Tomorrow's Guide and the 1968 programme

The Girl Guides Association set up a Working Party to look at its programme in 1964. Its report, Tomorrow’s Guide: Report of the Working Party, 1964–1966, is a book of about 195 pages, published by the Association in 1966.^[1] We have not yet read the report; this entry draws on later accounts and on notices in Guiding magazines.

Why review the programme?

Girlguiding’s members’ magazine later explained that the programme “had now been around for 50 years”, and that the organisation had realised “having the same tests for everyone wasn’t very fair or realistic”.^[3]

The Guides were not alone. The Scout Association’s own chronology records its Advance Party Report and a new Promise and Law in 1966, and the renaming of the Boy Scouts Association as The Scout Association in 1967.^[4] Smaller changes had already begun: transcribed magazine notices record a new “air-hostess” style hat in place of the beret in 1964 and a new rayon blouse in 1965.^[2]

Evidence status: Interpretation The historian Jim Gledhill argues that the movement’s leaders “analysed and assimilated predominant social mores and tastes amongst British youth”. In his view, the success of this reinvention casts doubt on the popular picture of the 1960s as a decade of youthful radicalism.^[5] Our summary rests on the article’s published abstract.

What changed

According to the transcribed notices, the report was due to go on sale on 14 September 1966. Its first changes came into force in January 1967. These included a new Promise and Laws, an amended religious policy, new section names, and “GuiderAn adult volunteer leader. Titles such as Captain and Lieutenant are widely remembered for Guide companies; we are confirming them and their dates against rules editions.” as the collective term for adult leaders. A Patrol Leaders’ Council replaced the Court of Honour. The new Guide Promise still included the words “To do my duty to God, To serve the Queen and help other people”; the reference to duty to God stayed until 1994.^[2]

The main programme followed on 18 March 1968. New handbooks were due that day, and the “Eight point programme” came into use. Old tests and badges, such as the Brownie Golden Hand and the Guide Second Class and First Class badges, became obsolete. Girls part-way through an old test could embroider coloured lines onto their badge to show how many clauses they had passed.^[2] Girlguiding describes the new programme as “based around Eight Points – different themes which varied by section”.^[3]

Evidence status: Unconfirmed These dates rest mainly on one enthusiast’s transcription of magazine notices, which gives no issue references. We have not yet checked them against The Guider or the report. The same site reports that the new handbooks arrived late in many areas.^[2]

For older girls, Land, Sea and Air Rangers and Cadets were merged in 1967. Evidence status: Disputed Sources differ on the names. The magazine notices say that “Ranger Guide replaces Cadet and Rangers” and that Senior Branch became “Ranger Guide Service Units”.^[2] Girlguiding Scotland’s archives team instead gives “Senior Branch” as the name of the merged section from 1967.^[6]

Beyond headquarters

The reform was planned centrally but carried out unit by unit across the four nations. Ceredigion Archives in Wales holds a copy of the report among Cardiganshire Guide records. The collection also has Guides Cymru biennial reports for 1965/66 and 1967/68, and a log book of the 6th Aberystwyth Company for 1964–75.^[7] Records like these could show how the changes reached girls in one place. See also sections and ages and badges, uniforms and handbooks.

Sources

1. Girl Guides Association, “'Tomorrow's Guide': report of the Working Party, 1964–1966”, 1966. Accessed 25 October 2026. details to check Not yet consulted for this site. Title, publisher, date and length (195 pages) are taken from library catalogue records (British Library, Bodleian Libraries, University of Birmingham) via Jisc Library Hub Discover.
2. Leslie's Guiding History, “Historian's Corner”. Accessed 25 October 2026. Enthusiast compilation of dated extracts from Guiding periodicals (The Guider, Guiding and others), arranged by month. Issue and page references are not given, so each entry is a lead to be checked against the magazine itself.
3. Girlguiding, “Over 110 years of change”, Guiding magazine, winter 2022, 2022. Accessed 25 October 2026. Members' magazine feature written ahead of the 2023 brand refresh. It says itself that it may contain mistakes and invites corrections; some of its dates differ from other sources.
4. The Scout Association, “The Passing Years: Milestones in the progress of Scouting (factsheet FS295306)”. Accessed 25 September 2026.
5. Jim Gledhill, “White Heat, Guide Blue: The Girl Guide Movement in the 1960s”, Contemporary British History 27, no. 1, 2013, pp. 65–84.
6. Girlguiding Scotland, Scottish Archives Team, “The Senior Section: Uniform through the ages”, Girlguiding Scotland, 2016. Accessed 25 September 2026. Centenary poster set; dates checked by the archives team against Policy, Organisation and Rules and The Guiding Manual.
7. Ceredigion Archives, “DSO/17: The Girl Guides Association (catalogue)”, Archifdy Ceredigion – Ceredigion Archives. Accessed 25 October 2026. Catalogue of Cardiganshire and Ceredigion Guide records, including a copy of Tomorrow's Guide (item 49).