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School trip tragedy will provide lessons

A report on the tragic drowning of a 10 year-old boy during a school activity weekend will help communicate vital lessons and provide practical advice to those who have a role in organising educational visits, said the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Working with Cumbria Police, the national body will carry out an extensive investigation into the tragedy which took place at Glenridding in the Lake District in 2002 and will publish its findings in a web report. It hopes that lessons can be implemented into future debates and guidance for LEAs, school staff and parents.

The announcement comes at a time when there has been growing concern over educational trips, both in terms of their continuance and the increasing tendency of parents towards a  compensation culture.

The report will make it clear that educational visits are of immense value to children's development and should continue and that such visits are particularly valuable when the opportunity is taken to involve the young people in practical decision-making so that they can learn to make risk-based judgements.

It will also seek to reassure teachers that as along as they follow the existing guidance published by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) they should have no problem in running safe and rewarding visits.

Guidance on the important questions that parents and others may wish to ask prior to a trip will also be included in the HSE web report.

Lessons arising from this incident, which cover the roles of LEAs, head teachers, governers and leaders, include:

• leaders of these activities need to be competent, diligent and should always put the safety and best interests of the young people first
• they should always follow the DfES guidance on educational visits, which can be downloaded free from its website
• schools and providers of outdoor education/adventure activities need to have effective management systems in place to ensure that leaders taking young people into hazardous environments are properly selected and supported
• effective arrangements for assessing and ensuring competence and for monitoring leaders should be in place

Many of the lessons are also applicable to leaders and managers from other bodies, such as youth organisations and independent schools.