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Important Note

1. You are strongly recommended to leave your policy number with a close friend or relative before leaving home together with your address and telephone number. This would assist considerably in an emergency.
2. Group Travel implies that the Group departs and returns at the same time. If Leaders are travelling in advance or returning later, or if any other special arrangements are required, please contact your local branch for a quotation.
3. Expeditions vary and often involve hazardous or dangerous activities with large amounts of valuable equipment. These can usually be covered but must be referred in writing to Schools Travel Insurance, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL51 4UE for a special quotation well in advance of departure.

We know that school trips are of great educational and social value to pupils of all ages but the planning and execution often cause considerable anxiety for those responsible.

With so many news stories about injuries on educational visits, how much planning is necessary?
Last year, the DfES circulated more advice on the overseeing of trips. With the introduction of the post of educational visits coordinator (EVC), and increased involvement from local education authorities, school trips are receiving more administrative and legal support than ever.

However, for the teacher planning an educational visit, navigating the various documents relating to law, insurance, health and safety and parental permission is still a stressful activity.

The following advice is only suggested but we do hope some of the points are useful. A well-planned trip is likely to inspire confidence in parents, colleagues and pupils alike. However, accidents can and will happen. But as long as reasonable care is taken by adult supervisors, the school trip or journey is likely to be hugely enjoyable and thoroughly worthwhile.

Writing to parents
Letters providing information or asking for consent for school trips should always go via the head or other senior staff member. If you are planning a one-day trip, or a visit to somewhere local, you may find that a letter of parental consent is unnecessary. For instance, your school may issue a document to parents which states that, from time to time, pupils will be taken off-site for educational purposes. If this is the case, parental consent is implied, and only those parents who have specifically asked to be informed of the details of each visit need be informed by letter.

You must check your school's policy on parental consent: never take implicit consent for granted. Parents are within their rights to withhold consent for a visit, in which case the pupil in their care should not accompany the trip. If the proposed trip is residential, or will involve unusual or high-risk activities, it is advisable to invite parents to a meeting where an outline of the activities can be given, and questions can be asked and answered.

When writing to acquire consent, it is also advisable to ask to be made aware of any allergies, medication and relevant medical history. You might also need to ask about the level of a pupil's swimming ability or the location, dosage and administration of a pupil's medication.

Regardless of the type of visit, information such as the pupil's name and address, full contact and emergency details and the name and number of the family doctor are a must.

Staff supervision
There is no hard and fast rule about staff to pupil ratios: variables such as the nature of the activities, and special medical or behavioural needs of pupils can alter the level of reasonable staffing that the visit needs.

Your school or LEA should have its own guidelines. The Association of Teachers and Lecturers recommends a ratio of at least 2:20, but if potentially hazardous activities are involved or if some pupils require a high degree of support, an increase in the number of supervisors may be necessary.

Remember with a mixed group to ensure at least one man and one woman accompany the trip.

Health and safety
Every aspect of school-trip planning comes back to health and safety advice. Check your school's health and safety policy and that of your LEA for guidance on school trips - these will be based on the 2002 guidelines issued by the DfES in response to fatalities on educational visits. The key documents are "Standards for adventure" (details of supervision, risk assessments and ratios for adventure activities); "Standards for LEAs in overseeing educational visits" (which makes clear the responsibilities of the EVC, the governing body and the headteacher); and "A handbook for group leaders" (a very accessible and practical guide to all aspects of the off-site visit). These publications are available on the DfES website.

Insurance
Schools are insured through their LEA (independent schools generally have their own policies, which should be available from the bursar) and no trip should be contemplated before talking through insurance provisions with your school visits coordinator.

Insurance policies vary in their provision of cover, but the major areas to be aware of are personal injury (which covers fatality and serious injury) and public liability (which covers the school and its teachers in the event of a claim following an injury or fatality).

It is important to check that the policy meets the needs of the proposed visit: is the personal effects cover high enough?; are you insured for dangerous or unusual activities?; what happens if the trip needs to be cancelled? When you send out a letter of consent to parents, inform them of the insurance cover in case they need to take out supplementary insurance to cover the loss of valuables that their child may bring.

You might like to get in touch with your union before committing to the trip, in order to discuss your own liability as it relates to the insurance provided by your subscriptions.

What are you responsible for?
Your school should have a policy on educational visits that makes clear the planning and organisational steps teachers should carry out. Most schools will have appointed a senior teacher to coordinate off-site visits, and he or she will be able to give advice about the management of both one-day and residential trips. They should be conversant with risk management procedures, parent liaison and budget management.

You must also contact your LEA outdoor education adviser. Ultimate responsibility for the visit rests with the LEA, but you have a duty to draw up and circulate the necessary documentation: risk assessments, proposed itinerary, emergency contact numbers and any special needs that must be accommodated. Remember that even though a risk assessment has been drawn up, you are responsible for managing that risk throughout the trip (see below).

Whilst your employer (LEA or governing body) must ensure a senior member of staff is contactable whenever pupils are taken off-site, you as party leader must take care to put the best interests of the party first when reacting to incidents or accidents. There are some provisions that should be made regularly by the party leader, such as head counts, checks on seat belts and whole-party briefings. In the event of a serious incident, as soon as you have made yourself and your party safe, you should contact your school or LEA.

Risk assessments
The DfES publication "Five steps to risk assessment" is very useful in formulating an accurate risk assessment for a school trip, identifying questions that must be asked of every trip. Which permanent hazards might the group face? Who is at risk? How high is the risk and what would be its outcome? How will you factor the risk into your planning, and how would you propose to react to it?

Remember that risks are assessed twice for each trip, once by the school's visits coordinator and once by the LEA's educational visits officer. The idea is to ensure that risks are kept low - the price you might pay for a low-risk trip is the omission of one or more of its proposed activities from the itinerary.

Overnight stays
If you're planning a trip that will involve a residential visit, all the usual guidelines apply. However, there are some extra aspects that must be factored into your planning.

You will not be able to supervise pupils 24 hours a day, so it is important to think about the security of the rooms in which pupils will be staying. It is advisable to put questions to the accommodation provider well in advance of your stay.

Increased risks of drug or alcohol abuse among older children also come with residential visits, as does the danger of bullying. You should take reasonable steps to make sure pupils are aware of the rules, and should make provision in the letter you send to parents for sanctions to be enforced if pupils are found to be behaving in a dangerous or anti-social manner.