. TQM ISSUES & SAFETY ASSURANCE
This page contains knowledge base notes on the AALA & other TQM schemes benchmarking outdoor activities safety & quality assurance...
Assuring Rock Lea's outdoor activities are very safe, welcoming & reliable... ....... (cartoon courtesy of Mr Jim Watson ) Peak Activities Ltd's current 3-year AALA Licence Number is L6657/R0671 Our current three-year AALA licence expires on 17th July, 2010. MOD / NCAGE : Our NATO Supply Chain Support Provider Services Preferred Supplier Reference Number is U4F57. In compliance with The Activity Centres ( Young Persons' Safety ) Act 1995 and the revised Adventure Activities Licensing Regulations 2004, Rock Lea Activity Centre is Registered with HM Government's Adventure Activities Licensing Service ( Cardiff ) and is licensed by the HSE's Adventure Activities Licenisng Authrity ( AALA) to provide specified activities under the following headings which are in scope of the regulations : - Abseiling, Rock Climbing, Ice Climbing, Caving & Potholing, Orienteering, Mine Exploration, Mountain Biking / Off-road Cycling, Gorge Scrambling, Mountaineering and Hill Walking & Sea Level traversing. The AALA Licensing Authority ( AALA ) also recognises that the many other outdoor activities offered by Peak Activities Ltd. are not included in the scope of the AALS Adventure Regulations 2004. It is also recognised that some of the activities we offfer are sub-contracted by us to other AALS approved and licensed providers ... ( such as our RYA and BCU approved sailing and canoeing centre )has their own AALA Licenses. Insurance Cover for all Peak Activities Ltd's activities. HSE took over the responsibilty for the Adventure Activities Licensing Authority ( AALA) on April 1st, 2007 and now has enforcement resposibilty for the Activity Centres ( Young Persons' Safety ) Act 1995 and the Adventure Activities Licensing Regulations 2004. All the inspection and most of the administration work of the AALA carried out previously hase been taken over by Toursim Services Ltd.) under contract. TQS will be operating under the name Adventure Activities Licensing Service ( AALS ). Telephone Cardiff 029-2075-5715. Web site : www.aals.org.uk FURTHER READING : "Guidance to the Licensing Authority on the Adventuire Activity Licensing Regulations 2004" was revised July 2007 and is available from HSE Books. See http://www.hes.gov.uk/pubns/books/177.htm Knowledge Base Article: WHY IS SAFETY BENCHMARKING NEEDED ? Not all organisations have the same high safety values ethics or standards as you or us. Not everyone fully appreciates the need for a rigorous checking of kit, safety drills, staff training, staff qualifications, safe operations procedures, and so on... That's why in 1994 and 1995 people from leading companies in the outdoor industry formed a task force ( the Activity Centres Advisory Committee ( ACAC ) at the invitation of the then English Tourist Board's Chairman - to help establish codes of conduct and best practise and due diligence. One of our Directors, Dr. Iain Jennings, was a senior member of the ACAC's Task Force which was the forerunner of the AALA / AALS scheme described below. Iain wrote the terms of reference for the ACAC & also authored the templates which were adopted by the AALA once the licensing authority franchise was set up by Tourism Quality Services with approval of the Secretary of State for Education. ..
Peak Activities Ltd is licensed by the AALA following AALS inspection for a very wide range of outdoor pursuits for under-18's including rock-climbing, abseiling, mountain-biking & trekking in remote country, orienteering, caving, potholing and mine exploration. High level walks and mountaineering andcoasteering, ice climbing, & scrambling, are also covered. Click here to see a complete list of the outdoor sports we can offer you. We carry £5 million Public and Third Party Liability Insurance cover & Employer Liability Cover. Our team is also licensed to take out large numbers of youngsters at any time. As we also have employers liability insurance, we can field large numbers of staff who can take out fairly large groups with excellent insurance cover. Purchasers should be aware of the potential problems of using low cost providers ( e.g. loose associations of freelancers ) who may not have employers liability in place because of the high costs of such insurance cover. We are very concerned that not all insurance cover offered by outdoor centres offers the same levels of cover. Read more.
