This process is designed to outline how North Yorkshire Scouts handles award submissions. For general information on the awards and their criteria, please visit The Scouts website 

A word-based citation document must always be produced for every award nomination and submitted to the appropriate Lead Volunteer for their approval. The latest citation document can be found on The Scouts awards page. 

The below chart shows who can approve each of The Scouts awards. 

*For those holding a County Appointment, the County Lead Volunteer takes on this approval step. 

District Lead Volunteers own the process locally for Chief Scouts Award for Good Service and Award for Merit nominations (excluding those with a County Appointment). Please check with your local District Team should you need to understand their process. 

North Yorkshire Scouts manages four separate awards cycles per year. To be considered in each round, the deadline for submission to The County is:

• 28 February
• 31 May
• 31 August
• 30 November

Award Citations requiring County level approval as noted above, should be be submitted to The County Awards Panel and County Lead Volunteer via awards@nyscouts.org.uk

Following each submission, the County Awards Panel will hold meetings in March, June, September and December to review award nominations. 

Successful nominations for Bar to the Award for Merit and Silver Acorns will be submitted to the awards administration team at The Scouts so that certificates can be produced. 

Bar to the Silver Acorn and Silver Wolf citations that have been endorsed by the County Lead Volunteer will be passed to the national awards advisory panel for their review. 

Following each round of submissions, the national awards team will usually email the County Lead Volunteer within 8 weeks to let them know of any unsuccessful submissions (normally due to volunteers failing to complete training etc) and the positive or negative decisions relating to any Bar to the Silver Acorn and Silver Wolf nominations. 

When each round of certificates are received by North Yorkshire Scouts, a live Google Sheet will be populated with the names of individuals who have received said award. The County Volunteer Development Team Leader will then review the list and notify the local District Lead Volunteer of any volunteers who are set to be presented an award locally – for County appointments the relevant team leader will be notified. 

All successful award recipients will be awarded their badge, medal, and certificate at the County’s Annual Celebration of Volunteer Achievement Event, usually held in March each year. 

All successful award recipients will receive a letter of congratulations from The County Lead Volunteer. This will always aim to include a ‘Save the Date’ for the next County awards event. Where possible, the full invite and R.S.V.P. information will also be enclosed with the congratulations letter. 

Any volunteer who declines attendance at the County’s Volunteer Celebration of Achievement Event, will instead have their certificate posted to their local District Lead Volunteer – for County appointments the relevant team leader will receive the certificate. 

Should you have any questions, please email awards@nyscouts.org.uk