A Beavers programme for boys and girls is operated by The Scout Association in the United Kingdom through some local Scout Groups, which "are autonomous [organisations] affiliated to The Scout Association"The Scout Association, Policy, Organisation and Rules, updated on 29 April 2025, accessed on 30 April
Beavers wear a uniform consisting of a light blue sweatshirt. The Beavers programme was originally open only to boys but has been open to girls since 1991. The Beavers programme is open to those of different faiths or none. Beavers are led by a trained volunteer adult leader and sometimes trained assistant leaders, regular helpers with basic training, 14-18 year old young helpers and occasional helpers who may be parents.
History
Early ideas: 1960s Beavers, like Cubs before them, arose from demand from younger children to join-in Scouts and from organisation imperatives to recruit more and younger children to increase enrolments and compete with other organisations and activities.
In 1963, a programme called The Little Brothers for pre-8 year olds was set up in Northern Ireland by the 1st Dromore Group. It spread to Belfast with seven groups two years later. The creation of an under eight programme was sparked by the launch of younger sections in other youth organisations at the time, including the Anchors section of the Boys' Brigade, which some feared was partly causing a drop in numbers of Cubs experienced at the time. As the programme spread throughout the rest of the province, it was given the name of Beavers in 1966, which had been a name considered by Robert Baden-Powell when creating Wolf Cubs.
Also in 1966, The Chief Scout's Advance Party Report was published, which brought to a close a period of reflection undertaken since January 1964 and led to significant changes within the organisation, with the question of a pre-Cub programme having been looked into. The report came to the conclusion that any lowering of the age for the newly renamed Cubs below 8 years old would result in difficulties in retaining the older Cubs and that allowing boys under 8 should not be allowed, to maintain a uniform approach. Any provision for boys under 8 must therefore be developed as their own programme, which was not recommended as being followed at that time. It did however recommend that any developments in this area be monitored.
Trials: 1970s Despite the 1966 report's recommendations, other under eight provisions were trialled and investigated in a number of different locations internationally and informally in the United Kingdom. By 1975 there existed in England an 'Adventurers' section in Dulwich and West Peckham in South London, 'Mini-Cubs' in Lancashire, 'Tweenies' in Southwark and 'Pre-Scout training' in Brighton. There were also a number of sections in Scotland including Acorns (A Cub OR Nearly So) in Coatbridge, Mini-Cubs and Tenderpads in Dundee and over a dozen groups in Glasgow of varying names including Panthers, Beavers, Chimps, Sparks and Mini-Cubs, with an advisory body. All of these organisations differed wildly in programme, uniform, structure and whether they had a law and promise.
However, by 1975, Beavers in Northern Ireland had advanced significantly to include approximately 100 Beaver groups, 2,500 boys and 200 leaders; this compared to around 4,500 Cubs in 520 packs at the same time. In September 1968, the Beavers Association was set up to oversee development of the section and they published a Beavers Handbook and organised an annual conference for leaders. It was noticed that a number of adults had stepped forward to help run the section who had no previous connection to youth work, which allayed fears over the growth of the new section by some. A common uniform of a grey shirt and emerald green necker was introduced, as was a programme that did not use any of the Cub content at all, instead linked to four pawprint badges and the name Beavers as a backronym: Building, Energy release, Adventure, Variety, Entertaining, Religion and Storytelling. In 1973, a resolution was published requesting Beavers be formally adopted in Northern Ireland and, in early 1975, this was approved.
In 1974, the youth scene had developed enough that a new review and report were commissioned to look into the matter of a pre-Cub section. The Wellbeloved Report, which was published in 1975, recommended the development of an under eight section as a priority. It determined a section could be delivered in line with the aims of the movement and would not cause significant reputational or organisational problems for the other older sections.
Launch and growth: 1982-2002 In October 1982 Beavers were introduced throughout the United Kingdom with a uniform of a grey jumper, turquoise necker, maroon woggle and optional grey tracksuit bottoms. The section formally became a programme operated by The Scout Association on 1 April 1986 with the introduction of a simplified promise. The initial award for the section was a singular award for at least nine months of participation in a varied programme, at least one visit and at least one good turn. By the time Beavers was formally launched, there were 60,000 Beavers in the UK.
A small change to the uniform came in 1990 when Beavers were able to wear their group necker instead of a turquoise one. A larger change came in 1991 when girls were allowed into the section for the first time. This change was confirmed in 2007 when all Beavers dens were made coeducational (with some exceptions). As of January 2020, the number of Beavers in the UK was 127,030, of whom 100,997 were recorded as male and 25,633 were recorded as female, meaning at present 20.1% of the section are female.
