National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of ISO 31031:2024.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee RM/1, Risk management.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 October 2024.

Foreword

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.

The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types of ISO document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).

ISO draws attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a) patent(s). ISO takes no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent rights in respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, ISO had not received notice of (a) patent(s) which may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that this may not represent the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database available at www.iso.org/patents. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

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This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 262, Risk management.

Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html.

Introduction

This document is intended to assist those organizing trips for children and youths (also referred to as minors and young adults).

Each year, millions of young people around the world take part in trips for a wide range of purposes, including, for example, educational, training and development, religious, cultural and sporting. A wide range of organizations provide such opportunities, including schools and other educational institutions, commercial operators, youth organizations, charities, and cultural and religious groups.

Such trips can range widely, from a day trip to visit a local museum to an international expedition requiring lengthy travel and involving one or more nights away from home. The risk profile can also range widely: a week-long student exchange is very different from a trekking expedition to a remote area or an adventurous activity course to learn sailing or mountaineering.

Trip organizers have a duty of care towards those involved in these trips. This duty applies to the adults, teachers or instructors involved as well as the children and youths participating. Within this, attention to safeguarding issues is a significant consideration in respect of children and youths and vulnerable adults.

One of the key objectives and benefits of such trips, whether they are domestic or international, is to provide children and youths with the opportunity to experience new environments and cultures and meet new people. Such trips are intended to support their growth, learning and development, as well as enhance their resilience.

However, children and youths do not always have sufficient experience to deal intuitively with unfamiliar situations and environments. Additionally, children and youths can behave unpredictably, which can create unforeseen situations.

There is thus a need to ensure that a balance is struck between protecting the health, safety and well-being of children at the same time as evaluating opportunities that support their growth and development. This document will assist trip organizers in achieving the broad range of trip objectives in a way that ensures that uncertainty and risk exposure are managed and controlled effectively.

The concept of youth varies by culture and jurisdiction. For the context of this document, “youths” are treated as those persons – regardless of whether they are part of an educational establishment or not – who have not yet reached their twenty-fifth birthday. This is in line with the United Nations (UN) definition of children/youth. For purposes of the application of this document, the organization should decide upon the age range based on applicable jurisdictional requirements, and the purpose and structure of the organization itself.

Trip risk management requires that organizations anticipate and assess the potential for hazardous events, develop risk treatments and communicate anticipated risk exposures to those involved in trips. Advising and providing trip participants and leadership teams with adequate medical, emergency response guidance, security and information security precautions, including challenges to travel logistics, can significantly mitigate the impact of disruptive events.

The use of this document provides a means for a trip organizer to demonstrate that decisions on and during trips are based on its capacity to treat risk using internal resources only or with external assistance. Not all trips warrant the same level of risk assessment and management. Although this document provides a wide-ranging set of risk treatment options that a trip organizer can consider, the elements of this document should be scaled and tailored to the organization’s needs and trip-specific setting and proportionate to the risk exposure. This helps the trip organizer, the leadership team delivering the trip, and the children and youths involved to realize the opportunities and benefits for which the trip is designed.

Managing risks for trips abroad where the trip organizer has no local base requires more comprehensive controls than for locations where risk profiles are well known and where risk treatments have already been established. Timeliness and accuracy of information, analysis and advice, including travel warnings, and dynamic risk assessments are particularly important. The trip organizer should also ensure that cultural differences (both among participants and in regard to the destination) are observed.

This document is based on the principles, framework and process of ISO 31000. These are set out at a very high level. ISO 31030 provides further details of how organizations can apply these in the context of managing travel risks.

This document can be used on a standalone basis or integrated within other risk management programmes. This document is also aligned with the core occupational health and safety management system set out in ISO 45001. As such, elements of this document can assist or inform organizations developing such management systems, but it is not a management system standard.

