InTouch: The new Home Contact System
As stated previously the Scout Association has reviewed the Home Contact and brought in a new Home Contact System called InTouch. By now all District Commissioners will have arranged to or already passed on this information to all the Groups within their district and it was agreed that from the 1st May 2010 we would be all using the new system.
So to ensure every member is aware we have put together a brief overview of the new system to say it was designed to give you much more flexibility in putting together the most effective and useful system of communications for all events and activities you run, including recognising the different communication methods that are available.
As the reasons for having InTouch remain the same for all types of events, an InTouch system needs to be in place for every event or activity within Scouting. This is the case from the regular weekly meeting through to the multiple week international expedition, from the Beaver Scout games evening to the Scout Active Support residential. We must also remember this is not just for events for our young people, it is for adult events too such as leader weekends away or Network or Scout Active Support events we also have ensure a system is in place to cover these as well.
Naturally these examples are likely to use very different procedures, but they all need to go through the process and define what procedures they will be using.
The process for you to follow is laid out here in a simple flow chart, going through the steps of this process should give you an InTouch system for your event that everyone can be made aware of and work within.
When using the flow chart you will need to ask yourself questions at each stage these could be:
• How will you hold the details of all those taking part in an event and the contact details of their parents, so that they can be accessed as required?
• What contact details of the Leader or leadership team will you give to the parents?
• What advice or guidelines will be given to parents as to the how to contact the event and when / why communication is expected or appropriate?
• Do records of all those present need to be held by anyone away from the event, and if so by whom?
• How will you contact your Commissioner or their designate in the case of an emergency (as per POR 9.5) at any point during the event?
The reasons for having InTouch in place are just as valid for the weekly meeting as they are for events away from your headquarters. Therefore it is important to have an InTouch system set up for these meetings as well. This doesn’t mean lots of extra work and a third party required every week, simply that you need to go through the process to make sure a system is in place that can then be used for all your meetings.
In some situations (possibly events that take place over a longer period or internationally) it can be useful to have a third party/parties away from the event to be the central point for communications. This can take the pressure off a leadership team to allow them to concentrate solely on running the event.
If relying on a third party it is also important to think about what will happen if there is an incident that requires their involvement, but one of the people affected by the incident is related to or well known by the third party. Would they be in a position to, or be expected to carry out their role? And if not how will that communication take place?
For large scale events, such as jamborees, District or County events, it is just as important that there is an InTouch System in place. This is the responsibility of the organisers and also those leading groups attending the event. So the organisers’ InTouch System will look at what contingents / groups are attending how they communicate with them, and the contingents’ / groups’ system will look who is a member of their party and how to communicate with their parents.
To help you set your own InTouch system there are several resources that you can use and these can be found at www.scouts.org.uk/intouch.