Scoutworks Features
Districts
A free district portal: connected groups, true waiting list demand, census, safety and Young Leader insights, and email broadcasts to families.











District Dashboard & Oversight
One dashboard for your district. See total members, total waiting, average badge completion and how many groups are sharing data, then your connected groups and district units below. Invite a group by finding it by name. Its admins get an email and an in-app notice, and choose whether to share. An actions card lists invitations that are still pending or have expired, so you can resend them. Figures refresh every night, and a district admin can refresh them on demand.
- Headline tiles: members, waiting list, badge completion, groups sharing data
- Connected groups and district units on one page
- Find a group by name and invite it; its admins accept or decline
- Pending and expired invitations listed, ready to resend
- Groups share with one district at a time and can withdraw at any time
- Figures refreshed nightly, with an on-demand refresh for admins
District-Managed Groups — Explorer Scout Units (ESUs)
Districts run their own units, such as Explorer Scout Units. Create one from the District Portal in three steps: name, postcode and location, and maximum capacity. Each unit is a full Scoutworks group with its own members, programme, finances and badges, and it starts with an Explorers section. Units count towards your district figures automatically and cost nothing extra. A young person can belong to their home group and an ESU with one shared record, once the unit accepts a share from the home group.
- Create a unit in three steps: name, location and capacity
- Each unit is a full Scoutworks group, starting with an Explorers section
- No separate subscription for district units
- Units count towards district figures automatically
- One member record shared between a home group and an ESU, when the unit accepts the share
- Leaders are added inside the unit, like any other group
District Waiting List Oversight
The same child is often on three waiting lists at once. District waiting list insights count each child once, matched on parent, name and date of birth, so you see real demand. See the total and unique children, average wait, offer rate, triage backlog and volunteer pool, broken down by age group and by group. A heatmap shows where demand sits by postcode sector. Share one district waiting list link or QR code that offers every connected group, and it keeps working as groups join.
- Each child counted once across every group's list
- Total waiting, unique children, average wait, offer rate and triage backlog
- Volunteer pool: parents on the list who've offered to help
- Demand by age group and by group
- Heatmap of demand by postcode sector
- One district link and QR code for the public waiting list form, covering every connected group
- Export the waiting list figures as CSV
District Census Aggregation
Census data comes from the member records your groups already keep, so there's nothing to collect separately. The district Census tab brings it together across every connected group: gender, ethnicity, religion, special educational needs and disabilities. Each young person is counted once. Completion rates and a data quality chart by group show where records have gaps, so you can nudge the right group before census time. Export the lot as a CSV.
- Built from the member records groups already keep
- Gender, ethnicity, religion, SEN and disabilities across the district
- Each young person counted once, even if they're in two groups
- Completion rate and field-by-field completion
- Data quality by group, so you know who to help
- Export as CSV
Badges & Top Awards Across the District
See how badge work is going across every group. The Badges tab shows totals, the award rate and badge completion by group, so you can compare like with like. Top Awards history tracks Chief Scout and other top awards over the last 1, 3, 6 or 12 months. Every chart has a by-group view, and the figures export as CSV for your district meetings.
- Badge totals and award rate for the district
- Badge completion compared by group
- Top Awards history over 1, 3, 6 or 12 months
- By-group views on every chart
- Export as CSV
Growth, Retention & Section Moves
Understand how membership is changing across the district. The Membership tab shows net growth, new members and churn rate, with a 12-month trend. It counts young people due to age out in the next three months, and shows the moves between sections that are coming up. Compare membership and length of membership by group, and see where members live on a heatmap.
- Net growth, new members and churn rate
- A 12-month membership trend
- Young people due to age out in the next three months
- Upcoming moves between sections
- Membership and length of membership by group
- A heatmap of where members live
- Export membership figures as CSV
Safety & Young Leader Insights
Two tabs that help a district team support its groups. Safety shows incident trends over 12 months, incidents by type and severity, reporting culture, event safety, risk assessment compliance, HQ reporting and seasonal patterns, all by group. Young Leaders shows how many are signed up, how many haven't started, how many are in progress and how many have finished the award, plus where the cohort tends to stall, again by group.
- Safety: 12-month incident trends and a type-by-severity breakdown
- Safety: reporting culture, event safety and risk assessment compliance
- Safety: HQ reporting compliance and seasonal patterns
- Young Leaders: not started, in progress and award complete
- Young Leaders: the modules where the cohort stalls
- Every figure broken down by group, with CSV export
District Broadcasts
Email the right families without asking every group to forward it. Choose who hears from you: member parents, waiting-list parents, or volunteers (group admins, leaders and Young Leaders). Narrow it to families within a set number of miles of a postcode, to certain age sections, or to people who joined the waiting list between two dates. You see the recipient count by group before you send, and a preview in your district branding. No names or email addresses are shown to the district.
- Audiences: member parents, waiting-list parents, volunteers
- Families within a chosen distance of a postcode
- Filter by age section, waiting list status, date applied or volunteer role
- Live recipient count, broken down by group and audience
- Email preview in your district branding
- Each person emailed once, and opt-outs respected
- Send history kept for the district
Charity Register Monitoring
Most groups are charities, and a missed filing is easy to miss. Scoutworks checks the Charity Commission register every week for your district and each connected group. See how many are registered, which records changed in the last week, and which didn't respond, with filters and search. Refresh on demand, and record your district's own charity registration.
- Weekly check of the Charity Commission register for every connected group
- Registered, changed and no-response counts
- Changes from the last week highlighted
- Filter and search across groups
- Refresh on demand
POR Rulebook Search
District teams get the same POR search as groups. Search Policy, Organisation and Rules in plain English, or jump straight to a rule number. Every rule links to the official page on scouts.org.uk and shows when it was last synced.
- Search by keyword, plain English or rule number
- Links to the official page on scouts.org.uk
- Shows when each rule was last synced
District Team & Access
Bring your district team in and give each person the right access. Invite people by email as an Admin or a Viewer. Viewers can see every figure. Admins can also invite groups, create units, refresh data and send broadcasts. You can't remove the last admin by mistake. District volunteers don't need to belong to a group to log in, and anyone with both roles switches between group and district from one account.
- Invite team members by email as Admin or Viewer
- Viewers see the figures; admins also invite, create units, refresh and broadcast
- The last admin can't be removed
- District-only accounts: no group membership needed
- Switch between group and district from one login
- Search and keyboard shortcuts across the District Portal
Frequently asked questions
Keep exploring
More features to discover
Other ways Scoutworks helps your group run smoothly.
Free District Portal
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