What is BS 8848?

EduTrips is a great way for Schools and Colleges to comply with the BSI Standard BS8848, as well save time and money. Read below to see how the BS8848 standard can be beneficial for you.

Background

Created by leading professionals to raise quality and health and safety standards of trips, BS 8848 is the is a British Standard that has been demand led to provide a specification for the provision of visits, fieldwork, expeditions and adventurous activities, outside the United Kingdom.

The British Standards Institution (BSI) surveyed parents across Britain and found that parents had many concerns about their children participating in educational visits abroad and that they wanted a national safety standard to be established. It found that:

• one in three parents don’t know who’s in charge when their children are away
• 82% think trips should comply with a safety standard.

This British Standard sets out requirements for the operational management, including safety, of all ventures outside the United Kingdom. The objective is to set out in clear, unambiguous language the actions and associated responsibilities essential to the provision of a risk-based safety management system for adventurous activities.

Requirements

This British Standard specifies requirements for the provision of visits, fieldwork, expeditions and adventurous activities undertaken for educational, research, training or recreational purposes outside the United Kingdom.
It applies to ventures:

• where the hazards are such that without consideration by competent people the level of risk would be significant;
• at any location outside the United Kingdom including remote regions where climatic extremes, challenging terrain, health hazards or unfamiliar cultural experiences can be expected;
• organised for groups or individuals;
• that are planned, managed and evaluated from the UK by commercial companies, educational establishments, voluntary or charitable organisations and independent groups or individuals.

Compliance

The eduTrips is based on the principles of BS 8848 which includes:

• Purpose, planning, permission, finance and integrity of the trip
• Participants’ information
• Trip leader, leadership team and support team
• In-country representative
• Supervision and staffing ratios
• General/Direct & indirect supervision, Personal time and Down time
• Protection of participants under 18 years of age or a vulnerable adult allocation of roles and responsibilities
• Third-party providers
• Safety policy and risk analysis management system
• Legal Framework, contractual and insurance information
• Venture pre-booking information
• Training, induction and communication
• Joining instructions, during trip processes
• Travel, Accommodation, Environment and equipment
• Medical planning, Environment related illnesses, First Aid Kits
• Security, contingency planning
• Incident and emergency plan
• Evaluation

If you would like to find out more on how EduTrips can benefit you then please Contact Us.