scouts UK Yellow Card; Scouting America council page]. (5) Follow your own statutory and professional reporting duties first: child protection services, police and, in England, the local authority designated officer where an adult in a position of trust is involved [synthesis; LADO named in Scouts UK Yellow Card]. (6) The organisation also needs to know so it can act: in the UK, the Scouts Safeguarding Team (online form or the phone line on the Yellow Card) [source: Scouts UK Yellow Card]; in the US, Scouting America requires leaders to report to law enforcement and runs the Scouts First Helpline, 1-844-726-8871 [source: Scouting America council page]; for guiding, use the national guiding organisation's published route [uncertain: Girlguiding and Girl Scouts of the USA procedures not verified]. The NSPCC helpline is 0808 800 5000 [source: Scouts UK Yellow Card]. (7) Make sure scouting activities will not add to the child's risk pending inquiries [source: Scouts UK Yellow Card]. (8) Document what you did and when.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Thank you for telling me. You've done the right thing. I can't keep this just between us, because my job is to help keep you safe; let me tell you what happens next."
  • Watch for: the young person retracting under pressure; a parent or leader wanting to handle it informally; your own reluctance because the leader is well regarded (the Yellow Card warns against relying on reputation). Working: the report is made, the young person is safe, and therapy continues.

4.14 Therapist as volunteer leader or adviser

  • Purpose: manage dual roles when a therapist volunteers in scouting or guiding, or is asked by a group for advice [synthesis].
  • Steps: (1) Complete the organisation's vetting and safeguarding training like any adult (WOSM requires training at induction; Scouting America requires annual Safeguarding Youth training) [source: WOSM Safe from Harm World Policy; Scouting America council page]. (2) Do not take into therapy young people or families from your own unit; refer elsewhere (APA Ethics Code Standard 3.05). (3) In the unit, act as a volunteer, not a clinician; do not assess or treat members informally. (4) If you give the group general training or advice, agree its scope in writing and check your professional insurance covers it [synthesis]. (5) Report safeguarding concerns through the organisation's route as well as your professional one.
  • Example language (illustrative, to a parent at the unit): "I'm here as a leader, not as a therapist, but I can give you names of services that could help."
  • Watch for: role drift, confidential information from one role leaking into the other. Working: clear boundaries are kept and documented.

4.15 Trauma assessment with adult survivors of abuse in scouting

  • Purpose: assess and plan treatment for adults abused as children within scouting [synthesis; context from Harm account sources].
  • Steps: (1) Assess current safety, suicidality and self-harm using standard risk-assessment practice. (2) Assess trauma-related symptoms, shame, delayed disclosure, relationships with authority and institutions, and the effect of public coverage or litigation. (3) Ask about current contact with children in the client's own life and whether a known abuser may still have access to children; that can trigger reporting duties [synthesis]. (4) Offer or refer to a trauma-focused, evidence-based therapy. (5) Give crisis resources: 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (US); Samaritans 116 123 (UK and Ireland).
  • Example language (illustrative): "You don't have to tell me the details today. What matters first is how it is affecting you now."
  • Watch for: self-blame because the client "kept going back" or loved the activity; explain that abusers in trusted roles exploit exactly that [synthesis]. Working: the client consents to a treatment plan and stabilises.

4.16 Accompanying a client through claims, litigation or public coverage

  • Purpose: support a survivor who is considering or pursuing a claim (for example under the Scouting America bankruptcy settlement trust, or a UK civil claim), or who is distressed by news coverage [synthesis; claims context from Harm account sources].
  • Steps: (1) Do not give legal advice; refer to a qualified lawyer for deadlines, eligibility and options. (2) Help the client decide what they want from a claim (acknowledgement, compensation, protecting others). (3) Prepare for re-telling: plan pacing, grounding and aftercare around questionnaires, interviews or testimony. (4) With consent, write only factual clinical reports; be clear about the limits of your role. (5) Process outcomes, including disappointment with amounts, delays or court rulings, such as the US appeals that left the settlement standing (Harm account).
  • Example language (illustrative): "Let's plan what you'll do the evening after the interview, before we talk about the interview itself."
  • Watch for: claim aggregators or pressure to file quickly; NBC reported plan opponents' concerns about a nationwide marketing effort by personal-injury lawyers working with for-profit claims aggregators [source: NBC 2023]. Working: the client feels in charge of the process.

