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Change in the KCC Scheme of Delegation for the Management of Educational Visits and Activities

In order to better reflect the growing autonomy of schools KCC is changing the scheme of delegation currently used for the management of educational visits and activities for maintained schools in Kent.

Updated: 19 May 2023

KCC has chosen to delegate the responsibility for the safe planning and management of educational visits, including adventurous and residential activities, to the Headteacher and Governing Body of the school or establishment.

KCC will provide all schools with a ‘Kent Framework for Safe Practice on Educational Visits’ to support and guide schools in the planning and managing educational visits.

Direct support, guidance, policies and technical advice, along with access to KCC’s online Approvals and Monitoring system, will now only be available by purchasing a service and support package. Training continues to be available to all schools, based on the current fees per course.

What does this mean in practice?

Currently, all maintained schools are required to gain the approval of KCC’s Outdoor Education Unit before undertaking any off-site visit which is either adventurous, residential, or taking place outside of Kent. From 1 September 2017 all maintained schools and establishments will be responsible for approving their own educational visits and activities, including residential and adventurous activities. This means schools and establishments must ensure that they have clear and robust systems, policies and procedures in place for the planning and management of educational visits and activities. School’s educational visit management systems should evidence that:

  • Visits are planned to ensure the safety of pupils and young people, including appropriate risk management and assessment that is specific to the needs of the pupils, the planned activity and the location and environment.
  • Visit planning and approval is carried out by a competent staff member with appropriate experience and training; an Educational Visits Coordinator (EVC) should be nominated in each school or establishment to carry out this role and should attend an EVC training course. This role can be retained by the Headteacher/Manager or delegated to an appropriate staff member.
  • Visits are planned with clear educational aims and objectives, based on pupils’ needs and abilities, to support high quality learning outcomes.
  • Visits are planned and led by competent members of school or establishment staff, with appropriate qualifications and experience as required by the activities.
  • Appropriate technical expertise is sought in relation to the planning and management of more hazardous or adventurous activities, including the verification of activity leader qualifications, safe activity management, appropriate ratios, etc.
  • External providers used to provide services and support, have been appropriately checked to ensure they are suitable for use on educational visits, meeting nationally accepted standards and legal adventurous activity requirements (e.g. Adventurous Activities Licence) where appropriate.
  • Appropriate emergency and serious incident procedures are in place to manage accidents, incidents and safeguarding issues, and that visit information can be easily accessed by all those who need it in an emergency situation.
  • Information and documents relating to educational visits are appropriately stored and retained, in line with data protection and document retention requirements, to support incident management and potential investigations/court proceedings after serious incidents, accidents, etc.
  • All school and establishment staff are appropriate trained for their roles in leading and accompanying educational visits and activities.
  • All visits and activities have been formally approved by the Headteacher or Educational Visits Coordinator (EVC).
  • Informed activity and medical consent has been obtained from parents (and guardians) as appropriate for the type visit, and that parents (and guardians) are fully informed about all educational visit activity plans if specific consent has not been gained.
  • Full medical information and details of other issues such as behaviour, dietary requirements, etc have been obtained from parents and are available to visit leaders and accompanying school or establishment staff as appropriate.
  • Appropriate monitoring and evaluation of visits and activities takes place, to ensure quality and safety.

The change in delegation of the management of the health and safety of school educational visits brings this area in line with KCC’s general approach to the management of health and safety in schools. KCC will continue to monitor compliance with its scheme of delegation and adherence to its Framework for Safe Practice on Educational Visits. This is likely to be through sampling the arrangements of a proportion of trips and visits.

Outdoor learning and educational visit support packages available

The Outdoor Education Unit provides professional high quality advice, guidance and support for schools in managing educational visits and activities, and in developing outdoor education and learning as a tool for learning and development.

Our Advisors are highly experienced outdoor educators and qualified teachers who can support schools with professional and practical advice with all aspects of managing educational visits, and in developing curriculum-linked outdoor learning activities at school.

