Challenges

Clearly, we achieved a lot in 2021 and had a great time along the way, but the year came with difficulties too. With ongoing Coronavirus restrictions, economic downturn, and still attempting to recover from the events of 2020, we faced some challenges:

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• Falling membership: from 57,000 members and supporters at the start of 2020 to 43,000 at the start of 2022, we saw a sharp drop in our numbers. Our capacity to deliver guiding at all levels decreased, venues weren’t available due to COVID-19 restrictions, our volunteers took a step back to manage their own health and caring responsibilities and units ran with smaller numbers, not welcoming new girls in. Some girls were unable to move to the next section due to limited capacity or the relevant sections not being available locally.

We also know that many families experienced increased hardship. To tackle this we provided £40,000 through our Keeping Girls in Guiding fund, to support girls who needed help to pay their membership subscription, in addition to the Gannochy and Cashback funded programmes.

• Increased waiting lists: Despite falling membership numbers we still have more than 9,000 girls waiting to join. Some units are currently unable to accommodate more girls because of reduced volunteer capacity, social distancing measures, or needing smaller meetings to facilitate remote guiding. • Financial Challenges: Reduced membership numbers means we saw a reduction in subscription income.

• Staffing changes: Due to the uncertain financial situation, in mid-2021 we carried out a major staffing restructure which, sadly, saw a number of posts being made redundant. This was a difficult and uncertain time and has reduced our overall capacity within our staff team.

• Adapted events: Although some of our events looked a little different than we had hoped, we did manage to move most of our planned activities online. We have seen the potential in remote and hybrid events and how they can be much more accessible so have some exciting plans to expand them in the future. That being said, we are looking forward to getting back to some of our big in-person events too!