THE ADVENTURE ACTIVITIES LICENSING SERVICE ( AALA ) Peak Activities Ltd's current AALA 3 -year Licence Number is L6657/R0671 which expires 17th July 2010. Click for more information about the AALA scheme If you're planning to run a school or college field trip or an adventure holiday or a day out for scouts, school children or college students aged under 18 years away from their parents or legal guardians, you need to be aware of the AALA Licensing Scheme and the work of AALS'sinspection services. See the AALS website at www.aals.org.uk or the Health & Safety Executive's web site at www.hes.gov.uk/aala for more details of the scheme...or customers of Peak Activities Ltd can contact us for more details. Scroll down to read the detailed notes for teachers and youth leaders which are outlined below : -
.. Peak Activities Ltd. AALS License : L6657/R0671 Our previous AALA Licence Number was L2861/R0671. Licenses can be checked &n verified by contacting the Adventure Activities Licensing Services in Llanmishen on 029-2075-5715
Above : a group of 16 year olds on a week long personal development training exercise supervised and designed by BSES mountaineering and glaciology tutor Iain Jennings in 1974 as a training experience for youngsters Iain was later taking on expedition to glaciers in the Arctic. Here in this remote & hostile part of the Cairngorm plateau in winter, the youngsters and their parents and the sponsoring organisation all needed to know everyone was well equipped and being looked after by safe, experienced, competent and reliable instructors working to appropriate high safety standards.
Thirty years later, Peak Activities Ltd continues to supply safe enjoyable experiential learning events in the Peak District and elsewhere. This page provides notes on the AALA government inspection scheme and other ways and means by which safety is assessed and which are used to help ensure safety not only for teenagers - but also over 18's using the facilities offered by Peak Activities Ltd.
THE AALA SAFETY SCHEME
VARIOUS OTHER MEANS to BENCHMARK SAFETY staff qualifications, safety audits, endorsements, etc. The detailed notes below have been put on the Peak Activities Ltd website for the benefit of the many journalists, head teachers, lecturers, youth workers and other purchasers of our services who keep asking us about the AALA safety legislation and training quality standards and safety and other quality benchmarking issues affecting outdoor education and experiential training programmes for under 18's. Although there is, sadly, still no current similar legislation on safety for over-18's, anybody worried about the safety of groups of over 18's whilst under tuition could benefit from reading these notes too. What's good enough for ensuring the safety of under 18's is surely good enough for grown ups too !
THE ADVENTURE ACTIVITIES LICENSING AUTHORITY ( AALA ) The Adventure Activities Licensing Authority ( the AALA ) was sponsored by the Department for Education and Skills & operates under the guidance of the Health and Safety Commission and is a non-profit making public authority. Its function is to inspect the safety management systems of over 1,000 outdoor pursuits providers and adventure activities centres and to issue licences for centres in England, Wales & Scotland. The A.A.L.A. Licensing Scheme provided a level of independent, government approved safety assurance for under 18's on events such as caving and rock & ice climbing or mountain biking in remote areas where the under-18's parents and guardians are not present. The scheme is run by the Adventure Activities Licensing Authority ( AALA ) from offices in Llanishen in Cardiff...under the aegis of the government's Dept for Education and Skills. The AALA inspectors in our experience are very competent & thorough experts who know much more about inspecting centres than, say, advisory teachers or general HSE inspectors....largely because their inspectorate is drawn from very experienced senior specialists in their fields - coupled with a very stringent and well thought out inspection process. The AALA scheme is just one of several TQM benchmarking methods used by Peak Activities and for several years now it has been a legal requirement for commercial organisations running specified outdoor activities in remote areas for under 18's in organised groups to comply with the requirements of the Activity Centres ( Young People Safety ) Act of 1995 and pursuant to the Adventure Activities Licensing Regulations 1996. The AALA Regulations were revised in 2004 following The Adventure Activities Licensing Regulations 2004 which brought the licensing scheme's team under the closer aegis of HM Health & Safety Executive and the setting up of the Adventure Activities Licensing Service which took over from the AALA. Many of the personnel at the AALS ( including Marcus bailie - the Head of Inspection Services ) and many of his team of senior inspectors were formerly members of the AALA team. Why was the AALA scheme set up ? Detailed description of the AALA scheme. ( see also www.aala.org ) ...
Frequently Asked Question : AS TEACHERS & YOUTH LEADERS, WILL WE NEED TO BE SUBMERGED FOR DAYS UNDER SHEETS OF RISK ASSESSMENTS IF WE WANT TO ARRANGE ACTIVITIES OUTDOORS FOR THE UNDER 18's IN OUR CARE ?
One of the big advantages of using a government licensed AALA provider likePeak Activities Ltd is that they will have already had all their written risk assessments and all their site specific safety precautions and safe operating codes ....and their staff qualifications and safety management procedures very thoroughly vetted and government inspected in meticulous detail by the expert inspectors from AALS...this saves you having to do it all ! The AALS inspectors are expert specialists who won't pass staff or safety management plans which aren't sound. According to the AALS's Chief Inspector, Mr Marcus Bailie, this means that where AALS license holders are being used to support school visits, the teachers, for example, can save much valuable time in not having to re-invent the wheel by doing loads of time consuming risk assessments for the sites and activities being undertaken. Teachers needing reassurance on this point can refer to copies of open letters from Marcus stating this point...or check direct with the AALS.
