The blame-claim culture is preventing children from experiencing risk, says a top explorer. Lisa Salmon reports.

MOST parents will remember the school trips they went on as children – and many of those memories will involve adventure and perhaps a hint of risk.

But explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes has warned that many of today’s children just don’t get the chance to experience the thrill of such school trips.

Fiennes says the “blame-claim culture”

is responsible for risk being viewed negatively by teachers and local authorities, and his comments are backed up by a new survey that found that four in ten teachers are put off arranging more school trips because they’re concerned about litigation.

Fiennes, who has led expeditions to both the North and South Poles, says youngsters should be encouraged to go on “adventure outings”

similar to those enjoyed by children in the Sixties and Seventies.

“As with many avenues of life, it’s only through taking a bit of a risk that you reap rewards,” he says.

“What concerns me is the growing negative connotation with the word ‘risk’ – we have got to make the clear distinction between recklessness and taking risk. In the right place, taking risks can be very positive.

“It is vital that young children are taught to understand and manage risk from an early age. In many ways, this type of teaching is just as important as core subjects such as maths and English.”

He suggests that children who aren’t allowed to take risks are probably under the responsibility of teachers or council reps “who are scared stiff of the blame-claim culture”.

Certainly, a survey of 400 primary and secondary school teachers by the Education Travel Group found that if they arranged school trips, 41 per cent were scared of litigation, 17 per cent of disciplinary action, and 15 per cent of accidents.

As a result, more than half (57 per cent) only arrange excursions once or twice a year, 12 per cent only take them every few years, and ten per cent never take school trips at all.

Of course, the fear of litigation isn’t completely unfounded – teacher Paul Ellis admitted manslaughter and was jailed for 12 months in 2003 after ten-year-old Max Palmer from Fleetwood, Lancashire, drowned while plunge pooling during a school trip to Cumbria in May 2002.

The case led to a report and subsequent guidance from the Health and Safety Executive for teachers taking groups of pupils on educational trips.

The HSE said “this tragedy could have been avoided if the risks had been properly managed”. Its guidance includes advice on supervision, ongoing risk assessments, emergency procedures, and what to do on some specific types of excursions.

Among a multitude of tips, it tells teachers to be aware of weather forecasts, check potential local hazards such as tides, and prepare alternative plans in case the itinerary is disrupted.

The chairman of the Health and Safety Executive’s Health and Safety Committee, Judith Hackitt, says: “School trips are an essential part of every child’s education and by not finding a way to make them happen we are failing in our duty to prepare them for life.

“Risk aversion starts very early these days, with schools now frequently citing Health and Safety as the main reason for not taking children out on outdoor adventure trips.

But it’s vitally important that we teach young people as an integral part of their formal education to be aware of risk and to learn how to deal with it.”

However, she warns that it’s not just children who need to understand the benefits of risk-taking. “We also need to educate parents,” she stresses.

“They must be made aware that activities will involve some risk, that it’s not possible to guarantee absolute safety, and that teachers are required to do what is reasonable and practical but not to be able to anticipate every possible unforeseen event which could happen.

“Provided the really serious risks have been properly managed and the children themselves have been taught to deal with the residual risk, the experience is vitally important in preparing them for future life.”

As well as the HSE guidance, advice on school trips is available from a number of sources, including the DfCSF, local authorities and the National Union of Teachers (NUT).