Nights Away

The Permit Scheme

The Nights Away Permit Scheme promotes quality residential and camping experiences. It shows that all those leading nights away events for young people within Scouting have the skills, experience, and personal suitability to take young people away safely.

It is designed so that it can be tailored to be as flexible as possible, while at the same time providing a robust checking process for leaders of nights away events. The permit should be seen as an enabling device to show a person’s competence and provide reassurance to parents of the young people, while at the same time encouraging adults to acquire and improve the skills required to provide residential experiences.

Everyone who leads a Nights away event for young people within Scouting is required to hold a Nights Away Permit for the type of event they are running. Full details of the scheme can be found here.

Applying for a Permit

To get a permit you should apply directly to your District Nights Away Adviser (NAA) – details can be obtained from your District Commissioner or from Howard Nelson, Deputy Area Commissioner (Programme) using our contact form.

Although there is no requirement to get approval from anyone in applying for a permit, it is good practice to let your Group Scout Leader and responsible District Leader know of your intentions beforehand. They can often provide valuable guidance and support.

The person who grants a permit is your Commissioner. This will be your District Commissioner if you have a Group or District appointment, and your Area Commissioner if you have an Area appointment. When they grant a permit, it will be recorded on Compass and this is the definitive record.

Full details of the syllabus you will be assessed against can be found in the Nights Away Assessment Checklist. If you are unsure about anything to do with the assessment or how it will be run, please talk to your Nights Away Adviser beforehand.

Applying for a Nights Away Permit in BSO

If you require a nights away permit assessment, please use the application process as detailed below:

• Complete the permit assessment form which can be found here
• Send this to your District Nights Away Adviser (NAA) – details can be obtained from your District Commissioner or from Howard Nelson, Assistant Area Commissioner (Activities) using our contact form.
• The District Nights Away Adviser (NAA) will arrange an assessment. During your Technical Competence assessment, you will be assessed for your skills, knowledge and experience. This assessment is not supposed to trick you or catch you out. It is to assess your level of technical competence, and your NAA should also be able to support and provide advice to you throughout the process of planning, running and evaluating an event, as well as assessing you. Your Assessor will use a variety of methods to build a picture of your skills and knowledge in your activity. The way this is carried out will depend on your experience.
• The second part of the assessment focuses on your understanding of The Scout rules for the for nights away experiences. Your Commissioner, their nominated representative, or possibly the NAA, will carry out this assessment, at the same time as assessing your technical competence.
• The third part of the assessment focuses on ensuring that you have a current DBS and the required safeguarding and safety training. This will be carried out by your Commissioner.
• The final part of the assessment focuses on your attitude and approach to leading a nights away experience in accordance with the values of The Scouts. This will be carried out by your Commissioner.
• Providing your NAA and Commissioner are confident in your ability to deliver your chosen activity, a permit will be granted by your Commissioner and uploaded on to Compass.

Event Passports

To encourage young people led residential events, such as patrol camps or Explorer Scout expeditions, when you hold a nights away permit, you can grant a nights away passport to an under 18 year old. It will allow the young person to lead a residential event with no Leaders present and will last for a single event. Before granting a permit, you will need to check that you are happy that the young person has the skills to lead that event safely and successfully, as you remain responsible for the event.

The young person given the passport will be leading the event, so it cannot be given if there will be Leaders present running the event who are looking for a way around the Rules as they do not have permits.

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