In Touch What is in touch? In touch is the scouting framework for managing communications during any scouting activity, be that to parents of young people or to family of adult volunteers, or to HQ in the event of a serious incident. In Touch system for 1st Melbourne For all ordinary group meetings including those where the meeting is held away from the scout hut but at the normal time and day (for example a visit to the Firestation, or to Givendale) a simple process is required. Leaders must have a list of all group members that includes their name, date of birth, address and contact details for parent/guardians (both mobile and landline). This information must be readily to hand, ideally printed out. This information can be downloaded from OSM. The Scouts ‘Purple Card’ must be held with the contact details of the group members. The Purple Card is available here: https://www.scouts.org.uk/volunteers/staying-safe-and-safeguarding/safe-scouting-cards/safe-scouting-and-emergency-procedures/ Parents are to be given the phone number of leaders periodically, where a meeting is away from the scout hut and a landline of the site is known this should be shared. Parents are to be reminded that contact details are for emergency use only. Parents should be asked to check and update their details periodically. This can be done via OSM: https://www.onlinescoutmanager.co.uk/login.php For activities that take place outside of normal meeting times, and in particular include a night away the above applies but in addition the following needs to be in-place. Leaders must have full details of all young people and adults on the activity, these can be obtained from OSM and should be in hard copy format. A home contact is not always required for activities outside of normal meetings, but should be put in place to allow leaders to be supported in communicating during an emergency scenario. A district camp is a good example of when a home contact may be useful, or where access to a phone may be limited. If a home contact is deemed as necessary then the home contact: must be provided with full details of all young people and adults at the event from our Group.should ideally not be related to any participant at the event.The home contact details should be shared with parents. References: https://www.scouts.org.uk/volunteers/running-your-section/intouch/https://www.4thbramhall.org.uk/leaders/in-touch/