Dwayne Fields has a new job, but he’s not feeling any pressure. The explorer was appointed UK Chief Scout in September 2024, succeeding TV adventurer Bear Grylls, who calls him “an inspiration”. Most people would find becoming a mentor to nearly half a million young people – Scouts is the biggest youth organisation in the UK – daunting, but not Fields, who has experienced more than his fair share of testing times.
“I don’t feel the pressure,” he says. “I have trust, and I have a lot of support. I will do absolutely everything I can to live up to all that the role requires, in terms of being a role model.”
Role models are vitally important for young people. Austerity-driven cuts to local authority budgets have left youth clubs decimated. In England, the number of local authority-run youth centres dropped from 917 to 427 in a decade with a loss of 4,500 youth worker jobs, according to Unison’s estimates.
As more free time is consumed by phones, social media and online networks, which in themselves are all-consuming, young people – especially boys – look to controversial figures such as Andrew Tate, who police have warned is radicalising boys into extreme misogyny in a “quite terrifying” way.
Scouts can solve plenty of problems – from (responsible) fire-lighting to tying any manner of knots. They might not be able to solve all the big issues facing Britain today, but the connection that groups like Scouts provide can be a game-changer. (Not just for boys either, since 1976 girls have been able to join as well). The main concern for the movement right now is a need for more volunteers. There are currently over 100,000 people on their waiting list. But Dwayne Fields is upbeat. He believes young people are managing the obstacles they face better than many think. “They are able to cope with the challenges in society better than we did, and hopefully they’ll make the world a better place.”
Read more in this week’s Big Issue.
