DofE expedition issue

[Spendonsend]

I'm feeling a bit sad, my son has a physical disability which causes pain, he is doing his gold expedition but he can't keep up and needs a rest day so cant complete the full 4 days they have to do. It looks like he won't pass the expedition as there doesnt seem to be any adjustments for this scenario. They say he can try again but we can't afford to pay for it again and his disability won't change, so im not sure it would make a difference to try next year.
Has anyone else had a similar issues?
Apparently he can get certificates for the bits he has done.

Can you ask the group leaders what advice they have taken from the DoE award accessiblity statement?

Something here maybe Something here maybe
might be relevant

Thanks both. I will speak to the leader a bit more and look at the documents.
They've initially said the only adjustment is not carrying a bag, but he is still struggling.

We’ve got a vaguely similar scenario.
My Dd is epileptic and had a small seizure at the very end of her bronze expedition. She was allowed to pass but was made to stop walking.
I am worried about what it would mean for her if something similar or worse happened on an expedition if she chooses to go for silver.
I haven’t investigated yet but you’d think there should be some kind of adjustments or something.

@Smartiepants79 I will report back if i find any more out.

They seem to be applying the 'fell and twisted ankle' rules but this is something that doesn't fix. I'm really proud he has tried.

I know nothing about this at all, but I just wanted to say that it is absolutely shocking if DoE is inaccessible to young people with disabilities. That just seems so contrary to its whole purpose. Surely there is some alternative to the expedition component for students with disabilities?

There must be official guidance for reasonable adjustments. Our closest special school offers DofE to their pupils, even wheelchair users complete it.

I think they do totally different ones for wheelchair users or those with learning difficulties but we seem to be in a gap of nearly being up to the standard type. I hope we manage to get sorted. I was just hoping someine on mumsnet would say "oh this happened to us and we did x y, z'

I have a physical disability and many years ago did an individualised style expedition for Bronze and Silver with reasonable adjustments. I dropped out of Gold. It can be done but is usually sorted well in advance, months, I don't know what they can do about an expedition in progress though. I'm sorry for your son, he's been let down, I was able to do it 20 years ago so I don't know why your school or Local Award organisers weren't all over it. Is it through the school or independent?

I hope you're able to find a solution OP. You're right, it seems a real gap. One of my DC is badly impacted by hyoermobility (diagnosed) and would definitely have struggled with the expedition - he is in considerable pain after walking just a few miles. He was never interested in doing DofE so it was a non-issue, but I'd always assumed that there would have been some adjustment made for him. Sounds like that isn't the case.

My D of E training is 5 years out of date, but I think this is all wrong. His disability was known, so the expedition should have been planned to allow him to succeed too.

The gold expedition is 8 hours of planned activity per day, not 8 hours of hard walking. The planned activity can include, for example, walking to an area for an hour, then sitting for 2 hours and sketching the flowers to identify them, then moving to another area and repeating.

@ValleyClouds - the school have used a company for the first time. Yes the issue is the adjustments we organised haven't been sufficient mid-way through, we hoped they would be, but we are all learning what works still.

My child was undertaking the DofE expedition during the covid times and stuggled due to health issues, it was made worse during that time as it was a daily hike rather than the sleeping arrangements. Normally there is no incentive to get the campsite early as they have to be out for so many hours - however, covid times not so, therefore there was an incentive to get the pick up points so the students could go home which of course means slower students are under more pressure - and its not meant to be race. I didn't complain at the time but I did feel that there were some "old school" individuals who were involved with D of E who quite honestly don't care unless the rules are applied as if all were normal and able. Having had other children who have completed the Dof E expedition both before and after who do not have a health issue I must admit I feel now that I should have complained and given what is being said on this page I might follow this up with the school as I think the individual member of staff still follows their own policy.

At gold level there are (or used to be) two options.

You can do the one that is just an expedition or you can do one where you write a report on an aspect of the area you are walking in,

I did the second - my group wrote a report on I think something like tourism in the Yorkshire dales. We still needed to walk each day but we were walking to collect data and evidence and it's a lot less walking.

What @Octavia64 is talking about was called an exploration and I did that option too.
I’ve just looked it up and explorations no longer seem to be a thing but @Justanotherteacher is right that it is so many hours of activity per day rather than walking 50miles over 3 days which it was when I did it

@Spendonsend

I would perhaps ask if the days he's completed can count and if he can do an extra piece of non physical work to make up the difference?

I mean if all else fails you could appeal to Prince Edward's office, the actual Duke Of Edinburgh. I'm sure the company wouldn't want to look bad...

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=www.dofe.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/20_conditions_-_variations_guidelines_Additional_needs.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiSu_n2sp2HAxWmU0EAHVJ9B0AQFnoECBUQBQ&usg=AOvVaw0Xn3pj8c9WHPxLf9Py72iE

From this it looks like he can be allowed a rest day or even use alternative modes of sleeping and transport.

I know you said the cost of doing it again was prohibitive but schools around us offer canoeing as an alternative to walking. Would that be more doable?

I wonder if this is because they are using a Company now. The school would know the child well, so would be more likely to be flexible and accommodating, whereas the Company just want a "one size fits all" solution, so that they get their money easily.
I'm another voice in favour of writing to the DoE personally, telling the child's story and asking for advice, stressing the effort put in already and the determination to succeed.

The group leader should have applied in advance for special consideration - am not sure if it can be given in retrospect but it's certainly wirth a try.

My child was given special consideration regarding the overnight camping (for very particular and evidenced reasons). 'Windsor' stated that it had to be 'a night away from home' but that didn't mean it had to be camping.

They said it was about personal challenge rather than prescriptive mileages etc.

My child is about to complete Gold and there is one group in their expedition who will be covering less distance, not carrying packs, having more breaks and having an adult with them throughout. It is certainly possible!

Thanks again everyone. Yes the issue seems to be that things weren't applied for in advance. It's a mixture of us not knowing the types of adjustments that could be made as the leader said the only one was not carrying a bag, and also us not really knowing what adjustments would be needed his condition has got worse since the practice. I feel like we let him down for not knowing this stuff. I certainly dropped the ball on this one.

It looks like they are popping him on a train home this morning and we can collect his bags when the coach brings the others back.

I think we will be putting to bed the idea of DofE gold now. I know you are supposed to be resilient and reorganise and have another go but he has enough to deal with going to hospital each week.

We had a similar issue (DD ended up not doing DoE).
The main issue is that she wanted to do the expedition with her friends (not unreasonably) but adjustments to allow her to complete it weren't compatible with this. It really wasn't clear how she would have done the expedition section at all - she would have had to have found a group of similarly disabled students and I'm not sure how this would have been possible.

I do agree with your point that frankly dealing with her disability on a daily basis is more than enough for her!

There was a classmate of my daughters with Down Syndrome in her DofE group, the school minibus followed them and gave him a lift if he started struggling.

So adjustements can be made.