School trip risk assessment

The legal frame

There is no separate school trips law. The duties come from the 1974 Act, the Management Regulations and the employer's own policy. The employer is the local authority for maintained schools, the trust for academies and the proprietor for independent schools, and it is the employer's policy that sets the approval route.

HSE guidance is explicit that it does not expect paperwork to be disproportionate. A local walk to a park does not need the assessment that a residential trip abroad needs. Sensible, proportionate and specific is the standard.

A trip assessment is a normal assessment with travel added, so start from what a risk assessment legally needs to include.

The Educational Visits Coordinator

Most employers require a trained Educational Visits Coordinator to review and support visit planning, and require higher risk or overseas visits to be approved by the employer through a system such as EVOLVE. Check the local scheme before planning, because approval lead times of four to eight weeks for overseas trips are common.

The visit leader remains responsible for the trip on the day. Anyone leading should have visited or thoroughly researched the venue, and a pre visit is expected for anything beyond a routine local outing.

Cover away from the premises comes out of your first aid needs assessment, not out of the school office.

What to assess

Work through the trip in sequence rather than by hazard category.

• Travel: coach operator checks, seat belts, boarding and alighting points, headcounts at every transition, journey time and driver hours.
• The venue: its own risk assessment, supervision expectations, toilets, meeting points, and whether the public has access.
• The activities: competence of instructors, equipment, water, height, animals and any activity requiring a licence.
• The group: age, behaviour, medical conditions, allergies, medication, additional needs, English as an additional language, and any pupil requiring one to one support.
• Supervision: named adults, ratios, what each adult is responsible for, and the arrangements for any period of remote supervision.
• Weather and daylight, especially for outdoor or coastal venues.
• Emergency plan: first aid provision, nearest hospital, incident procedure, the school's out of hours contact and what parents are told.

If the trip includes swimming, the venue must show you its swimming pool operating procedures.

Ratios

There is no legally fixed ratio for most trips. Employers set their own expectations, and commonly used starting points are one adult to six pupils in the early years, one to ten or fifteen in primary, and one to fifteen or twenty in secondary, adjusted for the activity and the group.

Ratios are a starting point, not the assessment. A group with three pupils needing personal care requires more adults than the ratio suggests, and a swimming or water based activity usually requires far more.

Adventurous activities and providers

Where a provider offers caving, climbing, trekking or watersports to under 18s commercially, they must hold a licence under the Adventure Activities Licensing Regulations unless they fall within an exemption. Check the licence and its scope, do not accept a logo on a website.

For non licensable activities, obtain the provider's risk assessments, insurance, instructor qualifications and safeguarding arrangements. Many employers accept the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge as evidence, which shortens the check considerably.

Consent, safeguarding and after the trip

Consent forms should carry emergency contacts, medical information, dietary requirements and permission for emergency treatment. For regular local activities within the school day, many employers use a single annual consent rather than one per outing.

Safeguarding does not pause on a trip. DBS requirements for volunteers, room allocation on residentials, and a clear reporting route to the designated safeguarding lead all need to be settled before departure.

Debrief afterwards, record anything that went wrong or nearly did, and update the venue's assessment for next time. Accumulated venue notes are the most useful risk assessment resource a school can build.

Staffing ratios, transport and the emergency plan

There is no single legal ratio for supervision. The employer sets it based on the age and needs of the pupils, the activity and the venue, and the assessment should say what was chosen and why. Plan for the leader being unavailable: if one adult is dealing with an injured pupil, the remaining supervision must still work.

Transport deserves its own lines. Check the operator's licence and insurance, plan pick up and drop off points so nobody steps into traffic, count pupils on and off at every stage, and set a rule for who travels in a car and with whom. Coach seat belts are to be worn where fitted.

The emergency plan should fit on one card carried by every adult: the school contact who is reachable throughout, the venue address and postcode for the emergency services, the nearest hospital with an emergency department, and the rule that only the named school contact speaks to parents or the press. Rehearse the head count routine so it is automatic.

Common questions

Is a written risk assessment required for a walk to the local park?

A generic assessment covering routine local visits, reviewed periodically, is normally sufficient and is what most employers require.

Do parent volunteers need a DBS check?

It depends on whether the role is regulated activity, which usually turns on unsupervised contact and frequency. Follow the employer's safeguarding policy.

Who approves an overseas trip?

The employer, normally through the EVC and an approval system, with lead times of several weeks. The head teacher alone is usually not sufficient.

Related guides

• what a risk assessment legally needs to include
• first aid needs assessment
• swimming pool operating procedures