Judith Hackitt, Chair of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), blames the media for the lack of school trips and practical science lessons.  She believes that the media has planted a misplaced fear about potentially risky activities because of the way they report certain tragic incidents. Around half of the schools in the UK are wary of organising school trips and practical lessons because of increased fears over bureaucracy.

“The general risk aversion and propensity to look for others to blame is bound to have an effect on teachers, if parents have unrealistic expectations of what teachers can reasonably do,” she said.

“I have no doubt there’s a culture that taking a trip is hard, but it’s not as complicated as they think it is. I’m not unsympathetic, and we want to help make things easier” said Ms Hackitt.

Last week at the Independent Schools Council (ISC) Annual Conference many of Judith’s fears were confirmed. I attended the conference and spoke to several head teachers who regularly cancel trips because they do not have time to complete risk assessments and fear what would happen to them if something did go wrong.

A new set of simplified guidelines is being finalised.  Staff can use the new guidelines when organising trips. New checklist templates for risk assessments will be made available to schools and will replace the four sets of documents that schools currently have to complete.  

 ”This tries to put it all in one place and is written in a way that people shouldn’t be overwhelmed. It’s saying it is pretty simple when you look at it” said Ms Hackitt.