4.17 Leaving, exclusion and endings

  • Purpose: help a child or adult with grief, shame or anger after leaving a group, being excluded, or a unit closing [synthesis].
  • Steps: (1) Name what was lost: friends, identity, uniform, ceremonies, progress. (2) Separate the client's own decision from pressures. (3) Plan a fitting ending (a goodbye, keeping badges, keeping in touch with peers, if safe). (4) Find substitute sources of belonging and competence if the client wants them.
  • Example language (illustrative): "It's OK to be relieved and sad at the same time about leaving."
  • Watch for: a sudden unexplained wish to leave (screen per 4.11). Working: the client speaks of the experience without collapse or avoidance.

4.18 Supporting adult volunteers and leaders

  • Purpose: help adult clients who volunteer as leaders with stress, burnout, conflicts with parents or other leaders, and the weight of safeguarding responsibility [synthesis].
  • Steps: (1) Map the role's demands against time and other duties. (2) Rehearse boundary-setting with parents and the organisation. (3) Support reporting a concern about a fellow volunteer; the Yellow Card asks adults to step back from a concern where they have a personal or family connection, and to tell the Safeguarding Team about it [source: Scouts UK Yellow Card]. (4) Review the role if it harms the client's wellbeing.
  • Example language (illustrative): "What would you need to hand over so this stays something you can give without running on empty?"
  • Watch for: guilt about reporting a friend; the leader carrying a secret about another adult. Working: the client acts on concerns and keeps a sustainable role.

4.19 Working with nature and outdoor elements in therapy

  • Purpose: draw on a young person's scouting skills and love of the outdoors as resources in therapy (memories of mastery, calming places, skills) without delivering outdoor activities beyond the therapist's competence [synthesis; nature element from WOSM GPS].
  • Steps: (1) Ask what outdoor skills and places the client values. (2) Use them as resources: a remembered camp as a calming image, a skill as evidence of competence. (3) If therapy moves outdoors, address confidentiality, being seen, weather plans and accessibility, and keep within your training and insurance; outdoor therapy and wilderness programmes are covered in their own Domain XV guides.
  • Example language (illustrative): "When you think of putting up the tent with your patrol, what do you notice in your body?"
  • Watch for: outdoor memories tied to harm; proceed only with the client's agreement. Working: the client can access the resource when distressed.

4.20 Community involvement as connection

  • Purpose: use the movement's service element to build social connection and purpose for isolated young people or adults [source: WOSM GPS for community involvement; clinical use synthesis].
  • Steps: (1) Identify a service project the client values. (2) Plan the first step and who they will do it with. (3) Review the effect on mood and connection. (4) Watch for over-commitment.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Which of those projects would you feel proud to tell someone about?"
  • Watch for: service used to avoid problems at home. Working: the client makes new relationships through the activity.

5. Handling problems

The scouting sources do not address therapy problems; all guidance below is [synthesis] unless a source is named.

