The main areas of support to the adult leader are to help him or her to:

• Understand how this association of teams is meant to function as a democratic system of self-government. The adult leader needs to be able to help the teams to build a consensus on what they want to achieve (making sure that the needs and interests of all are taken equally into account), and to help them to organise themselves;
• Be able to enrich the young people’s ideas of what they want to do so as to provide opportunities for the young people to progress towards their educational objectives;
• Observe and understand group dynamics and guide it in a constructive direction;
• Be able to better judge what the young people are really capable of taking on by themselves. This means ensuring physical and emotional security (of the young people and others); being able to overcome the temptation to make life easier by organising everything oneself; not pushing the young people beyond what they can be reasonably be expected to undertake, etc.; 
• Judge if and when to intervene, for example, in a conflict, or when to point out major obstacles, etc.

The team system offers the greatest educational benefits when it:
• enables the teams to operate with a degree of autonomy appropriate to the age group; and
• stimulates close relationships between the members of the teams.

The major consideration in this respect is the range of ages within the teams.

Generally, the team system works best when there is approximately three to four years age difference between the youngest and the oldest in a team.

This is due to the fact that the more mature members of the teams will stimulate the less mature to develop. At the same time, the less mature members stimulate the sense of responsibility in the senior members and give them opportunities to exercise responsibility in helping the younger members to progress, to integrate the code of living, to gain skills, to learn how to work as a team, etc. The presence of younger members also helps the senior members to realize the changes in themselves since they were that age.

However, when the age range is greater than this, the educational impact of the team system becomes greatly reduced. This is because the difference in the level of maturity will be so great that the young people at either end of the age range will feel that they have little in common with those at the other end - and thus will informally regroup according to their natural tendency to be with others of approximately the same age!

For the national association, the fact of limiting the age range so as to enable the team system to fulfil its educational function evidently has implications on the number of age sections that the association offers and/or on the overall range of ages that it addresses.

-With Other Members Of The Scout Unit

In addition to the organisation of life within the teams, there is also the life of the Scout unit to take into account! Summer camps, service projects, etc., involving the whole of the Scout unit need to be built into the design, while still providing time and space for the teams to be together.

In the Scout unit, democracy starts in the teams - as they learn to dialogue and cooperate. The design of the team system needs to ensure that each person has an active role to play. These roles need to involve practical responsibilities - related to the needs and welfare of the teams. The roles need to be conceived so as to appeal to the young people and offer challenge. The responsibilities must also be adapted to the level of development and experience of the young people - i.e. less complex for the newcomers.

One of the roles is that of team leader. This young person’s responsibility is to coordinate the team, help the team members to reach a consensus on what they want to do and carry out their roles, represent them at the team leaders’ council, help coordinate activities involving the whole Scout unit, etc. As it requires maturity and experience of how the Scout unit functions, this is a role designed for senior youth members of the Scout unit.

The appointment of the team leaders is also part of the democratic process, based on who the team members and the adult leaders consider is most capable of doing the job. It is important, however, that the role of team leader is not the only challenging role for senior members. 

  

• It contributes to a young person’s emotional development through providing a sense of belonging, a feeling of being appreciated and through providing the basis for the kind of close friendships that young people may have difficulty in developing elsewhere.

• A close-knit group provides a stimulating atmosphere in which each young person makes more of an effort to gain the skills and experience needed for their activities and life together. The greater the skills, talents and experience the young people are able to pool as a team, the more opportunities are opened up for challenging and meaningful experiences - for the group and for each person.

• This bond helps the young person to develop a deeper understanding of the meaning of responsibility and solidarity. Initially, a young person may carry out a task, turn up at a rendezvous or help out another member because it is part of the “rules of the game”. When the young people grow to care about each other, the young person will carry out a task because he or she knows that the others are counting on him or her and does not want to let them down.

• The young person who seeks the approval of peers observes the group’s reactions to his or her attitudes and behaviour, and thus provides a mirror effect. He or she can thus be encouraged to develop a greater self-awareness, often resulting in a change of attitude and behaviour. For example, the timid are encouraged to develop greater assertiveness; the “bossy” are made to sense the need to leave room for others.

• Young people have a natural tendency to form groups of roughly the same age. The team system is a way of making use of this natural tendency in order to provide an environment in which young people enjoy being and in order to channel the substantial influence that peers  have on each other in a constructive direction.
• What young people gain from living and working together according to a code of living and the relationships that develop as a result of a multitude of shared adventures are as important in terms of their education as the activities in which they take part. 
• In Scouting, young people of roughly the same age operate in small groups of six to eight members. Each small group operates as a team. Within each team, the young people organise their life as a group and decide upon, organise and carry out their activities. Each young person has a specific responsibility which he or she carries out for an agreed length of time which contributes to the life and welfare of the team and the success of their activities.
• In each of the teams, one of the young people, acknowledged by the others to be the leader, assumes a general coordinating role and convenes meetings with the other members, giving each member the opportunity to take part in the decisions and to be fully involved in the life of the team. 
• Several of these teams (usually four to six) form a Scout unit, supported by an adult leader and adult assistants. The Scout unit is managed by a council involving the team leaders and the adult leader.Although the adult leaders are not members of the teams, they are nonetheless in close contact with each of the teams and with each young person.  
• While the team is the basic grouping in which the young people operate, the young people are also part of the Scout unit as a whole. During the Scout year, there are activities which involve the whole of the Scout unit. These provide opportunities for each team to contribute to the well-being of the Scout unit as a whole and provide opportunities for the young people to get to know the others in the other teams. 
• All these elements combined form an organised social structure and a democratic system of self-government based on the Scout law that Baden-Powell called the “patrol system” 4. Each person is involved in the government of this mini-society and has a share of the responsibility in ensuring the well-being of its members.
• Despite the name, the “patrol system” was not in any way intended to reflect a military-style line of command in which the adult leader gave orders to be carried out by the patrols. Indeed, if it were to operate in this way, it would not be able to fulfil its educational function.