Scottish Scouts to make half its staff redundant

Scouts Scotland is to cut half of its workforce at its headquarters and outdoors centres under a compulsory redundancy programme, saying it is facing a loss of income of £2.3m due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Around half of all staff at Scouts Scotland's headquarters and outdoor centres are to lose their jobs.

The organisation, which announced proposals to consult on job cuts in June, said it had suffered a “complete loss of business” at its outdoors centres, the cancellation of Scouting and fundraising events, cancelled bookings for its marquee hire service, and a drop in investments since the pandemic hit.

Around 28 staff are believed to have been affected by the compulsory redundancy programme.

The organisation said: “Although some activities are beginning to start back up and we are beginning to welcome visitors back to our centres, this is all still very limited and can’t make up for the massive income losses that we experienced during the spring and summer months.

“We have done everything we can to try to reduce the impact on our finances. Despite this we are still facing a large deficit that we simply can’t absorb, and so we have had to make some incredibly difficult decisions to try to save our charity.”

It said its new structure is focused on supporting local Scouting - including Beavers and Cubs for younger children.

It said it planned to keep its three Scout Adventures Centres at Forell Firs, Meggernie and Lochgoilhead open in the hope that they can become more operational in the future as restrictions lift.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive. We are now more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription to support our journalism.

Subscribe to scotsman.com and enjoy unlimited access to Scottish news and information online and on our app. Visit https://www.scotsman.com/subscriptions now to sign up.

By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Joy Yates

Editorial Director