Adult to child ratios

‘Adults’ includes leaders, unit helpers, parent helpers and other adult roles in guiding. 

For all sections, make sure that at every unit meeting there’s: 

• An adult with up to date first aid training, either through completing Girlguiding’s 1st response training or an approved equivalent which is on their GO record.
• At least 1 adult volunteer with or working towards their leader development programme (or holds a completed leadership qualification).
• At least 1 leader, assistant leader, or leader in training with an up-to-date a safe space level 3 or safer guiding.

Adults with roles that require them should have a current Girlguiding disclosure check (DBS/Access NI/PVG).   

Any volunteer who doesn't need a disclosure check for their role must be supervised at all times by someone with a current Girlguiding disclosure check.  

Rainbows and Brownies  

There should be a minimum of 2 adults on site during normal unit meetings at your usual meeting place.  

Guides and Rangers  

You can run a unit with 1 adult but you should minimise risk by trying to: 

• Run the unit meeting in a building where there are other adults present. 
• Run the meeting with young leaders to support. 
• Make sure parents and carers of girls understand that the unit is running with only 1 adult. 
• Find a second adult to help for the long term. This could be a parent helper or another volunteer.

The best size of a unit depends on the space you’re using and what feels comfortable with your leadership structure and capacity.  

We recommend a minimum unit size of 5 girls for all sections. But the leader can make a judgement call based on things like section (Ranger units might be smaller) and practicality (an equal number of girls might be better for activities).  

Venues vary from unit to unit. Make decisions on ratios based on your usual meeting space. For example, you might need more than the 2 mandatory adults because: 

• Your usual venue has lots of breakout spaces that you use regularly.
• Your venue is particularly large. 

You might need more support for some activities. For example, activities that: 

• Have lots of resources that girls might need help with, like science experiments. 
• Break girls up into lots of teams or groups, like wide games or skills builders. 
• Are facilitated by young leaders who might need support. 

You might have girls in your unit who need one-to-one support in meetings. You’ll need to think about the needs of individual girls and change your leadership team capacity to make sure they’re supported.  

There’s more information on including members with additional needs here.  

If you have young  leaders in your unit you will need to think about their support needs, based on their skills, confidence and ability. 

However, young leaders can also take on leadership responsibility for the unit; for example, a competent and confident young leader could support break out groups, help with facilitation and general support, and be tasked to lead specific activities, with supervision.

Therefore in your ratio planning, you might factor in a confident and competent young leader as a leadership team member.

Young leaders should support girls in groups, never 1 to 1.

You might want to run a breakout session in your online group.  

In each breakout group, you'll need to have at least 1 adult present. They must be a registered Girlguiding volunteer like a unit helper or a leader. Parent helpers don’t count.  

As always, you shouldn’t have 1 adult with 1 young person alone, in any activity, including breakout rooms. Make sure you end the call and tell the unit leader if this happens.