Scouts appoint youth champion

Hannah Kentish, aged 21, will take on the role and join the Scout Association’s national leadership team, which also includes its chief commissioner, chairman and chief executive officer.

The move has been taken to ensure young people have a greater say in the running of the organisation, which is a priority of its four-year strategic plan that came into force this year.

Kentish, who is working towards her Queen’s Scout Award, the organisation’s highest accolade, will be in post for three years.

Her priorities include ensuring the association’s leadership connects with young members at a grassroots level. This includes promoting its forum for younger members – the National Youth Council – which will advise the leadership team.

Another aspect of the role is to encourage young members to stay connected with the organisation as they move on to further and higher education or work.

Kentish said: “Over the next three years I look forward to giving more young Scouts, from a wider range of backgrounds, the opportunity to be heard and, ultimately, to experience Scouting to the fullest. It is such an honour to have been appointed as UK youth commissioner and I can’t wait to start working with the rest of the national leadership team.”

She will be supported by two deputies, 18-year-old Jagjeet Bharth and 21-year-old Jay Thompson, who also join the leadership team.

The association’s UK chief commissioner Wayne Bulpitt added: “Having a movement that is shaped by young people in partnership with adults is at the heart of what Scouting is all about, and I am delighted to welcome Hannah and her deputies onto the national leadership team."