  • Child refuses to attend but parents insist: explore what the child is avoiding before treating it as anxiety to push through; screen per 4.11. If no safeguarding concern, negotiate a time-limited trial with a specific adjustment, and accept a break as a legitimate outcome.
  • Parents want scouting to replace treatment ("fresh air and discipline will sort him out"): acknowledge the movement's strengths, then use 4.12; keep assessment and participation side by side.
  • Leaders are unresponsive to adjustments: ask the family to raise it with the group's more senior volunteers or the national organisation's support line; consider a different unit. Do not argue the child's case beyond what consent allows.
  • Leader asks the therapist for confidential details: share only what consent covers; offer general strategies instead.
  • Overwhelm when a survivor recalls abuse: slow down, ground, shift to present-day safety and coping; resume trauma work only with a stabilisation plan (4.15). Crisis lines: 988 (US); Samaritans 116 123 (UK and Ireland).
  • News coverage or court rulings re-trigger survivors: plan ahead for known dates (rulings, trust deadlines), limit exposure if the client wishes, and process anger at institutions without dismissing the client's mixed feelings about the movement.
  • Rupture when the therapist must report: name the rupture, restate the reason (welfare overrides confidentiality [source: WOSM Safe from Harm World Policy]), involve the young person in what happens next as far as possible, and keep sessions going.
  • Ambivalent survivors who still love scouting: hold both; the movement's positive associations [source: Dibben et al. 2017] and its documented failures (Harm account) can both be true for one client.
  • Non-adherence with graded steps (4.5, 4.7): shrink the step, check whose goal it is, and check for a hidden stressor at the unit.
  • Therapist is a volunteer and recognises a family: refer on (4.14; APA Ethics Code Standard 3.05).
  • Unclear organisational procedures (e.g. a small or unaffiliated group): use your statutory reporting duties without waiting for the organisation; check whether the group belongs to a WOSM or WAGGGS member organisation, since WOSM members must have safeguarding policies [source: WOSM Safe from Harm page].
  • Outdoor, water or camp injuries and medical incidents: route questions about risk to the organisation's risk assessment and national guidance; do not give safety parameters; for water, cross-refer Domain X 196.

Harm account

The sources below are court records as reported by major news organisations, and BBC investigative data as reported by Third Sector. No victims, minors or accused private persons are named here.

What was actually done

  • Confidential "ineligible volunteer" or "perversion" files (US): the Boy Scouts of America kept files on volunteers removed over abuse allegations. After a 2010 Oregon trial over the abuse of six boys in a Portland troop, which produced an $18.5 million punitive judgment (NPR elsewhere cites $18 million; reported figures differ), the Oregon Supreme Court ordered more than 1,200 files, covering the 1960s through 1985, made public in 2012 [source: NPR 2012].
  • What the files showed, as NPR summarised: the Los Angeles Times reported that the Scouts "failed to report hundreds of alleged child molesters to police"; some removed volunteers rejoined other troops and were later removed again; in one case a volunteer was allowed back after counselling, a later allegation involving two boys was not referred to authorities, and parents were not told of the earlier allegations; in another, a volunteer removed in 1983 joined a troop in another state in 1987 and resigned in 1988 after new allegations [source: NPR 2012].
  • The BSA's national president apologised for cases where the response was "plainly insufficient, inappropriate, or wrong", while defending the file system; the organisation said police were involved in 63% of the released files [source: NPR 2012].
  • Bankruptcy and settlement (US): the BSA sought bankruptcy protection in February 2020, having been named in about 275 lawsuits and having told insurers of about 1,400 other claims; more than 80,000 men then filed claims alleging abuse as children by troop leaders [source: NBC 2023]. Business Insurance reports the filing followed state laws allowing decades-old abuse claims [source: Business Insurance 2026]. US Bankruptcy Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein approved the reorganisation plan in a September decision [source: NBC 2023]; the $2.46 billion settlement was reached in 2022 in Delaware bankruptcy court [source: Business Insurance 2026]. US District Judge Richard Andrews upheld the approval in March 2023 [source: NBC 2023]. On 13 May 2025 the Third Circuit upheld the plan and settlement, finding they had "advanced too far to be unwound", in a majority opinion by Judge Cheryl Ann Krause; about 82,000 survivors were covered [source: Bloomberg Law 2025]. In January 2026 the US Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by 75 plaintiffs against the ruling that the deal barred them from suing other organisations partly liable, such as churches and organisations that ran scouting programmes [source: Business Insurance 2026]. Distribution details and per-claim amounts [uncertain: not verified].
  • UK: a BBC File on 4 investigation, reported by Third Sector in June 2023, found The Scout Association had settled 166 cases over ten years and paid more than £6 million in compensation, out of at least 260 claims lodged (50 unsuccessful); the Scouts said 96% of claims related to offences before 2013, mostly between the 1960s and 1990s; one abuse lawyer said the issue "is not a historical one" [source: Third Sector 2023]. A 2021 analysis cited in the same report found more than 250 people convicted in the UK and Ireland of child sexual abuse offences committed in positions of responsibility in scouting [source: Third Sector 2023; original analysis uncertain: not verified]. Whether a UK statutory inquiry made findings about scouting [uncertain: not verified]. Guiding organisations: no comparable documented findings appear in this guide's sources [uncertain: not verified].

