International Trips – Preparing to Return to Safe Scouting

With the publication of The Scouts' getting back together safely framework today, we are highlighting how this affects International Expeditions.

There are several things to note

1. All residential, camping and International can only take place once we are at “Green” level (Page 10, section 6.2)
2. All residential, camping and International can only take place at least three months after the publication of this document, and this will next be reviewed in September 2020. This prohibits International until at least 25^th September 2020 (Page 10, section 6.3)
3. Appropriate return to safe scouting Risk Assessments for Expeditions will need to be submitted (similar to a Group Section). For those that are running at a Group level, these will need to be approved by District, for District level, these will need to be approved by County, and those running at County level will need to be approved by Region. (Page 9, section 5.1).

As part of the Risk Assessment, full allowance will need to be included for Coronavirus in each country passed through as well as the country being visited. This needs to be presented on a similar Red – Green scale. Attention will also need to be made to the current FCO advice (which is currently “against all but essential international travel to all countries”).

Virtual meetings can currently be used to maintain expedition teams, but where we are currently in Red level, no Face to Face meetings are permitted.

Insurance will also need to be checked carefully, as all Insurance policies no longer cover cancellation as a result of Covid-19. This therefore increases financial risks, that the responsible Exec committee need to agree to.

All of the above is in additional to the standard Visits Abroad process.

For any questions, help or advice, please contact the ACC International (Julian Sore) on [email protected].