My work as an outdoor activity volunteer for a Scottish independent school is highly regulated, and rightly so, but the school health and safety adviser insists that the parental consent forms (several pages long) must be carried by the instructors at all times. Pupil numbers taking part may be up to 80 and the party could be rotated for specialist activities requiring a copy of every pupil to be carried by each instructor. This is a massive amount of paper to be carried into the hills and I’m not getting any younger! The adviser insists that a signed copy of the person giving the consent must be carried in the event of an emergency but a search for this requirement has drawn a blank. In the past I have always carried an emergency list of those taking part, including medical requirements and emergency contact details (one double sided A4 waterproofed page for each instructor). The original forms I kept at the school or base camp if in a remote location. Does any member have any advice?

Many thanks! I have approached our regional authority but opinion seems to be divided and I can't find any specific local/Scottish Government or HSE guidance other than consent forms must be provided before a pupil can take part in an activity.

The originals are kept at the school, a copy is lodged with the base camp and all the adult instructors have a copy. I believe that my precautions meet our duty of care to the pupils but I would also like to save a few trees, especially if all the other schools are taking the same course of action! At our school alone we have somewhere in the region of 400 – 500 pupils who take part in out of school activities during the holidays. I was hoping I could find an ACOP that would indicate if there are legal reasons for proof to be readily available that a pupil is authorised to be on the activity.

Mike, I have just helped to update a UK wide Educational Trips and Activities Policy. As far as I know there is no legal requirement to carry consents on the trip. As Shineon says what is the point, the benefit? It seems to me that the Trip leaders need to be able to inform emergency services of any particuar health/social need if an accident occurs. The Health service would act without consent if the situation was serious, toprevent death ot serious harm. The Trip Leader needs to be able to get details of next of kin. With such large numbers on the trip it could be OK to rely on details on a note. It may also be OK to allow the Leader to have a contact they can call to get these details, back at base as it were. The point would be 24hr response availability for the base contact. You might want to contact the Group that advises HSE on rural pursuits.