Girlguiding's strategy

Girls in Girlguiding are 28% more confident than the UK average and 15% happier. These are interim findings from our latest impact study. The full findings will be published in the next impact report in early 2026.

We know from parents, girls and volunteers that what sets us apart is being girl-led, building girls’ confidence and well-being. We’ll build on this across everything we offer to girls. We’ll be really clear on how having a safe, girl-led space, facilitated by trusted adults, doing activities that are fun and sometimes challenging, contributes to girls feeling more confident and more able to navigate the world around them.

We also know parents are most concerned about their child’s mental health, self-esteem and confidence. Similarly, we’re seeing a need to respond to girls’ concerns around the impact and experience of sexism, appearance pressures and safety.

We know the impact that Girlguiding has on girls and society. We want the world to know too.

We’ll be bolder in our communications and marketing to set us apart from others and shout about our impactful offer which is led and shaped by girls. Our communications will be more led by girls and the things that matter to them.

We know that girls want a space away from school-like pressures to enjoy themselves and feel supported for now and for their future.

We know that as girls get older, their negative experience of gender inequality worsens, and the confidence gap between girls and boys widens.

We’ll expand the ways in which girls aged 11+ can take part in Girlguiding. We’ll design this with girls in and outside of Girlguiding to make it more attractive, suited to older girls’ needs, more flexible and better connected to girls’ future life prospects and interests.

We know Girlguiding volunteers report higher levels of happiness and life satisfaction than the average UK adult who does no volunteering, as well as those who volunteer less frequently with other organisations. Volunteers at Girlguiding also develop girls’ confidence, acting as trusted adults and role models for girls.

We’ve made a lot of progress to make the process of becoming a volunteer easier. We know that there’s still work to be done. We need to meet the needs of our volunteers for years to come, so they can spend more time doing what they love most about guiding.

We know that volunteers have a positive experience when volunteering fits easily into their lives. We'll show how guiding can be offered flexibly to enable more people to give time in a way that works for them. It also helps us make a more inclusive space for everyone to give time if they can.

We’ll continue to improve the processes that are essential to volunteers’ roles, such as training and keeping everyone safe. A big part of this will include building fit-for-purpose digital tools that help make tasks easier. We’ll drive forward a range of improvements large and small over the next few years, including a new digital service.

We’ll have a really clear offer to volunteers about what to expect and what they get from the experience of volunteering for us. We’ll promote being flexible in how people volunteer and offer guiding.

Volunteers will be as free as possible to do what they enjoy most about being in guiding and offer more opportunities to girls.

We’ve done a huge amount to build an inclusive culture and prioritise equity, diversity and inclusion at Girlguiding. But we know we're not yet representative of girls in the UK today. This is particularly true of girls of colour and from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Find out how we're working to be more inclusive.

We hear from girls, parents and volunteers that they might not feel Girlguiding is a place for them, or that it wouldn’t fit in with their lives. Often, we simply aren’t reaching some girls with an offer that works for them.

We need to work harder to make Girlguiding accessible to girls and volunteers from all backgrounds, in spaces where they are, in ways that make sense for the stage of life they’re at. Whether at school, online, in community groups or in health and social care systems.

This means collaborating with local and national partners to deliver guiding in multiple ways.

We want to develop experiences for girls that are inspired by the key elements of Girlguiding. We want to offer girl-led, fun and safe spaces which offer a variety of opportunities to try new things and a shared purpose of gender equality, leading to better confidence and wellbeing.

There are lots of examples of volunteers being incredibly creative with offering experiences to refugees, girls in hospital, girls with parents in prison and during school holidays.

We’ve also trialled offering enrichment activities in schools, such as one-off workshops for girls and issue-specific courses.

By meeting girls where they are, Girlguiding inspired experiences will contribute to Girlguiding being better known and more visible to girls and potential volunteers, as well as more representative.

We’ve been fortunate to have worked with some great organisations who’ve supported our work with girls. We want to continue and build on these partnerships.

To reach girls we currently don’t, we’ll need to work in partnership with communities, schools and youth organisations who already reach those girls. We have over 100 years of expertise to bring. And we want to work with others to address the issues that girls are facing, tackle barriers to confidence and improve wellbeing.

Our volunteers tell us they want to see us working more with local funders, mental health providers, STEM organisations and environmental causes. We’d love to hear from schools, youth clubs or organisations who share our values and would like to collaborate with us– please email [email protected].