A small re-boot to the section came in 1995 when the Beavers badge was removed and replaced by two separate badges. The rationale for this replacement was that a year was a long time for a Beaver to wait for a reward for taking part, so this was split into two awards, each awarded for 6–8 months' participation in a varied programme. An optional Beaver challenge was launched, awarded for completing four challenges that matched the programme areas: a personal challenge, a scouting challenge, an exploring challenge and a caring activity. The uniform was also modified to allow for different coloured woggles with a scarf as a 'lodge' system of grouping young people had become popular and many wished to display this through coloured woggles.
In 1997, the ability for Beavers to participate in single night sleepovers was added to the programme as an option with the aim of giving Beavers a taste of the residential experiences offered in Cubs and Scouts as well as a way of developing independence skills.
A local Boy in Ardsley from Barnsley started antending Beevers in 1986 then progressed though to Cubs then 36th Air scourts. Finishing in 1995 this makes Jonathan Brian Smailes the 1st person to go from Beavers through to scouts. An award was presented to him for this achievement from Ian Wroe , Carole bingley and her husband David Bingley.
Re-launch: 2002-2015
In 2002, the Beaver programme, badges and uniform were completely overhauled. The uniform became a light blue sweatshirt and there was a much bigger range of badges for the Beavers to earn, aligning the programme with the other programmes. A logo was introduced along with all publications for the programme being relaunched to reflect the new programme and The Scout Association's brand and visual identity standards.
The First and Second Beaver awards were discontinued, and two Joining In Awards were introduced to recognise a year's participation in the new programme, now divided into five programme zones. While participation was now marked through the Joining In Awards, new Challenge awards and a top award for the section were introduced to mark achievement. Initially there were three (the Outdoor Challenge, the Discovery Challenge and the Friendship Challenge), each requiring the Beaver to complete six activities from areas that linked to the wider programme objectives and zones. The top award for the section, the Chief Scout's Bronze Award, was achieved for completion of the Outdoor challenge, one of the other challenges and a personal challenge.
In addition, Activity Badges were introduced to the section for the first time, mirroring the ability to be rewarded for progression in a skill that had existed in older sections for decades. Initially five were launched: Animal Friend, Creative, Experiment, Explore and Faith. In October 2006 the five badges were updated and seven new badges were added to give greater choice and to provide coverage into more areas of the programme: Adventure, Air Activities, Health & Fitness, Healthy Eating, Hobbies, Imagination and Safety.
Beavers also benefited from the introduction of Staged Activity Badges and the Group Awards (later renamed Partnership Awards) in 2002 which were available to all sections under 18 years. The Group Awards were a series of three (International friendship, Environment and Faith) that encouraged multiple sections within a group to work together or to work with outside organisations to complete a project or activity. The Staged Activity Badges mirrored the new activity badges in each section but consisted of stages (five initially) that members could achieve at any age and often included skills that were developed over time. Upon their launch there were four focusing on Information Technology, Musician, Swimming and Nights Away (with the five stages recognising one, five, 10, 20 and 50 cumulative nights away from home respectively) before gaining badges in Emergency Aid and Hikes Away in October 2006 (with the Nights and Hikes away changing from five stages to more frequent stages numbered to directly reflect the number required).
In 2008, the programme zones were re-launched so that there were now six zones with common themes for all four under 18 sections. As part of this, the Challenge Awards for the section were entirely re-written and replaced with six Challenge Awards that aligned with the six new zones: Promise, Friendship, Fitness, Creative, Global and Outdoor challenges. The Chief Scout's Bronze Award was also altered to make achievement of the award as simple as achieving all six Challenge Awards.
In 2006. Beavers celebrated the programme's 20th anniversary in with a special Fundays event and also the 90th anniversary of Cubs. The following year celebrated the 100th anniversary of Scouts. The 25th anniversary was celebrated in 2011, with various events around the country and a book published for the event.
In 2014, Scouting for All a strategic plan for the next four years was launched, which included an increased focus of community impact, youth voice and inclusion in the programme and which emerged from youth feedback. Off the back of this, a refresh of the programme was scheduled for 2015 and in April 2014, The Scout Association released nine new activity badges and one new staged activity badge which were to be added as part of the refresh. These nine new badges looked at Camp Craft, Collector, Communicator, Cyclist, Disability Awareness, Gardener, Photographer, Space and Sports with a new staged activity badge that captured the number of water activities completed (Time on the Water).
Skills for life refresh: 2015-present
In January 2015, the Beaver programme received a refresh along with the programmes of all other sections and saw a renewed emphasis on outdoor activities, skills and world activities and the dropping of programme zones and partnership awards. Subsequently, the six Challenge Awards were replaced with six new hexagonal Challenge Awards: My Adventure, My Outdoors, My Skills, My World, Teamwork and Personal Challenges.