Health & Safety

We know how important rigorous Health & Safety is when you are taking children abroad, and at Schools Into Europe we are committed to furthering the highest standard of Health & Safety and best practice within the industry.

For your peace of mind, we provide a 24-hour emergency contact number, which you can call should you require any assistance whilst on tour.

Before that stage, when you are preparing for your tour, we can provide you with literature in order to help you complete your own risk assessments and paperwork, including:

1. Our extensive Health & Safety Management System and a Planning Safety Guide which addresses our health & safety policies. This is an excellent guide for Party Leaders and was written by a leading advisor to education ministers.
2. Our Example Risk Assessment for Party Leaders, which provides our customers with a platform on which to build their own tour-specific risk assessments.
3. Copies of any relevant audits of coach companies and hotels, which provide specific information for you to include with your risk assessment.

We can furthermore provide any other details which you might require, and our staff is always on-hand to answer any specific queries which you may have.

When we are making preparations for your tour, we will ensure that both your coach company and accommodation have been properly audited and checked.

For accommodation, this includes checks of the following:

• Insurance;
• Security measures;
• General and personal safety;
• Fire safety;
• Food safety and hygiene awareness;
• And measures relating to swimming pools (if applicable).

For coaches, in addition to insurance and general safety, we also ensure that the coach operator complies with the following:

• Holds the appropriate licence issued by the Traffic Commissioner to travel to Europe;
• Regularly checks drivers’ licences and holds a valid check from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS; formerly known as ‘CRB-checks’;
• Has a suitable maintenance procedure and regime in place;
• Provides coaches with seatbelts and which are compliant with all relevant legislation;
• Is aware and complies with the European legislation which covers driving hours;
• And has valid breakdown cover in place for Europe.

As an assured member of the School Travel Forum (click here to visit their website) and a member of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (click here to visit their website) you can be assured of our excellent standards. Indeed, we passed our last independent audit for the School Travel Forum with no recommendations for improvement. In addition, we are also members of the Confederation of Passenger Transport (click here to visit their website). This provides us with additional crisis management support for extra reassurance, and all of our emergency procedures have been written with reference to the CPT’s extensive experience. We furthermore, of course, hold all of the necessary insurance, including up to £10,000,000 public liability insurance, which can be seen here. Due to our longstanding working relationship with so many schools, our Company is also pre-approved by a number of LEAs, making your forms and paperwork much easier to complete.

In order to ensure that we can be responsive to specific circumstances, and to ensure that our policies are always completely up-to-date, we also retain the services of exclusive, yet independent, Health & Safety advisors. These advisors are industry leading specialists, registered on the Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register (OSHCR), and are also members of the internationally recognised Institution of Occupational Safety & Health (click here to visit their website).