Being our Best in Girlguiding Kent West
Girlguiding Kent West County plan for 2020
Our Vision
To give every girl the opportunity to gain life changing experiences that enable her to discover the
best in herself and make a difference in the world.
Our Mission
We will:
 Deliver a challenging and fun programme with activities that offer new experiences.
 Ensure our Leaders and Volunteers receive excellent training and support in order to give
inspirational leadership and deliver quality programmes that enable girls to gain new skills,
confidence and discover the best in their selves.
Our Values
 Fun, Challenging, Caring, Inclusive, Empowering and Inspiring.
Our plan for the next five years is split into four themes – Excellence, Access, Voice and
Capacity – and we need to work together to achieve our aims for each.
Excellence – We will get better and better at all that we do for girls
Girls will have even more opportunities for fun and adventure and social action. Ensure evaluation
of activities and events with all participants, girls and leaders.
Our programme will offer girls the opportunities that they want and need. All Leaders to use Good
guiding is... to help them reflect on how well they are covering all the bases in the unit programme
and make sure that the programme is meeting the needs of the girls in the unit by involving them
in planning and evaluating.
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More fun, action and adventure offered in Kent West e.g. Camping Competition, Adventure Day,
Challenge Day etc. and at least one large scale event offered annually.
Provide excellent learning and development and support so Leaders can gain relevant skills and
qualifications resulting in girls having more outdoor and residential opportunities. Increase the
number of Leaders gaining qualifications.
Encourage the use of a varied programme of Learning and Development opportunities at local
level to include e-learning, Fireside Training, using Trainers, Buddies, Division and District
Commissioners and encourage more volunteers to get involved in becoming a Trainer.
All Leaders offered revised First Response Training and Safe Guarding Training.
Delivery of new version of Go/Join Us presenting changes in an enthusiastic and positive way.
PowerPoint presentation and training at School IT suite offered to all Leaders.
All Leaders will be offered a minimum of 8 hours training on the new programme and we expect at
least one Leader from each unit to complete this training.
All training delivered to be evaluated and 80% of training feedback rated good to excellent.
Ensure Leaders in Training receive excellent Mentoring and support to become a qualified leader
within a reasonable timeframe. 10% increase in Leaders achieving LQ within 12-18 months.
Support Units with obtaining a range of resources to enable leaders to deliver a varied and
excellent programme.
Identify and develop partnerships with external organisations to increase programme offered to
girls – SOAR/Cyclepark/Leeds Castle etc.
Celebrate the success of Leaders. All achievements to be recognised and promoted in Notes and
News and on the website. County Awards Committee to be set up and a Directory of Awards to
be published. A 5% increase in applications achieved.
Thank you events to be arranged initially at County level. All Volunteers to be given the
opportunity to have long service awards presented at any event they choose.
Access – We will work together to ensure that more girls from all
backgrounds benefit from what we do
Shout out about adult experiences and achievements in Guiding. Every Leader offered a place at
a PR/Shout Out training paid for by County.
Obtain positive media coverage for our initiatives, activities and key messages with support from
M&C Team. Each Unit to feedback what they have done each term e.g. Posters in Community,
wear uniform on outings, join Social media community pages, article in local paper, Community
Events.
Develop the use of Social Media by providing advice and training to members on the safe and
innovative use of social media tools for Growing Guiding, encourage the use of Twitter and
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develop Division/District Facebook pages with Commissioner as additional Administrator and
encourage use of County groups.
Support large scale PR opportunities at Shopping Centre e.g.PR stands/sleepovers. This will
include our largest annual event, the County Show, delivered by a committee lead by M&C.
Join Us statistics show 100% of Girls Assigned and Volunteer Enquiries responded to within 21
days, (unless there are exceptional circumstances).
Support Commissioners to ensure all new leaders get a warm welcome and induction journey to
make sure the correct level of support is available for the individual.
Tell people about flexible guiding, encourage joint section meetings, same night/venue meetings,
consider the introduction of Kent West Lone Guides.
Encourage more volunteers to join so that we can change more girls’ lives. Encourage every
Leader each term, to speak to one new person about volunteering. Think siblings of girls,
students at a local college or a Trefoil Guild member from your area.
80% of Leaders to have completed the diversity info on GO.
Make use of parents‘ interests/skills. Share good practice ideas within County and encourage
more parent involvement.
Encourage all units to develop a transition plan. Visit a new unit to see where your girls could
progress to. Work with other sections, invite girls from the next section to your meetings and
develop good relationships with other Leaders. Consider the girl experience and share good
practice via District/Division channels.
Voice – We will listen to girls and promote their voice
Investigate Social Media to survey members’ opinions e.g. Survey Monkey.
Help girls’ voices to be heard in guiding and beyond. Use girls’ voices to make a difference in the
community and find out what should be delivered at County level.
Develop the Kent West Website. Check membership of closed part and remove all ex-members
and aim to get 50% of our Leaders signed up and using it regularly.
Strengthen/introduce the process for getting girls voices heard at County level. Feedback sheet to
County from Division Commissioners and all groups/committees to be returned two weeks before
Region Steering Group meeting. County report produced and sent to Region.
Strengthen and continue to check our communication methods internally and externally to cover
all preferred methods of communication.
Develop County Facebook and Twitter groups. Share social action stories on Twitter, using
@Girlguiding and #onlygirlguiding. Help girls share their stories in local media with the support of
the M&C Team.
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Raise awareness of the Peer Education programme, enabling more members to become Peer
Educators so that every unit can have access to a session. Publish positive feedback to
encourage take up.
Encourage and enable members to benefit from taking part in International opportunities.
Invite a younger Leader (under 30) to every County Exec meeting and involve them in discussions
to support decision making and encourage all committees/groups in County to do the same.
Every Division and County Team to have a PR/Communications lead/adviser and involve them in
everything that happens in the Division and County and encourage the sharing of good news
stories.
Capacity – We will improve our structures, processes and capacity
Deliver and carry out internal control processes review. Set up a Finance Committee to include
one District, One Division Commissioner (on rota for two years) the CC, the Treasurer and the
Chair. Trustees to sign off accounts annually.
Deliver all events within a set budget. Trustees to agree to budgets based on recommendations of
Finance Committee following bids from chair/co-ordinators of County teams.
Trustees to ensure the review of financial processes, procedures and controls. Details of all
accounts in County to be held by CC and Treasurer and Division Commissioners to do likewise in
their Division/Districts.
Prepare a capital development plan. Trustees to agree guidelines and Finance Committee to
investigate and feedback to Trustees who will decide on investing or spending surplus monies.
Review the governance structure, remit for committees/groups and ensure the constitution is fit for
purpose, approved and reviewed yearly.
Review funding of Learning and Development with a view to supporting all units financially with
additional costs due to the introduction of the new programme.
Encourage the financial sustainability of Girlguiding through fundraising such as Gift Aid. Provide
training and support for all volunteers.
Define all County roles and display on County website. Advertise all appointments and
opportunities to the membership as appropriate.
Cascade news from membership services in relation to GO/Join Us to reduce Leaders admin
tasks, improving the way we work, enabling more time for the girls. All members to keep their
Unit’s details and personal records up to date on GO!
We will review part of this County plan at every Trustee meeting from now onwards.
Signed: ……………………………………………………....County Commissioner
Date: …………………………………………………………
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