The group meets every Tuesday evening in the hospital activity centre (the only official holiday we have is Christmas week!). 
On a treasure huntThe leaders, of whom there are about sixteen, arrive in advance to prepare the area for the meeting - this includes moving chairs and tables, setting up our flag and equipment for the evening, and putting away any distracting toys! The leaders are then let loose to roam the hospital wards and recruit children for the evening. Whilst recruiting occurs, an opening game is played e.g. skittles, which continues until all the leaders have returned - with or without children. As the hospital is so large it often takes the leaders several outings to collect all the willing participants, but when all the children have been collected the programme begins.
Flag Break CeremonyTo start the meeting, each child is made a member of the group for the evening by being given one of our scarves to wear, and is also put into a patrol (team). They then face the Union flag and are taught how to stand ‘At Ease', ‘A The Alert' and how to salute the flag which is broken (unfurled) by a child volunteer.
At 10 Downing StreetThe activities which follow are based on a Guiding/Scouting theme, with such projects as crafts, games, map and compass work, cooking and camp skills. We also take the children out on trips, as we have a specially adapted minibus which takes wheelchairs. Some recent visits have included trips to fire stations, police garages, Regent Street Christmas lights with police motor cycle escort and 10 Downing Street; activities have included cooking pancakes on tincans and marshmallows over candles, pitching tents in outpatients (!), learning about other religions, personal health, the environment and communication.
A game of Balloon VolleyballWe try to end the evening with a game, which allows the children to expend their verbal energy, but which is not too physically demanding. One of the favourites with both children and leaders alike, is balloon volleyball. Another child volunteer then lowers the flag and a short prayer is said. The scarves are collected in and the children are taken back to the wards by the leaders who collected them.
Certificate PresentationBecause of the nature of the group, children normally, and hopefully, only attend one or two meetings When we take our scarves back at the end of the meeting, we exchange them for badges for one, two or three meetings attended. If, however, a child is a long term patient or has to repeatedly come into hospital, which is the case with a small minority of our children, we also have certificates for six, ten and fifteen meetings. If 
Bell Ringingour long term patients wish to become more involved in Scouting and Guiding, then we invite them to take their promise and become a member of our group; we can also contact their local district if they express a wish to continue with Scouting and Guiding outside of the hospital. In the last ten years we have invested one Brownie, three Beavers and a Scout as 17th Holborn members. It is a sad but inevitable fact that the leaders occasionally have to cope with the death of members.
All of our leaders are volunteers, and the majority are also involved with Scouting or Guiding outside the unit. Very few of the leaders work within the hospital, many being employed outside of the NHS - at present leaders jobs include banking, the law, community and youth work, publishing and London Underground. Our group is very different from normal groups in several ways. These include:
Look what I've made!Having a much wider age range than normal - the children we recruit for the evening are aged between six and eighteen. - Not knowing how many will attend a particular meeting - one week we may have four or five, the next week twenty five. We find that our fullest attendance occurs during the school holidays - approx. 200 children attended between April and August 1998.
- Often having a language barrier, as many of the children treated in the hospital come from abroad.
- Having children attend with all manner of conditions, meaning that they are accompanied by drips, frames, wheel chairs, oxygen cylinders and even beds!
Even though there are these problems to contend with, which means that at times programme planning and communication can be difficult, the leaders still find it interesting, enjoyable and very rewarding.
