DEPARTMENT FOR CHILDREN, SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES
2008/0025 5 February 2008

More school trips for pupils

Teachers will find it easier to take pupils on school trips with more
help and advice, less bureaucracy and quality badges for popular
destinations, thanks to new guidance from the Department of Children,
Schools and Families. The measure is included in the 'Staying Safe'
Action Plan, launched today.

Evidence shows that learning outside of the classroom brings benefits
to pupils such as deeper subject learning, increased self confidence
and raised achievement. It can also help young people to understand
and manage risk.

Research shows that Heads and teachers are aware of these benefits,
and they have said they will take pupils on visits if they feel
confident and have had training.

The new guidance makes it much easier for teachers to take their
pupils out of the classroom.

Organisations that host school or other youth group visits such as
museums, historic houses, field study centres and farms will be
encouraged to qualify for quality 'badges', which will help teachers
identify places that provide high quality learning outside of the
classroom, and are managing safety effectively. This will help reduce
the bureaucratic burden of risk assessment on teachers.

The measure was included in the 'Staying Safe' Action Plan, launched
today by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Ed Balls said:

"Learning outside the classroom helps pupils understand their
subjects better and increases their self-confidence. School trips
also help young people explore and learn about risk and how to manage
it. I hope that by making it easier for teachers to take their
students outside the classroom we will help a generation of pupils
develop their independence and raise their attainment.

"We should not let a fear of a compensation culture prevent pupils
from learning outside the classroom. On school trips - as in other
areas covered in our staying safe action plan - we need to help
parents and teachers strike the right balance between protecting our
children and allowing them the freedom to develop and enjoy
childhood."

Other new measures outlined in the report include:

* A new Child Safety Education coalition
* New guidance for professionals on bullying in non school settings
like children's homes and FE colleges
* New guidance on safeguarding and on protecting children with
disabilities or special educational needs from bullying
* A new safeguarding unit for the Third Sector
* New guidance on child employment
* New guidance on cross-border issues
* Publish research on joint working between children's and housing
services (with the Department for Communities and Local Government)
* Publish a review of safety education materials for Personal, Social
and Health Education
* Carry out a Priority Review of local area accident prevention
* Put forward safeguarding theme for the local authority beacon award
scheme

Children's Minister Kevin Brennan said:

"If children are not safe, they cannot be happy, healthy, or reach
their full potential. But we can't wrap them up - they need to learn
about taking risks so they can protect themselves."

Tom Mullarkey, Chief Executive of the Royal Society for the
Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), said:

"This is a major step in the right direction towards simplifying
regulation and reducing bureaucracy. The important thing is that
children have a safe and excellent learning experience and any
impediment to that objective needs to be revisited. Teachers need
support and guidance, not endless, unnecessary form-filling and this
initiative will be widely welcomed in staff rooms throughout the
country."

The Out and About guidance on school visits will be available from
May 2008 and the quality badge in September 2008.

The new 'Staying Safe' action plan sets out how government will
deliver the new Public Service Agreement on improving children and
young people's safety. The Departmental commitment to this was
confirmed in the Children's Plan, which was launched in December
2007.

The plan reflects the cross government nature of the Public Service
Agreement and includes plans and actions for a number of departments
including: Home Office, Department for Culture, Media and Sport,
Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, Department of
Health, Department for Transport, Department for Communities and
Local Government, Ministry of Justice.

___________________________________________________

David Hanson, Justice Minister said:

"The launch of this Action Plan is an important step forward in the
government's drive to make sure that our children are given the
freedom to live their lives to the full. We can achieve this by
freeing both children and their parents from the fear of their coming
to harm. It is important to both children and parents alike that they
not only are safe but that they also feel safe.

"A joint arrangement is also vital if we are to really tackle the
issues facing more vulnerable children, such as those at risk of
offending, by seeing that the right support and services are
available to help them realise their potential."

__________________________________________________

The Staying Safe Action Plan is available at
http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/stayingsafe/

The Children's Plan is available from http://www.dcsf.gov.uk

Note:

The Out and About guidance will build on the widely-used,
long-standing Health and Safety Of Pupils on Educational Visits; it
will emphasise the enabling effect of sensible risk management as
advocated by the Health and Safety Executive and others. No more than
three A4 forms should be necessary for most off-site visits.

The badge scheme is voluntary.

____________________________________

Also in the news today....

Children should be allowed to play outdoors more....

....So say the Conservatives.

(BBC News report 5th Feb.08. See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7225966.stm)

The Conservative review's proposals include:

- Increased adult supervision of public spaces, such as park rangers to ensure playgrounds are kept clean of syringes and broken glass and do not become a gathering place for gangs
- Changes to the British Crime Survey, so that it measures crimes against children, which are currently excluded
- "Walking buses" to take groups of children to and from school
- More visible policing on the streets, by cutting back on the bureaucracy which keeps officers behind a desk;
- Councils and police to take a sensitive approach to children playing outside, to create "safer neighbourhoods, not neighbourhoods without children".
- Action on traffic to make streets safer for children.

The review's author, shadow universities and skills secretary David Willetts, said the outdoors seemed "hostile" to children and parents because of fears over crime, bullying and traffic.

This forced young people into a "flat world of screen-based activities, or they end up being driven around to supervised play".

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