The Nights Away Permit Scheme

The Nights Away Permit Scheme promotes quality residential and camping experiences. It shows that all those leading nights away events for young people within Scouts have the skills, experience and personal suitability to take young people away safely. It’s designed so that it can be tailored to be as flexible as possible, while at the same time providing a robust checking process for volunteers leading nights away events. The permit should be seen as an enabling device to show a volunteers competence and to provide reassurance to parents of the young people. While at the same time, it should also be encouraging to volunteers to acquire and improve the skills required to provide residential experiences. Permits are only available to volunteers of The Scout Association and cease to be valid if membership ends.

What is a Nights Away Permit?

The nights away permit scheme is an internal assessment scheme designed to ensure that all those leading nights away events for young people within Scouting have the skills, experience and personal suitability to do so. (See POR Rule 9.55, 9.56, 9.57 9.58) 

  Full details about the Nights Away Permit Scheme are available on this web-page.

What are the categories of NAP?

Who grants the permit?

The person who grants your permit will be the District Lead Volunteer (DLV), who can only grant a permit to the level of the recommendation of the Nights Away Assessor. The Nights Away Assessor will provide a recommendation after an assessment based on the Nights Away Assessment Checklist.

How long is a permit valid for?

A permit is time limited up to a maximum of five years at which point it expires. A permit is only valid if recorded on the membership system by the District Lead Volunteer.
If you wish to continue leading nights away events for young people, you’ll need to apply for a new permit. However, if the new permit’s to exactly the same level as the old permit and you’ve been running residential events, there may be no need for a practical assessment. That decision is up to the Nights Away Assessor.

Applying for a New or Renewing a Permit

To apply for a new permit or renew an existing one, you should complete the permit application within the My Membership system via scouts.org.uk, on the left click “programme support” and then “my permits“. As part of this process, you will be asked to log your experience and identify a Nights Away Assessor. While there is no requirement to seek approval before submitting your application, it is considered good practice to inform your Group Lead Volunteer or relevant Lead Volunteer of your intentions. They can often offer valuable guidance and support. Once your assessment has been completed, the Nights Away Assessor will submit a recommendation based on the level of permit they believe your skills and experience qualify you for.

Please note that this recommendation is not the permit itself. The final permit will be granted through the My Membership system once your Lead Volunteer or Permit Approver has completed the remaining steps in the process. 

 To gain a permit, you'll be assessed in four areas:

1. Technical Competence.
2. Knowledge of Scout Association Rules for Nights Away.
3. Safety and Safeguarding.
4. Personal Suitability.

The nights away Assessor  may, depending on recent experience: 

Discuss your requirements via email, over the phone.
They may want to arrange to meet you face to face at a time convenient to you.
They may want to visit a nights away event you are organising but not the permit holder of the Event.

Many of your Questons about the Night Away Permit scheme  will be answsered on this page