ADVENTURE ACTIVITIES LICENSING SERVICE, 44, LAMBOURNE CRESCENT, CARDIFF BUSINESS PARK, LLANISHEN, CARDIFF, CF14 5GG. E-MAIL : info@aals.org.uk Website : www.aals.org.uk
The existence of a current AALS license for a centre also means that other key safety issues such as Public Liability and Third Party Liability insurance will have been checked at the last inspectors visit. However, our advice is to check that such insurance is still in place by asking to see a copy of the provider's current insurance certification. Quite a few places in our industry have been unable to get continued insurance in 2007...especially for activities such as caving which whilst being safe are somehow being deemed as hard to insure by many of the few insurance underwriters still insuring outdoor providers. Many freelancers who we know in the Peak District, for example, are now struggling to maintain the levels of insurance cover they enjoyed until quite recently, for example. This is due to the crisis in liability insurance underwriting in the UK which is described on another one of our web pages. Insurance cover provided by Peak Activities Ltd. AALS Licenses are issued to providers for specific types of activity and often there are stated limits for the sizes of parties any specific licence holder can take out at any one time. For example a small one-man band with a licence may not be able to take out as many people at once legally as a more organised centre with a team of staff that's been vetted and approved by the AALS inspectorate. Peak Activities Ltd is licensed by the AALS for a wide range of outdoor pursuits for under-18's including rock-climbing, abseiling, mountain-biking & trekking in remote country, orienteering, caving, potholing and mine exploration. Our team is also licensed to take out fairly large numbers of youngsters at any time. Our close associates and sub-contractors are also licensed to provide a wide range of watersports including canoeing and sailing and windsurfing. These activities are available to schools and youth groups if they are also booking our other services during events of 3 or more days duration.
. .. .. Top tip : GET INDEPENDENT ADVICE ! If you're a teacher or scout troop leader and you're concerned to get everything right - if in any doubt please contact your organisation's health & safety advisory staff - or your individual school's or organisation's nominated School Visit Co-Ordinator or outdoor advisor. If you are unclear about just what you're expected to know or do prior to arranging a field trip or event involving under 18's it's always best to check with your advisory colleagues. We are always happy to help out our clients in every possible way - so if you're unclear about what to do regarding parental consent forms, etc. just speak with us if you are one of our clients ( sadly we don't have enough staff or time to offer to help people who are not our customers ). WHAT IF MY UNION REP OR HSE ADVISOR SAYS OUTDOOR PURSUITS ARE DANGEROUS & TOO RISKY ? Nonesense ! Compared per hour of traveling on a road or motorway all outdoor pursuits are much safer ! Moreover, the Government's Chief Inspector of Schools recently published an official report suggesting that outdoor experiential learning for young people is safe and should be encouraged and funded because offsite residentials and education away from school produces very positive, lasting benefits for all involved. We would therefore take issue with any union reps. who may tell you it's not worth it to take youngsters out into the countryside any more. We believe outdoor learning can still be fun and is safe and is demonstrably a very sound investment of teacher's or youth workers' time. In spite of a few highly publicised accidents where staff from schools "going it alone " were obviously criminally negligent - organising a safe event is not difficult and it is not a risk to a teacher's or youth workers' career as some have argued who don't always know what they are talking about ! ...especially if you put your trust in suppliers who are experienced, licensed and working to high standards. Granted, the world is much more litigious than, say, it was twenty years ago, so our suggestion is that you trust a reliable, tried and proven provider if you are buying for the first time. You'll find the best centres are not the cheapest, by the way. Taking due diligence and best practise into account involves time and effort, so it is logical that the cheapest providers may not necessarily be the best...as in many other walks of life.
