Setting an In Touch home contact for events

Every Scout activity needs a plan for how people reach each other in an emergency. The usual approach is a home contact — a trusted adult who is not at the event but holds the roster and everyone's phone numbers, so the leaders on the ground can focus on running the activity while one person off-site fields the calls. Scoutworks lets you name that person on any event and gives them a dedicated, phone-friendly view with exactly what they need on the night — and none of the clutter.

Where to find this#

You set the home contact when you create or edit an event. Open any event form — a camp, programme meeting, activity or admin event — and look in the Leaders section, next to Leader in Charge. The field is called In Touch person.

Anyone who can edit the event can set or change the home contact, and you can clear it again at any time.

Who can be a home contact#

The picker lists every Volunteer and Group Admin in your group — including people from other sections, because a home contact is usually someone not on the trip. You don't have to pick one of the attending leaders.

What happens when you assign someone#

As soon as you save, the home contact gets an email with a direct link to their In Touch view for that event. If you swap the home contact later, the new person gets their own link.

They'll also find the event under a new In Touch filter on the Events page. That filter gathers every event they're the home contact for — even ones in other sections they wouldn't normally see — so they can always get back to the view, including on the day.

What the home contact sees#

The In Touch view is built for a phone in an emergency — big, glanceable, and quick to open. It pulls live data every time it's opened, so the roster and headcount are always current. It shows:

• The attendee roster, with a live headcount — who's expected and who's been marked present once leaders take attendance on the day.
• On-site leaders' mobile numbers, plus the Leader in Charge's direct contact — the home contact's first point of call.
• Each attendee's parent or carer emergency number.
• The itinerary — where the event is (with address and map), and the start, end and expected return times.
• An emergency escalation panel — the UK Headquarters 24-hour number and the steps to follow in an incident: alert the emergency services, tell the home contact, then call Headquarters.

What it deliberately leaves out#

The home contact's job is communication, not section admin — so the view shows none of the following:

• Medical and dietary information
• Consent and permission status
• Finance, payments and cost
• Badges, equipment and kit lists
• Meeting minutes and other admin

Medical briefings stay with the leaders running the activity on the ground. Naming someone as a home contact gives them access to that one event's In Touch view only — it doesn't open up finance, admin or anything else in the group.

If the home contact's role changes#

If the person you named later loses their Volunteer or Group Admin role, or leaves the group, Scoutworks flags them as stale on the event and in the picker, so you know to choose someone else. Reassign the event to a current Volunteer or Group Admin and the new person gets a fresh link.

What's next#

• Creating Events — set up camps, meetings and activities, and pick your Leader in Charge.
• Adult-to-young-people ratios on events — check you've got enough adult cover before the event runs.
• Risk Assessments for Events — record the risks and controls for the activity.