One of the aims of this document is to promote a culture where the risk involved in organizing trips for children and youths is taken seriously, resourced adequately and managed effectively, and where the benefits to the organization and relevant stakeholders are recognized. These benefits are mutually reinforcing and can include:

promoting considered trip management to encourage and support inclusivity and accessibility;
increasing the likelihood of delivering the cultural, learning and developmental objectives underpinning trips;
enhancing an organization’s reputation and credibility – particularly with parents/guardians and sponsors;
improving confidence in health, safety and security arrangements with regard to travel among the staff involved in delivery;
contributing to organizational continuity, capability and resilience;
contributing to meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education, promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all and strengthening the social dimension of sustainability.

Some child and youth organizations or trip providers already have in place policies, risk management and safeguarding protocols to manage risks associated with trips. For such organizations, the guidance in this document can be used to review or benchmark what they already have in place and to, where necessary, build upon them or establish additional protocols for new activities or environments.

Equally, the guidance can be used to create policies, procedures and protocols where these do not already exist, or for trips where a group has come together for a one-off experience outside any regular or otherwise structured organization.

1 Scope

This document gives guidance on managing risk for youth and school trips for both domestic and international travel with specific attention to minors.

This document is applicable to any organization, institution or group that provides activities, visits or trips for children and youth outside of their usual place of operation. These include, but are not limited to:

educational institutions (schools, colleges and universities);
children’s homes (including foster care provision);
residential tutorial centres (summer schools and language colleges);
community-based youth groups (scouts, guides, cadet units and youth clubs);
faith-based groups;
youth sports clubs;
youth arts clubs (music, drama, painting and literature);
adventurous activity centres (day visits and residential);
commercial and non-commercial providers of visits abroad (offshore sailing, cultural tours, sports, community projects, adventure activities and expeditions);
tourist attractions, tour operators and other service providers.

This document is applicable to trips of any duration, from day trips visiting local points of interest to months-long trips to other continents. These trips can be for purposes such as excursions, fieldwork, expeditions and adventurous or cultural activities undertaken for educational, research, training or recreational purposes.

This document is applicable any sort of travel under the auspices of an organization, be it one person travelling for an internship or dozens travelling for a sporting match.

This document is applicable to the physical movement between locations, as well as to the events and activities associated with the objectives of the trip.

This document provides good practices to address typical risks arising from activities related to trips. It also includes guidance for creating an emergency response plan.

This document does not apply to groups of vulnerable adults per se. However, some aspects of the guidance can also be relevant to the management of trips for vulnerable adults.

This document does not apply to situations such as minors travelling with their families, as well as how to organize such trips.

This document does not apply to virtual travel, although some parts of it can be relevant.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

4 Understanding the organization and its context

4.1 Operating context

4.2 Stakeholders

4.3 Organizational objectives and risk criteria

4.4 Risk profile

4.5 Trip risk management and delivery

5 Establishing the framework for managing risk for trips

5.1 Leadership and commitment

5.2 Policy

5.3 Roles, responsibilities and accountability

5.4 Objectives

5.5 Planning/establishing the programme

5.6 Implementation

6 Risk assessment

6.1 General

6.2 Risk identification

6.3 Risk analysis

6.4 Risk evaluation

7 Risk treatment

7.1 General

7.2 Risk avoidance

7.3 Sharing liability risk

7.4 Handling the specific requirements of children and youth (also referred to as minors and young adults)

7.5 Roles and responsibilities during the trip

7.6 Supervision and staffing ratios

7.7 Safeguarding

7.8 Medical considerations

7.9 Medical and security support services

7.10 Third-party provider

7.11 Travel and transportation

7.12 Trip activities

7.13 Accommodation

7.14 Contingency, incident and emergency planning

8 Communication and consultation

8.1 Programme/strategic communications

8.2 Operational/technical communications

9 Programme evaluation and continuous improvement

9.1 General

9.2 Trip evaluation

9.3 Management system reviews

9.4 Documentation

9.5 Recording and reporting

Bibliography

BS ISO 31031:2024

Managing risk for youth and school trips

Current

Published:

31 Oct 2024