Scouts to admit children aged four and five as first new group is created in more than 30 years to teach youngsters "skills for life"

Four and five-year-olds will pitch tents and build campfires after the Scouts announced plans to extend woggles to younger children for the first time in the organisation’s 111-year history.

Thirty two years after the introduction of the Beavers, the Scouts will invite under sixes to “be prepared” in a bid to help disadvantaged children develop “skills for life” - and help solve a recruitment crisis which has left thousands of children on waiting lists to join the scheme founded by Robert Baden-Powell in 1907.

The yet to be named section will be trialled in 20 “harder to reach” communities, with a view to a UK-wide roll out in 2020. Suggested names for the new rank include “Squirrels”, “Pups” or even “Lions” - the name of kindergarten scouts in America.

The move comes after Scout numbers in Britain have swelled by an unprecedented 43 per cent over the past decade, from 446,000 in 2006 to 638,000 this year.  

Chief scout Bear Grylls said: “I’m so excited that we are now exploring the idea of helping younger children develop skills for life through Scouting. We know from research that girls and boys’ skills, values and attitudes are formed in their early years of life. We believe that, by offering early years provision, we can ensure we have an even more positive impact on young people’s lives. And that’s what Scouting is about.”

The last time the Scouts extended its programme to younger children was the introduction of Beavers in 1986, which allowed children aged six to eight to join for the first time, growing to 100,000 young people in five years. Currently children over eight join the Cubs before graduating to the Scouts at the age of 10 and a half and becoming Explorer Scouts at 14.

The new Scout programme aims to improve younger children’s emotional resilience, communication and language skills, and give them more independence before they start school.

It is also designed to develop skills such as self-control, problem-solving and give them increased confidence to try new things.

The 12-month pilot is being funded by £640,000 from £18 million set aside by the Department for Education to improve disadvantaged children’s early communication skills.

In a speech today, Education Secretary Damian Hinds will say: “Education begins long before children arrive in the classroom. It begins as soon as they leave the maternity ward, in the crucial early years in the home, where their parents and carers help shape and prepare them to start school.

"But for lots of parents, as much as they want the best for their children, they lack the support they need to ensure that their children are arriving at school at the same level as their peers.”

It is hoped the scheme will engage more parents in a bid to solve a recruitment crisis that has plagued the Scouts in recent years.  The organisation needs to grow its network of 163,000 adult volunteers in order to bring down its waiting list, which currently stands at 55,000 children, up from 35,000 two years ago.

Last year, the American scout movement introduced a new “Lion” rank for kindergarten children aged five following a similar pilot. A study found that 75 per cent of those who volunteered with younger children continued to volunteer in the rest of the Scout movement. “We hope this will be another way of helping to solve the recruitment problem,” said a Scouts spokesman.

The trials will provide spaces for 288 young people and their families, supported by 52 adult volunteers and parents. Groups will be run by parents, by scout volunteers and in partnership with nurseries and pre-schools to determine the best way to deliver the new programme.