It’s the time of year when both new and experienced Educational Visits Coordinators are planning out the years’ programme for all those exciting visits that enrich our children’s education.
Having a systemised approach to approving visits means that you can be confident you have met legal requirements under H&S.
Monitoring visits on EVOLVE can identify if visits have taken place but have not been approved in school. The EVOLVE form is your legal document and in the event of an incident, the school may well be judged on the robustness of the submission form on EVOLVE.
Problems occur, if the school has engaged in a visit without approval, as it may well be difficult to evidence Health & Safety / Duty of Care. EVCs and Heads must approve / authorise every visit to verify their confirmation of:
- The competence of the visit leader
- The competence of the accompanying staff·
- The ages, level of maturity of pupils, including those with special needs
- Suitable, sufficient and proportionate risk management
- The intended learning outcomes
- The proposed itinerary
- The contingency plans (Plan B) in place
The RAG rating system within EVOLVE supports EVCs/Heads with managing the approval process at a glance, the RAG colour coding saves time, reduces workload and shows you immediately the status of each trip.
Any Green coloured visits have had the full approval process. Orange visits may still need submitting, approving, authorising. If you see any Orange visit, please note that ‘THIS NEEDS ACTION’ and needs to be approved before departure (preferably within notification period!)
Lastly, have you noted the updated DfE ‘’Health and Safety on Educational Visits (Nov 18)’ document:
