Dear Sir or Madam,

The HSE report on the Glenridding Tragedy said "The extensive
investigation of this tragedy at Glenridding Beck by HSE and
Cumbria Police revealed many important lessons both for those who
lead educational visits and those involved in their management.
There is a consensus in the educational and outdoor worlds, which
HSE supports, that these lessons should be made widely known."

The above report made a large number of recommendations. Please
could you tell me what changes the DfES/DCSF made to their guidance
on school trips as a result of these recommendations?

How did the DfES/DCSF communicate these changes to schools?

Yours faithfully,

Anne Jago

Dear Ms Jago,

Thank you for your email of 24 July 2008.

The DCSF's guidance on school trips is set out in the Health and Safety
of Pupils on Educational Visits (HASPEV) published in 1998 and
supplemented this guidance in 2002.

The HSE report on Glenridding Beck did not identify significant failings
or omissions in the HASPEV guidance - the main issue in that case was
the failure to follow guidance. The Department therefore did not revise
the HASPEV guidance as a result of the HSE report, though we publicised
the report by featuring it on the front page of the relevant part of the
Teachernet website.

When next reviewing the HASPEV guidance we will take account of the
relevant reports and lessons learned from events since the publication
of the guidance.

Yours sincerely,

Amanda Thomas
Pupil Well Being Health and Safety Unit
[email address]

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number
2008/0063378.

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Dear Amanda Thomas,

Thank you for your response dated 15 August to my FOI.

Please could I check my understanding of your response. Are you
saying:

1. The HSE report on the Glenridding Tragedy was 45 pages of A4 in
length and you were able to summarise this in 4 sentences on the
Teachernet website?

2. The HSE report was published in March 2005, three and a half
years ago and you haven't yet made any changes in your guidance as
a result of the HSE recommendations?

3. You believe no omissions in the HASPEV guidance were revealed by
the HSE report?

In relation to point 3 above could you therefore tell me where the
following HSE recommendations are to be found in HASPEV, paragraph
numbers would be useful:

a) Schools need to have effective management arrangements in place
to ensure that leaders taking young people into hazardous
environments are properly supported.

b) Leaders of these activities should always put the safety and
best interests of the young people first.

c) They should always follow the Department for Education and
Skills’ (DfES) guidance on educational visits.

d) Any complaint about unsafe practice should be referred
immediately to the Head teacher

e) The circumstances of the complaint be investigated objectively,
putting aside possible “personality issues”

f) Schools and LEAs need clear procedures for dealing with any
concerns about unsafe practice

g) The leader should ask at the planning stage “what might go
wrong?” and this question should also be posed by EVCs, head
teachers, governors and others involved in planning and approving
educational visits/adventure activities.

h) Head teachers need to ensure that essential paperwork, such as
consent forms, have been completed

i) The need for schools to have clear risk-based arrangements for
the supervision of pupils on educational visits

j) The need for schools to have effective procedures for responding
to complaints about unsafe practice

k) The risk assessment should identify the staffing required to run
a visit safely. Staffing should never be decided just by a simple
numerical calculation of the ratio of children to adults

l) The risk assessment should also consider the implications of one
of the leaders/helpers becoming incapacitated either before or
during the trip

m) Teachers who fail to provide adequate supervision place
themselves at risk of action under both civil and criminal law.
They are also likely to be in breach of their professional duties
under Paragraph 65.7 of “School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions
Document” and liable to disciplinary action.

n) Risk assessments should consider how the party might respond to
a serious incident

I am sorry that this is such a long list but I am sure you agree
that nothing is more important than the safety of children.

Yours sincerely,

Anne Jago

Dear Ms Jago,

Thank you for your recent email. A reply will be sent to you as soon as
possible (where a response is required). For information, the
departmental standard for correspondence received is that responses
should be sent within 15 working days or 20 working days if you are
requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2008/0069810

Thank you.

Central Allocation Team

Public Communications Team

Tel: 0870 0002288
www.dcsf.gov.uk

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Dear Ms Jago,

Thank you for your email dated 18 August 2008 about changes to the DCSF
guidance on school trips resulting from the 2005 HSE report on the
Glenridding Beck Tragedy.

Your enquiry asks policy questions and is not an FOI enquiry. In line
with Stuart Miller's letter to you of 29 August 2007, the Department
will not enter into future correspondence with you on pupil safety on
which you have been corresponding with us since 2004.

Yours sincerely,

Amanda Thomas
Pupil Well Being Health and Safety Unit
[email address]

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number
2008/0069810.

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