Beavers/cubs/scouts cost

[notheragain4]

I have tried contacting two separate beaver groups to find out costings to no avail, I guess they aren't checking emails at the moment. I'm just trying to work out a budget for when we move house, I know it differs by area but could you let me know what you pay and maybe there will be a consensus or average I can work out?!

Thanks everyone. My youngest is 6 and is very much an indoor boy, loves his screens, TV, will play outside but needs a specific activity if that makes sense. I'm hoping this will open him up to different opportunities and just get him away from tech a bit!

£30 per term plus extra for camps. We’re in London.

Sea Scouts, £66 per term, fantastic value. During non lockdown in summer they are out every week on the water.

Now they do a Zoom activity each week which, bearing in mind they are all volunteers, is good.

My three DC have been through Sea Beavers, Sea Cubs and Sea Scouts. Can't praise it enough ⚜️

I pay £27/ month for 2 DC. Camps are extra on top of that.

@notheragain4

Thanks everyone. My youngest is 6 and is very much an indoor boy, loves his screens, TV, will play outside but needs a specific activity if that makes sense. I'm hoping this will open him up to different opportunities and just get him away from tech a bit!

I would look for a pack which is “filled” by his primary school. DD found it easier starting when she already knew several children and the pack takes holidays and inset days into account.

In DD’s case often cubs move up to scouts but lots of boys leave soon after as it clashes with football and rugby, at that age, so 10+, only the more really interested stay but these are often the more quite ones who like the concept of a structured activity and not necessarily being the super sporty ones.

DH volunteers for some activities, especially air rifle shooting, and there are two boys who we know from DD’s primary school being the really quite, indoor, tech loving ones, but at the range they perk up, listen to instructions and are really happy. They always are at the camps as well and learned a lot of skills.

I've never heard of a scout of guide group charging anywhere near £40 a month.

My brownies pay £30 per term which works out at about £3 per session. We sometimes do trips on top of this but try to keep the cost to £10 or less by subsidising it with unit funds or fundraising.

£10 a month
Basic camping weekends -£10-£20
Fancier sleepovers, such as Space Centre £25-£40
Longer trips obviously more.
Uniform- never been with a group where you've had to buy more than a jumper/shirt.

So cheap because the leaders are all volunteers so unpaid. They are actually saints imo. Annoys me when the general public don’t seem to realise this. The payment goes on the hall and activities equipment etc.

@notheragain4 totally understand. Cubs and guides were brilliant for me because i was never especially "good" at anything, so didnt want to join a specific sport, or activity.

We pay £15 for Beavers and £10 for Brownies in the North East.

Our scout group charge £40 per term, although currently on a subs holiday due to not being able to meet up.

Costs can differ usually depending on whether a group owns their own building or meet in a church hall which probably charges nominal rent. Also census payments vary widely across the country, which is the amount the group has to pay to District/HQ per young person to cover things like training, public liability.

One thing to bear in mind is that groups aren’t running as normal at the moment. Some are running virtual sessions others are not. Scout HQ are currently working on how to get back to actual physical sessions but it does look as if it will be sometime before it goes back to what it used to be, due to limited numbers being allowed to be together, no camps etc. They are not following the same guidance as schools or sports clubs, there is a different guidance for them

@MsTSwift

So cheap because the leaders are all volunteers so unpaid. They are actually saints imo. Annoys me when the general public don’t seem to realise this. The payment goes on the hall and activities equipment etc.

I can’t agree more. DD’s pack does zoom meets each week now, they always come up with something really good, work on badges and ven organised a whole unit weekend camp with activities all day long.

They look what other units do and share virtual camps, share activity links and keep the spirit up.

It is very time consuming, DH is a parent representative and you can see the paperwork and other time consuming tasks outside meeting plan they are doing, he is elbow deel in lease negotiations at the moment.

After everyone's responses I'm quite surprised that ours is £14pm throughout the year! Still good value I'm sure but surprised at the cost in comparison to many of yours, we are midlands.

@notheragain4 it could depend on the other income sources your group has. A major source of income ours has (normally) is hiring out our hall to other organisations... We've got toddler classes, a dance school, WI etc plus private parties. Although we then have to pay maintenance and bills. A group paying rent for a hall will have higher costs. A group I used to work for had pretty much no outgoings as we had a third party paying for things for us.

We pay £10 a month for scouts.

Also depends on the national census payment, which differs across the country. We are looking to have to pay about £58 per young person, so nearly 50% of our annual subs will need to be paid out. With the other 50% we have to pay all the maintenance, utility costs, insurance for our scout hut. We try and hire out our hut but don't get much income from that as there are much nicer buildings around on offer!

We also try and subsidise some of our camps/activities but this may not be able to happen if the census payment increases even more, which it possibly will.

Other groups may also charge a joining fee separately or for badges etc

£14 a month here. Sadly DS doesnt like all the extra stuff, Camps etc but if your child does its great value!

OP - the cost difference may be down to whether they have to pay rent for the premises they use or not. Our Beavers didn't need to as it was run from a community purchased hall whereas Cubs did as it was at a school.

@ineedaholidaynow it's going up 20% next year

It's astounding the huge difference between areas. In our area, it was £31 this year.

Op - costs vary as each group has different running costs. Ours has own hall which outside hall users hire & this covers our utilities & running costs

SE £4 a week for Scouts. Cannot wait for them to start back up again.

@ny20005 County takes a big chunk of ours never mind HQ.

But subs of £10 a month is not really that much, £2.50 a week

Thanks all, ours is ran from a school so I guess it has to hire that.

We’re SE commuter belt and Beavers is £50/term. We pay a £10 fee when joining a new section, to cover woggles, promise badges, neckerchiefs etc. There are almost no other costs apart from uniform and overnight trips/ division activities. I think the overnights have been around £20-30 and days out have been around £10-20. The t-shirt and sweater cost around £25-30 altogether.

Some groups have second hand uniform, which you can pay a donation for.

Don't know any groups that expect you to buy the uniform trousers, just the jumpers. Our group provides the necker but expect you to keep it throughout the lifetime of the scouting journey.

If you need smart uniform for parades, school trousers will do.