Mandatory Ongoing Learning

Mandatory Ongoing Learning has always been important to The Scout Association to keep all its members safe.

Mandatory Ongoing Learning (MOL) refers to:

Safety – Required within 5 months of starting, complete module SFTY which produces a certificate, then renew every 3 years

Safeguarding – Required within 5 months of starting, complete module SAFE which produces a certificate, then renew every 3 years

First Aid – Required within first 3 years, Minimum Module 10 (or 10a/10b) (one day) then renew every 3 years

All membership roles have to do Safety and Safeguarding training and renewals. Roles that require a Wood-badge have to do First Aid training and renewals. Volunteers in other roles can opt to do the First Aid training and opt whether to renew it.

Knowing when to renew

Line managers are responsible for ensuring their team is up-to-date (POR 4.8).

Other teams support them in making this happen; HQ email people and their line manager at 60 days before and 30 days before they need their Safety and Safeguarding renewed, Dorset Adult Training may invite volunteers to First Aid training events.

The line manager is emailed by HQ if it goes overdue. If it goes overdue, line managers should use Mutually Agreed Restrictions until the renewal is completed. No volunteer can attend a Nights Away if their Safety or Safeguarding training has expired.

How do they do the renewal training?

Safety and Safeguarding are online modules and can be found on the Learners Hub (scroll to the bottom). If a member of your team cannot use online training or is uncomfortable with it, organise someone to sit with them and take them through. Any problems, please contact your Local Training Manager.

First Aid can be renewed within scouting or externally. If renewing within scouting, see the Training Calendar and search on ’10’. If the volunteer renews externally, ask them to send a photo or scan of their certificate to firstaidsupport@dorsetscouts.org.uk.

How to encourage your team to complete their training timely

Use the 60 days reminders to consider opportunities to talk to them face-to-face to check they have the email and find out if they will  have any problems with doing the learning so that you can support them.

Talk to your local training manager if the person is not comfortable with doing the learning online as there are alternatives.

Use the 30 days reminder to nudge them that the deadline is mandatory and needs to be met, it’s not a suggested date. Reminding them that this is one of many steps we take to keep the young people (and adults) safe can be helpful. There are helpful tips from HQ which are worth a read.

If the deadline date passes without the renewal training being completed, the DC may issue MARS, often requesting the person not to attend meetings until the training is done. You will need to explain this to the person and support them during this.

Other ways to know your team’s renewal dates

There are two options to find out your team’s renewal dates. You can search online in Compass and read the info on the screen. This works well if its small numbers becoming due.

The alternative is to use the Compliance Assistant which gives you an excel report of your whole team, highlighting anything overdue and anything coming up. This can be run by GSLs, DCs, DDCs, CTM, LTMs, CC, DCCs, Appointment Secretaries and Group/District/County administrators.

Alternatively, you can encourage individuals to check their own record on Compass.