Suspending a volunteer

The District Lead Volunteer and the County Lead Volunteer (Area Lead Volunteer in Wales, Regional Lead Volunteer in Scotland and Northern Ireland) can suspend anyone who holds a role in their area.

A Group Lead Volunteer can suspend someone who holds a role in their Group, on the authority of the District Lead Volunteer. They name that District Lead Volunteer when they suspend: pick them from the list if the District uses Scout Suite, or type their name. A Group Lead Volunteer can't suspend a District or County Lead Volunteer, or anyone outside their Group.

Every role they hold stops working, everywhere, without being removed. A suspension from a Group still covers their roles in other Groups, Districts and Counties. They're signed out on every device, and their API keys, assistant tokens and calendar passwords stop working.

Group phone calls stop reaching them: call flows and ring groups skip them, and if nobody else is left to ring the call goes to its usual voicemail or no-answer step. They can't make calls as the Group either. Their phone line and eSIM aren't changed, so calls come back as soon as they're restored.

They're left out of messages and notifications to leaders, event helper lists and staff pickers. A Suspended badge shows by their name on the team list and on their profile.

No access: after signing in they see a page saying they're suspended and who to contact.

Parent access only: their own children's sign-ups, consent forms and payments through the family portal, and nothing as a volunteer. Write down the activities they may still do, such as drop-off and pick-up, and they see that list on their page. Give it to them in writing too.

Learning and compliance only: their own account and their own disclosure check records, so they can see what to put right.

Scout Suite doesn't replace the Scouts' membership system. Record the suspension there as well, and its end when you restore them (POR 16.7.4.10(2)).

While the suspension is in force you can Change what they can reach, the activities list or the end date. Restore ends it, and every role comes back exactly as it was. They sign in again, and make new API keys if they need them.

Every suspension, change and restore goes in the audit log, with who did it, the reason category, the approver and the access level. From a Group it also records whose authority it was on.