The King’s Scout Award is the top award in Scouting. The great news is that it has been carefully aligned with the Duke of Edinburgh Gold award so with some careful planning you can easily get both awards at once.
Register your interest in achieving your King’s Scout award here once you have turned 16. You can only count activities towards your KSA after your 16th birthday.
To gain the King’s Scout Award you must complete the following:
Membership
Be aged between 16 and 25 years old and have been a member of Explorer Scouts or the Scout Network (or both) for at least 18 months. This can include time counted towards the Chief Scout’s Platinum or Diamond Awards. Be a member of Explorer Scouts or Scout Network at the time you complete the award.
Nights Away
Complete 18 nights away as an Explorer Scout or member of the Scout Network, of which 12 must be camping. This can include nights away counted for the Chief Scout’s Platinum and Diamond Awards as long as they were after your 16th birthday but cannot include nights away used for DofE activities.
International, Community and Values List
Complete a total of six activities, two from each topic area. Click here to view the ICV list
If you have the Chief Scout’s Platinum Award you will have already completed two activities and if you also have the Chief Scout’s Diamond Award, you will have completed two more. All six activities should be different.
Challenges
- Hold a Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award OR
- Complete the 5 King’s Scout Award Challenges
1. Skill
Take up a skill for 6 or 12* months, and show progress and lasting interest. The skill can be an existing interest or something entirely new.
2. Physical activity
Take up a physical activity for 6 or 12* months, completing an agreed program by taking part and achieving your objectives.
3. Volunteering
Provide service to an individual or the community for 12 months. Briefing and training should be given in order to gain the necessary skills. This may include helping with another section of the movement as an Explorer Scout Young Leader or adult volunteer.
4. Expedition
Training Framework
Show that you are competent in the following areas:
- First aid and emergency procedures
- Risk assessment/health and safety
- Navigation and route planning
- Camp craft, equipment, and hygiene
- Food and cooking
- Country, highway, and water sports codes
- Observation, recording, and presentation
- Team building
- Proficiency in mode of travel
Practice
Undertake a minimum of 3 days and 2 nights (consecutive) expedition in wild country by foot, cycle, horse, canoe, boat, or dinghy.
Final
Undertake a 4-day and 3-night (consecutive) qualifying expedition, with an aim, in a wild country by the method used in your practice.
5. Residential
Undertake a 5-day and 4-night residential project in an unfamiliar environment with people who are not known to you. This project could be environmental work, activity-based, service to others, or personal training.
In exceptional circumstances, the residential can be done on 2 occasions, as long as the same activity is completed. The majority of people must be unknown to you. This must be approved before taking part in the first occasion.
Notes
*All members should complete 12 months in either the skill or the physical activity challenges.
Award participants who are not holders of a Chief Scout’s Diamond Award or Silver DofE must complete an extra 6 months in either the service or the longer of the skills or physical recreation challenges.
Presentation
Make a presentation covering all elements of your award to a suitable audience, with the aim of inspiring and motivating others to achieve the award. The presentation should be the final activity you complete.
Sign-off
Once you have completed all of the above requirements, your commissioner needs to approve the award.
Additional information:
Approval by the mentor or person signing off the award should be given prior to each element being undertaken. If you are unsure about whether an activity is appropriate, ask the commissioner who will sign off your award as completed.
Nights Away
Camping also includes other outdoor shelters, such as bivouacs and snow holes, often used in scouting activities.
Nights away achieved through activities as part of the KSA or Chief Scout’s Awards including the practice and final expedition, residential experience or anything else achieved in completion of an ICV requirement are excluded.
It can include any nights away undertaken as a Young Leader/Adult volunteer with another section.
Working for more than one Award at a time
An award does not have to be completed before activities can count for the next award. For example, if you have completed the expedition element of your Chief Scout’s Diamond Award but not the rest of the award, you can begin the expedition section of the King’s Scout Award as long as you are over the age of 16 and have registered for the King’s Scout Award.
Time Commitment
The minimum time requirements for each section are expressed in months, during which you need to undertake a regular commitment averaging at least an hour a week.
Taking a Break or Changing Activities
If you want to change activities during an award, this is possible, although on one occasion only. It is also possible to take a break from an activity and then to restart from where you stopped. This could happen during a period of school, college or university exams.
Making The Award Accessible
The King’s Scout Award is based on personal best effort rather than fixed standards and should be available to all members of Explorer Scouts and the Scout Network. This may mean that for some individuals, the requirements of the award need to be adapted to ensure that they face the same degree of challenge as other participants.
Where additional needs have to be taken into account, it is acceptable to adjust some of the activities to make them more accessible. You should work with your mentor to discuss any adaptations, and make sure that any adaptations have been approved by the commissioner who will sign off your award. As every set of individual circumstances will be different, it is left to the discretion of the relevant commissioner to make any adaptations to the activities, including the expedition requirement.
For more information on how to include someone with additional needs in Scouting, visit scouts.org.uk/diversity. There are lots of information, including the factsheet Successfully Including Scouts with Special Needs (FS250061).
You can also email: programme@scouts.org.uk with specific queries.
Further resources
Support Material for the Kings Scout Award
The Kings Scout Working Party website
The Adventure Begins – how the Chief Scout Awards and DofE Awards are aligned
