Nights away or residential events, whether camping, hostelling, sleepovers or bivouacs, form an integral part of scouting, and are something that every young person should have the opportunity to take part in.
There are various resources and directories available to help you plan, train for and carry out residential events, from directories of venues available, through to details of how to gain a nights away permit that will allow you to lead these events.
Before one of our adult volunteers can lead a residential experience; they require a Nights Away permit.
Nights Away Permit Scheme
The Nights Away Permit Scheme is an internal assessment scheme designed to ensure that all those leading nights away events for young people within Scouting have the skills, experience and personal suitability to do so.
> You can find full details of the nights away permit scheme via this link.
Applying for a Nights Away Permit
Whether you believe you have sufficient experience, or have recently completed the required training and begun building experience – you’ll want to be considered for a Nights Away Permit. In the first instance, you would contact your District Nights Away Advisor or District Commissioner to discuss making an application.
Changes to Nights Away Notification Form (April 2023)
Following a review of the Nights Away activity in the early part of this year, and to account for both the inclusion of updated data protection statements and the new branding, we have amended the forms used by members.
The Nights Away Notification form (form NAN) has been rebranded and updated to include Data Protection statements. In addition, changes have been made to the form to provide Commissioners with more detail to approve Nights Away activities. This includes space to list adults attending overnight events and permit holders/activity leaders; as our review identified a need to ensure that Commissioners are informed not just of the numbers of adults attending, but also of the names of those scheduled to take part in nights away events.
We have also withdrawn the Nights Away Information form. This is now combined with the updated Activity Information form (FS120081), since most of the data required on these two documents was largely the same. This new document has also been rebranded and now includes a Data Protection statement. It also provides more guidance on the information to be shared with parents such as supervision arrangements, as our review identified a need to ensure that parents are informed of which adults are attending.
For support with Nights Away, please contact:
Alistair Cubbin (Team Leader for Adventure)