How it caused harm

  • Mechanism: sexual abuse of children by adult leaders and volunteers in positions of trust within troops [source: NPR 2012; NBC 2023], enabled by institutional practices: not reporting allegations to police, letting removed volunteers rejoin elsewhere or return after counselling, and not telling parents [source: NPR 2012].
  • Scale: more than 80,000 claimants in the US bankruptcy [source: NBC 2023]; at least 260 UK claims over a decade [source: Third Sector 2023].
  • Psychological sequelae: the sources cited here do not detail them [uncertain: not verified]. Clinically, expect the effects of child sexual abuse by a trusted adult (trauma symptoms, shame, self-blame, difficulty trusting institutions) and long delays before disclosure; the decades between the abuse and claims in both countries are consistent with delayed disclosure [synthesis].
  • Who was most at risk: children whose leaders had unsupervised access to them; children in units where allegations were handled internally; children whose parents were not told of earlier allegations [source: NPR 2012; synthesis].
  • Legal and process harms for survivors: limits on suing other organisations under the plan were contested up to the Supreme Court [source: Business Insurance 2026]; long delays and re-telling during claims [synthesis].

Recognising it today

Current published barriers describe, in reverse, the conditions in which abuse occurred. Red flags in a client's account or a group's practice [source: Scouting America council page; Scouts UK Yellow Card; WOSM Safe from Harm World Policy; framing synthesis]:

  • An adult who is not the child's parent regularly alone with a young person, in person or online, or who sleeps in a child's tent.
  • Private messaging, texting or social-media contact between an adult and a young person with no other authorised adult copied.
  • Adults unvetted or untrained; no named safeguarding lead; no published reporting route.
  • Concerns handled "in house", allegations minimised, or a well-regarded leader protected by reputation; the Yellow Card tells adults not to rely on reputation or position and not to minimise concerns.
  • A volunteer who moved from another group after unexplained departure.
  • Alcohol on activities, physical-contact games led by adults, initiations, dares or forfeits (hazing: Domain XVI).
  • Requests that a young person keep something secret; WOSM's policy says no one may promise secrecy about harm.

Legitimate practice differs: two or more adults present or within sight and hearing, separate sleeping arrangements, communication in group channels, annual or induction safeguarding training, immediate reporting to authorities and to the organisation's safeguarding team, and a culture where young people can raise concerns [source: Scouts UK Yellow Card; Scouting America council page; WOSM Safe from Harm World Policy].

What to do instead and how to help those harmed

  • Safer alternatives: groups that belong to a WOSM or WAGGGS member organisation with published safeguarding codes and training; parents who ask the questions in 4.3 [source: WOSM Safe from Harm page; synthesis]. The Scout Association says its policies are reviewed every other year by the NSPCC after three independent reviews since 2007 [source: Third Sector 2023, an organisation's own statement].
  • Assessment and treatment of affected clients: trauma assessment and evidence-based trauma-focused therapy (4.15); support through claims and coverage (4.16); suicide-risk assessment and crisis resources (988 US; Samaritans 116 123 UK and Ireland).
  • Reporting duties: if a client discloses current risk to any child, or that a known abuser has access to children, follow statutory reporting duties; also inform the organisation (Scouts Safeguarding Team in the UK; Scouts First Helpline 1-844-726-8871 in the US) [source: Scouts UK Yellow Card; Scouting America council page]. The NSPCC helpline is 0808 800 5000 [source: Scouts UK Yellow Card].
  • Legal: refer survivors to qualified lawyers about claims, settlement-trust procedures and deadlines; do not advise on them [synthesis].
  • Ethics: keep notes factual; avoid dual roles (APA Ethics Code Standard 3.05); other ethics points [synthesis].

Sources

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