To think this a crazy price for DofE Silver Award

[Fgsvirgin]

School have just sent the letter. (Not a fee paying school.)

It is £420 (plus a £50 deposit).

That seems like an awful lot to me for a trip where you have to provide the transport there and back yourself, provide the food and some of the kit.

The price is set by the third party company organising it and does include training sessions (not an overnight session just a couple of classroom based sessions and one 7 hr walk), the registration fee and loan/hire of the tent, cooking stove thing and coat/waterproof bottoms and sleeping bag if you want. This is what the deposit is for.

Does that not seem a really expensive hike to you?

I suppose I’m comparing it to other school trips where they get a couple of nights away with food and transport for less than £300.

I should have seen it coming when Bronze was £300 but I paid that blindly thinking that is how much these things cost!

If your child did D/E Silver, how much was it?

(I realise the key here is that there is a third party company arranging it so I suppose I’m looking for responses from those who also have experience with third party D/E companies.)

Everything is more expensive to run now
Insurance - is that included?

As others have said you are paying for the time and skills of the 3rd party too, rather than volunteer leaders
I think it sounds reasonable to be honest

Wow, it was much, much cheaper through Explorers! Lots of volunteers giving up their time for free. I have a lot of time for Scouty people.

I'd agree with this re the skills training and the level of independence reached too.

Am horrified by some of the reports I read about on hear, and occasionally hear from families who have done the award through some schools (not all, I hasten to add).

Get your dc to join scouts as they can do it through there

army or air cadets do it better and much cheaper!

My eldest son did gold - I would say it's a £2000 and 2 year investment of money and time - you've been warned

Thanks all.

As I said, I understand that the cost will be due to a third party running it.

To answer, I have no idea how much the costs are for these companies (although I do know they get the “hire”of the school hall for free for the classroom sessions).

The reason I know this, is that I chair the PTA at the school. This information came up in a conversation I had with the School Finance Team about a PTA event that clashed with a training session.

It is sad that is it becoming beyond reach for some.

Sounds similar to what we paid for DS1 to do Silver at his (state grammar) school. Gold was c £1000 once we'd paid for the residential...

I'm going to encourage DS2 to join CCF as it makes it considerably cheaper...also I think DS1 could have done it with Explorer Scouts for less, but Covid made it impossible.

As a Scout leader, I am so chuffed to hear you say that!

My children have gone for their DOE awards, at different levels, all the kit, overnight stays, camping etc, there is always something that prevents them getting the darn award. Im not sure if it was voluntary work, that they were supposed to do, and didn’t, but it’s always been a huge expense of equipment, and time, and ultimately no award. With weekly meetings and other kids to take, it has been a large expense to be honest.
I thought it a great experience, I just wish they completed them all.

My eldest son did gold - I would say it's a £2000 and 2 year investment of money and time - you've been warned

All 3 of mine have their Gold DofEs, and we haven't spent a tiny faction of that, in total.

It is because most of the money is going in the pockets of the company who the school has enlisted to run it. I paid similar for my son to does his bronze and we provided everything except the tents and transport. he did his silver through army cadets and we paid £40 and that covered everything, food, transport etc… the lot.

the costs to do this through the schools is ridiculous, a lot of kids miss out which is sad.

Wow there is no way we could afford this!
My dd is doing a student exchange £500 and want's to do a trip next year that will cost 600.
This is on top of what DC 2 also needs for PGL etc!

If my dd gets asked why she never did it we can just say it cost too much.

This in buckets

Yikes I was on the cadets and we did it for free. I didnt realise how lucky I was.

£40 with Explorer scouts

My teenager volunteers with the Scouts as a young leader. The leaders are wonderful and we've appreciated all the work they've done and the opportunities they've uncomplainingly provided.

I hope people are able to access D of E through Scouts or Cadets if they cannot afford the costs at school with private providers. Though members of those will already own most of the required camping equipment, bar the tents.

The real cost of most youth activities would be prohibitive but we're so fortunate to have people who volunteer their time. How awful it would be if only the wealthy could afford these activities for their children.

£150 here but we have to buy pretty much all the kit on top.

You should see how much they're charging for Knighthoods! 😂

it does tend to depend on local doe centres but at ours,

• it’s staffed by volunteers
• some kit is provided but yeah, boots and clothes need to be bought. The bought kit doesn’t have to be too badly expensive though
• Our centre charges less than yours but. But not by loads. I think silver is £300. Fees cover entry fee, assessors, insurances, hall hire, and some of the kit (kids kit but also emergency kits like first aid kits, emergency shelters etc). It also covers (and i suspect this a big expense to dedicated doe centres) dbs and leader training. The leaders also pay for their own food and transport and kit. I reckon the scouting/guides/explorers can spread the costs around for these more as they use them for the rest of the year not just doe.
• our centre offers to subsidise/cover anyone who wants to do it but can’t afford to. This is partially funded by the local council, a local church and probably a little by the fees charged. Actually I need to see if central doe also help with it - they ought to, right?!

its amazing the scouting etc centres can run it for so little actually. Are they subsidised somehow? Or otherwise funded?

I’m just saying I doubt anybody is making a huge profit here but it couldn’t hurt to enquire more about the cost break down.

doe isn’t perfect. I hate that it’s become part of the cv fodder only. Some of the kids at the centre couldn’t care less about doing it and just waste time with their friends and learn nothing (they’re the ones who invariably never complete the volunteering and other aspects btw). But you can’t discriminate against them as they’ve as much right to be there! I hope their parents aren’t hurting for the wasted money…

The people that run it at my school don't know what to do anymore as they don't feel they can ask parents for what it costs. The company they used for the expedition has gone under and they can't work out how they can do it any more. Neither of them are paid a penny extra to do it. Not even a TLR payment

Wow that seems like a lot. However when I did it the teachers who were in to that sort of thing gave up their own time to do it with us, no third party needed. We also provided all our own kit and organised and paid for our own campsites.

Wow. Massive variations in cost. We paid £80 for the enrolment fee and £100 for the expedition (letter arrived last week so this is current) through school. Already have all the kit from Silver last year so it's £180 for us.