Riding along on the crest of a wave (From Surrey Comet)

Riding along on the crest of a wave

9:11am Thursday 15th March 2007 in

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After years of being seen as old-fashioned, boring and not relevant for modern children, scouting is on the up again - 100 years after its creation with an overhaul that has made it practically unrecognisable.

Not just bob-a-job and camping anymore, scouting is a youth movement with millions of members across the world. There are more than a 1,000 in the Royal borough alone.

With the centenary jamboree in August bringing it right back into the news, scouting has even found popularity with the Labour Party, which sung the praises of the effect its discipline and structure has on children today.

Scouting has achieved something remarkable in the past five years. It has reinvented itself as a modern, relevant organisation for today's children, appealing to their interest in technology and the like, but maintaining the backbone of core values that have not changed since Baden-Powell's day.

“Especially in an area such as ours, where families have large mortgages and fathers are always looking over their shoulders for the boss or bank manager, there is no time for volunteering."

John Eggitt, Kingston District Scouting

With British children at the foot of a recent table compiled by Unicef for child well-being, there is certainly something to be said for re-emphasising the so-called old fashioned values of discipline, independence and a desire to do one's best.

Research carried out last year by the Institute for Public Policy Research, Labour's favourite think-tank, found former scouts are more likely to be in a good relationship, have good qualifications and earn a decent income.

John Eggitt, press officer for Kingston District Scouting, said: "It is finally beginning to dawn on the Government that this country needs the self-discipline that disappeared with the end of National Service in 1963. Scouting is one way of re-capturing that."

To attract hordes of boys more interested in girls and gadgets than camp songs and woggles, scouting has been pretty clever and incorporated both in the movement.

There are now scouting badges for aeronautics, advanced aviation skills (I kid you not), interpreting and global conservation.

Moreover, new uniforms for scouts were unveiled in 2001, the first change in 34 years.

The traditional, untrendy mushroom brown uniforms were out, and in came turquoise, green and blue.

And for the first time, shorts were not compulsory - scouts are now given the option to wear trousers or even a navy skirt.

Fear not though, the changes, however, did not herald the death of the scout group scarf or the distinctive woggle, both of which still feature prominently today.

It was perhaps the introduction of the skirt that sparked the most controversy - not for the clothing item itself, but for what it signified.

Girls were first allowed to join scout groups in 1991, after much deliberation, but are now so common that in some groups they outnumber the boys.

So, girls, technology and trendy outfits. It is no surprise that in some scout groups in the Kingston borough, waiting lists are as long as the scout leader's arm.

But, despite the increasingly successful modernisation of the scouting movement, and even with the support of the Labour Party, there are still issues and enduring negative stereotypes.

Only last week, the trial began in Plymouth of a scout leader charged with various horrific paedophilia offences on scouts in his charge, after taking advantage of the trust placed in him by parents and children in his charge.

And last year, a scout leader from Perthshire was jailed for nine months for sexual assault on a child.

In fact, put the term "scouting" into the search engine on the BBC website, and most of the articles that come up refer to either court cases against scoutmasters or football scouts.

But, as Chris Foster, media officer for the National Scouts Association, believes, it is simply not the case that incidents such as these are more widespread nowadays, but instead are reported with far greater alacrity by the media.

He said: "Of course this was more of an epidemic in the past, but it didn't seem that way because it was all hushed up.

"It just wasn't reported. And also, as a society, we listen more to children nowadays."

In today's modern world of scouting, becoming a scout leader is a far more complicated process than ever before, with reams of paperwork to wade through. Boring it may be, but it is certainly effective.

Mr Foster said: "Our priority is the child's safety, and each adult that even steps foot in the headquarters is police checked to the highest level.

"Of course, we learn from our past mistakes, but if an adult has no previous convictions, it is near impossible to suspect them."

The negative and false stereotype attached to the role of scoutleader - the "what normal man wants to spend his evenings and weekends with small boys?" idea - is perhaps one reason why scoutleaders nowadays are so hard to find, and the shortfall is a real problem.

Take 1st Tolworth in Kingston for example, which was forced to merge its two beaver colonies last month when Thames colony was unable to find a new leader to replace Margaret Warry who retired after 30 years in scouting.

According to John Eggitt, a far more probable reason for the dearth of volunteer leaders in Kingston in particular lies in today's workaholic culture.

He said: "Especially in an area such as ours, where families have large mortgages and fathers are always looking over their shoulders for the boss or bank manager, there is no time for volunteering.

"Businesses are far less accomodating when employees want to volunteer. People have no time anymore and scout groups are suffering."

• See next week's Surrey Comet to find out about the life and times of Leander Sea Scouts