Advisors are accredited members of the national Outdoor Education Advisors Panel (OEAP), which produces the benchmark ‘OEAP National Guidance’ for educational visits along with professional training courses such as the Educational Visit Coordinator (EVC) training.

The Outdoor Education Unit and its advisors are also directly involved with many wider national Outdoor Learning stakeholders and initiatives including the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom (CLOtC) and Learning Away Brilliant Residentials project, ensuring schools are at the forefront of new ideas and developments.

Key features of outdoor education unit service and support packages include:

  • Direct access to experienced and qualified Outdoor Education Advisors available via phone, email and for meetings, site visits, etc.
  • Advisors provide schools with professional technical advice and guidance in the safe practice of educational visits, adventurous and other outdoor learning activities helping employers to meet legal health and safety and nationally accepted good practice standards.
  • Access to comprehensive, robust and tested policy and guidance information and documents to support both maintained and academy schools in their management of educational visits and outdoor learning activities.
  • Access to a flexible and powerful online visits management approval and monitoring tool - EVOLVE Visits. This bespoke Kent-specific system links directly the Outdoor Education Unit’s policies, procedures and visit approvals process - ensuring simple and effective communication between schools and Advisors.
  • The EVOLVE system provides a powerful and easy to use tool for Headteachers and EVCs to use day to day to reduce the workload and administration of visit management. The system provides a comprehensive tool to evidence good planning and practice on educational visit and activities, covering all aspects of visit management from staffing to risk management in a single easy to use and accessible online tool, as well as features and tools for reporting on and evaluation of visits.
  • The EVOLVE+ option provides further tools for reducing workload and administration allowing the system to directly link with schools SIMs systems for automatic daily updates of staff, pupils and other information. Other features and tools include online visit consent, communications with parents, and options for schools to personalise approvals process to include staff such as finance and cover managers in the process.
  • The EVOLVE system allows KCC as a Local Authority to provide much more effective support in the event of serious accidents and incidents, as well as direct 24/7 access to detailed visit information for school Governors and Academy Trust management.
  • Access to a large maintained database of checked and ‘vetted’ educational visit and activity providers in Kent, the UK and abroad, ensuring that schools and employers only use educational providers that meet both national accepted and local Kent standards for educational provision. All adventurous activity and/or residential accommodation providers have been individually checked by experienced Advisors to ensure they hold national accreditation such as LOtC Quality Badge, Adventure Activities Licence (AALS) or have been checked by the Outdoor Education Unit to similar standards.
  • Extensive CPD training opportunities for school staff covering a wide range of areas from visits management for senior staff as well as teachers and teaching assistants on the ground; adventurous activity skills development including teambuilding, orienteering and map work, camping and campfires; to the development of outdoor learning activities in the curriculum.
  • Consultancy and site visits support with the development of school curriculums and school grounds for outdoor learning; maximising the benefits and minimising the costs.

Service packages and prices

Package A:

  • Full access to the EVOLVE online educational visit approvals and monitoring system management tool for all school staff. Direct Outdoor Education Advisor approval of all residential and adventurous activity visits, with sample monitoring of non-adventurous day visits.
  • Access to the current full list of vetted Providers - including vetting of up to three new educational Providers per year.
  • Telephone and written advice and guidance as required.

Package B:

  • Full access to the EVOLVE online educational visit approvals and monitoring system management tool for all school staff. Direct Outdoor Education Advisor approval of all residential and adventurous activity visits, with sample monitoring of non-adventurous day visits.
  • Access to the current full list of vetted Providers - vetting of new providers charged for as required.
  • Telephone and written advice and guidance as required.

Package C:

  • Access to the current full list of vetted providers plus telephone and written advice and access to on-line advice

Package D:

  • Access to telephone and written information from our currentfull list of vetted Providers.

Package E:

  • ‘As and when’ advice and guidance/consultancy. Please note that this service does not include approval of educational visits or providing information from our current full list of vetted Providers.

Contact details

For further information on packages please contact:

The Education People,  Outdoor Education Advisory Service
Telephone: 03301 651040
Email: outdoor.education@theeducationpeople.org