Supervision of Duke of Edinburgh's Award expeditions

Issue: Duke of Edinburgh's (D of E) Award expeditions are an example of leadership at a distance.

General

1. The Licensing Service is aware of incidents which have arisen because the supervisor was not fully aware of this leadership role and its associated responsibilities.  The Licensing Authority expects supervisors to have the same experience and qualifications as a leader in a more conventional role.

2. The D of E Expedition Guide was extensively revised in August 2007.  This is an excellent source of information and guidance for all involved - participants, supervisors and assessors. Section 6.2 is the Supervising Expeditions section. It is quite specific in what is expected of supervisors. It states, for example:

"Supervisors must:

• Be familiar with the aim of the Expeditions Section and with the conditions and requirements which the participants have to fulfil;
• Be sufficiently experienced, competent in the mode of travel and the skills of navigation to be able to provide safe and effective supervision;
• Ensure that the parents/carers/guardians have been informed of the unaccompanied and self-reliant nature of Award expeditions and the level of supervision taking place;
• Be present in the area of the expedition for those in normal, rural or open country;
• Be based in the area of expeditions which take place in Wild Country or on water;
• Not be involved in other activities or work, or have responsibilities which would prevent them from rendering urgent and effective assistance to the participants during the expedition."

Independent scrutiny

3. Expeditions which fall within the remit of AALR are very varied in structure.  Careful scrutiny is necessary on a case by case basis by someone experienced in determining the suitability of these expeditions, and in particular the safety cover provided.  Ideally this should be done by someone familiar with the local context of the expedition (e.g. for a school based expedition this may be the Outdoor Education Advisor) as well as the in-situ environmental context (e.g. the relevant D of E Wild Country Panel).

4. For some expeditions, e.g. independent youth organisations which provides its own assessors there is a risk that this scrutiny does not happen, or is inadequate

Ratios

5. Under D of E conditions a group must consist of between four and seven participants.

Valley based camping

6. The expectation that groups will be camping in valley based sites, or similar benign environments, risks the group feeling they must carry on even when better judgement dictates that it would be more sensible to stop and camp before the designated venue.  Supervisors should anticipate and plan for this contingency (e.g. slow progress, or swollen rivers).

Multiple groups

7. There are occasions when there may be more than one group from the same unit undertaking expeditions in at the same time, and in the same area.  It is most likely that these would be from the same Operating Unit, which may be a school, youth group or voluntary group. There are therefore single groups, composite groups, and multiple independent groups.  This has raised concerns over the number of, and the competencies, of supervisors of each group in the past.

8. Independence of Groups:

• situation 1 - if groups are in the same area but of sufficient distance apart from each other (e.g. four groups in the Lake District, one in the north, one in the south, one in the east and one in the west), they should clearly be regarded as independent.  For supervision purposes they should be regarded as totally separate and independent groups;
• situation 2 - the line becomes somewhat blurred when such groups are in closer proximity e.g. are all in the northern sector of the Lake District.  The group's routes may either follow each other, criss-cross each other or may be close to each other.  Groups may stay at the same campsite.  Whilst these groups may be walking separately in supervisory terms they may, in some circumstances, be considered as a combined or multiple group.

9. Competence of Supervisors:

• in the case of Situation 1 above, each group should be supervised by either a person holding the Mountain Leader Award (MLA) or higher, the Walking Group Leader (WGL) where this is the appropriate qualification, or have had their competence ratified by a suitably experienced and qualified person (i.e. they have a statement of competence from an appropriate technical adviser);
• in the case of Situation 2 above, and depending on the circumstances, it may be acceptable for the overall supervision to be the responsibility of one or more persons holding either MLA, WGL or a statement of competence and assisted by suitably experienced supervisors to cover the remainder of the groups.  The exact composition of these supervisors will be determined by each set of circumstances and these may change from day to day.  It would be prudent to involve a technical advisor formally in these more complex decisions, and to keep a record of their recommendations. 
• the lead supervisors besides holding one of the relevant technical competencies should be sufficiently experienced with remote supervision and have an understanding of what the groups are likely to do in certain situations.  They should also be able to deploy assisting supervisors according to the conditions;
• assisting supervisors should have the technical competence to navigate safely in the hills and in all other aspects be able to look after their own safety.  They should also be able to retrieve the situation in an emergency.

10. Competence of Assistants:

• in the case of Situation 1 above, in licensable terrain, each assistant deployed to supervise a group should hold a WGL (or higher) or hold a statement of competence from an appropriate technical adviser;
• in the case of Situation 2 above, in licensable terrain, each assistant deployed to supervise of a group would need at least a statement of competence from an appropriate technical adviser