Keeping our young people safe

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Each year, millions of young people worldwide take part in trips for a wide range of reasons, including educational, training and development, religious, cultural and sports trips.

Schools and other academic institutions, commercial operators, youth organisations, charities, cultural and religious groups, among others, provide opportunities for young people to travel for those reasons.

A new standard guides organisations on how to manage travel risks, including how they can respond should an incident occur. 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.

ISO 31031 provides guidance for both domestic and international travel with specific attention to minors.  

The standard provides a broad set of risk treatment options for activities related to trips. It also includes guidance for creating an emergency response plan. 

The use of this document provides a means for a trip organiser to demonstrate that decisions on and during trips are based on its capacity to treat risk using internal resources only or with external assistance. 

Some child and youth organisations or trip providers already have policies in place, risk management and safeguarding protocols to manage risks associated with trips.

For such organisations, the guidance in this document can be used to review or benchmark what they already have in place.