Safeguarding, risk assessments, insurance etc

[wottawottawotta]

DD is going on a youth orchestra trip. Would it be weird / unreasonable to ask to see their safeguarding policy, risk assessments, travel insurance etc.

Before you say, their safeguarding policy - a legal requirement available on the website - is very general and doesn't cover trips at all. I have a few niggles in general about the organisation. They're very nice but my gut instinct, and stories I've heard, just makes me a bit uneasy.

I have recently started working in education and have a safeguarding role. I haven't done trips on this scale but I'm thinking how I would feel if asked to see these things by parents I deal with. I'd possibly be a bit exasperated (don't they trust me?!) but would then have empathy and would do my best to give them the info they want / would offer to talk it through. So, I have looked at this from both sides.

What do people think?

Hmmm what makes you have a "niggle"? And what things have you heard?! Is this part of a school or is it an external club she's part of? There's a lot of safeguarding in my role and we've had people ask to see our policies etc and we've always been very forthcoming - honestly never given it a second thought to be honest.

Niggle is that they're hopelessly badly organised with everything they do locally so I wonder how the same people get their shit together enough to take a bunch of teenagers abroad for a week. Just typing that makes me shudder. They' just always tell us how they've been doing it for years and not to worry.

I have wondered also with school trips abroad, what the travel insurance covers. What if they are ill and need to fly home? What if we can't get there quickly? Maybe I've lost my nerve because we've missed several years of this because of covid.

What happens if you ask and they can't provide them? Or they do, and its not up to your standard?
Would it be better, if you're not confident in their ability, to just say no?

You might feel better if you take out some policies yourself?

You can order the UK Global Health Insurance Card (UK GHIC) online that will cover your child for any treatment needed in the EU.

Also loads of private companies who do medical cover including repatriation etc and the cost is pretty low.

DD has membership of the Musician's Union who provide £10M Public Liability Insurance and instrument cover as part of the annual subs.

Fair enough on asking to see risk assessments etc, but I would always want my own insurance policies.

I'm a safeguarding officer in a club. I'd love it if any of the parents asked to see the policies as we spend a lot of time and effort writing them. Our parents have to say they have read but I doubt they do! Same with risk assessments etc, most parents just assume and hand over their kids. I hope it puts your mind at rest once you see things. They must have some organised people involved to have got to the point of taking them away.

Im a brownie leader and I'd have absolutely no problem with you asking for any of this information for one of our trips. In fact, I'd welcome it.

Thanks for your replies. I suspect they will find it massively irritating to be asked, but I think I need to do it anyway, for peace of mind.
@OhCrumbsWhereNow - we already have an EHIC and instrument insurance. It's more the issue of if - heaven forbid - DD got ill and needed to be flown home, how does that work with insurance? Would it cover us, as parents, to fly out and be with her. Both DCs have been on countless trips with school and, although it crossed my mind, I never asked as I assumed school would be covered for those things and I thought I should just leave them to it. I have less confidence in this organisation.

Not meaning to necessarily look for problems, I wonder about online safety and cyber bullying etc. It's a minefield to police but what about a group away together for a week with no phone restrictions.

Hmmm, that would be a question for the insurer for your child's policy I imagine.

They're not very expensive. I have a global multi-trip one as I do a lot of overseas travel to some less than safe areas for work - and have two health conditions - and it's under £100 a year for enormous amounts of cover, so I imagine a policy for a child would be much cheaper. And when you think what it could cost in the event...

Regarding online stuff - what age are the kids? I really think it would be impossible to police as well. If you have 14+ going on the trip, they will expect to have their phones and internet access. Certainly as a parent I would be extremely unhappy if DD didn't have access to her phone at all times.

I'd hope I knew and liked the other children attending well enough to be happy DD going away with them for a week.

Travel insurance and risk assessments are fair requests. They should have given you the insurance details imo.

It's a long time since I took anybody's kids on trips but I'm not sure we would have written a trip-specific safeguarding policy on top of the existing policy, just incorporated any additional trip-specific points into our risk assessment/mitigations.