After many years of investment in Safety Management, our own systems have been adopted as the benchmark within the established School Travel Forum, an industry body of like-minded professional educational travel companies who support the aims of the Manifesto for Learning Outside the Classroom in raising standards of educational visits and the introduction of a system of recognisable ‘safety badges’ to make life easier for teachers and group leaders.
The concept of using safety badges, behind which sit systems that are externally audited and verified by qualified professionals is very much supported by NST.
Just as AALA and BAHA have established themselves as recognisable badges in their own right within ‘activity centre’ provision , we are very keen to see appropriate badges for approved educational tour operators who take groups of young people on residential visits to destinations within the UK and overseas, where the children are not involved in physical outdoor activities like those at ‘activity centres’.
The ‘School Travel Forum’ is the tour operating industry’s first major step to establishing a self-governing but externally verifiable badge based identity for approved members.
Talk to NST’s Health & Safety Manager
The manager of our Health and Safety department, Ian Pearson has a key role within the educational travel sector and is heavily involved in improving safety provision for schools. Ian regularly speaks to Outdoor Education Advisors from LEAs across the UK who are interested in what NST provide.
Ian Pearson’s involvement in school travel safety includes;
- Development Officer for the School Travel Forum (STF)
- Represents the STF in consulting with the Outdoor Education Advisors Panel (OEAP)
- Represents the STF on the Educational Visits Advisory Council (EVAC)
- Is a member of the BAHA committee
- Is a member of the Manifesto’s Heritage sector working group
If you would like to find out more about NSTs Health & Safety please call Ian on Tel: 01253 833772 or email ipearson@nstgroup.co.uk
For more information online about Health & Safety on Educational Visits at NST, please see our Health & Safety Planning for Teachers section on this website.