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Top tip : GET INDEPENDENT ADVICE ! If you're a teacher or scout troop leader and you're concerned to get everything right - if in any doubt please contact your organisation's health & safety advisory staff - or your individual school's or organisation's nominated School Visit Co-Ordinator or outdoor advisor. If you are unclear about just what you're expected to know or do prior to arranging a field trip or event involving under 18's it's always best to check with your advisory colleagues. We are always happy to help out our clients in every possible way - so if you're unclear about what to do regarding parental consent forms, etc. just speak with us if you are one of our clients ( sadly we don't have enough staff or time to offer to help people who are not our customers ). WHAT IF MY UNION REP OR HSE ADVISOR SAYS OUTDOOR PURSUITS ARE DANGEROUS & TOO RISKY ? Nonesense ! Compared per hour of traveling on a road or motorway all outdoor pursuits are much safer ! Moreover, the Government's Chief Inspector of Schools recently published an official report suggesting that outdoor experiential learning for young people is safe and should be encouraged and funded because offsite residentials and education away from school produces very positive, lasting benefits for all involved. We would therefore take issue with any union reps. who may tell you it's not worth it to take youngsters out into the countryside any more. We believe outdoor learning can still be fun and is safe and is demonstrably a very sound investment of teacher's or youth workers' time. In spite of a few highly publicised accidents where staff from schools "going it alone " were obviously criminally negligent - organising a safe event is not difficult and it is not a risk to a teacher's or youth workers' career as some have argued who don't always know what they are talking about ! ...especially if you put your trust in suppliers who are experienced, licensed and working to high standards. Granted, the world is much more litigious than, say, it was twenty years ago, so our suggestion is that you trust a reliable, tried and proven provider if you are buying for the first time. You'll find the best centres are not the cheapest, by the way. Taking due diligence and best practise into account involves time and effort, so it is logical that the cheapest providers may not necessarily be the best...as in many other walks of life.
PROBLEMS IN THE PAST - WHY WAS THE AALA SCHEME SET UP ? With well over 3,000 outdoor activities & corporate events providers operating in the UK 's Great Outdoors picking out a reliable and safe outdoor training providers in the past was a rather hit-and-miss & very time-consuming affair for first-time buyers. Even today it can be quite daunting...and rare recent tragedies involving school trips led by unqualified and inexperienced school teachers have highlighted the fact that the lessons of the Lyme Bay disaster may not have been fully learned by many group organisers. There is still a need for people to make sure that not only are risks properly assessed and steps taken to minimise hazards ...but also for such risk assessments to be constantly updated and for well-trained, safety conscious, expert staff to be involved in the day to day management and delivery of safe activities for customers. The safety chain in any organisation is only as strong as its weakest link - and just "hoping" things will go well and safely is, sadly, and simply not good enough. Whilst many centres in previous decades were safe & enjoyable & offered very good value, some in the past were otherwise - with poorly trained, unqualified young staff and haphazard safety management. It was also very difficult to compare like-with-like in terms of staffing ratios, staff experience & qualifications, service level agreements, safety levels, added-value, reliability, insurance cover, etc. IN SAFE & RELIABLE HANDS.... Peak Activities Ltd's MD Iain Jennings was widely acknowledged by senior managers of the ETB and regional tourism boards as one of the driving forces behind the inception of government legislation in 1995 & 1996. Iain served on the English Tourist Board's Activity Centres Safety Advisory Committee and the ACAC Task Force and was the official representative of the various regional associations of residential education on those committees. We are pleased that this work laid the foundations for the setting up of quality assurance standards for the industry and we welcomed the setting up of the AALA licensing system which began in 1997 pursuant to the Activity Centres (Young Persons Safety) Act 1995 and the Adventure Activity Licensing Regulations 1996. Our centre was initially inspected by AALA in July 1997 and was issued with a two year AALA license. We were routinely re-inspected again in May 1999 and re-awarded another two year license. Another AALA inspection was made again in 2001 and another two year licence issued once more. Our current license was issued on 17th July 2004 and this means we are licensed now until July 2006.
PROBLEMS IN THE PAST - WHY WAS THE AALA SCHEME SET UP ? With well over 3,000 outdoor activities & corporate events providers operating in the UK 's Great Outdoors picking out a reliable and safe outdoor training providers in the past was a rather hit-and-miss & very time-consuming affair for first-time buyers. Even today it can be quite daunting...and rare recent tragedies involving school trips led by unqualified and inexperienced school teachers have highlighted the fact that the lessons of the Lyme Bay disaster may not have been fully learned by many group organisers. There is still a need for people to make sure that not only are risks properly assessed and steps taken to minimise hazards ...but also for such risk assessments to be constantly updated and for well-trained, safety conscious, expert staff to be involved in the day to day management and delivery of safe activities for customers. The safety chain in any organisation is only as strong as its weakest link - and just "hoping" things will go well and safely is, sadly, and simply not good enough. Whilst many centres in previous decades were safe & enjoyable & offered very good value, some in the past were otherwise - with poorly trained, unqualified young staff and haphazard safety management. It was also very difficult to compare like-with-like in terms of staffing ratios, staff experience & qualifications, service level agreements, safety levels, added-value, reliability, insurance cover, etc.
IN SAFE & RELIABLE HANDS.... Peak Activities Ltd's MD Iain Jennings was widely acknowledged by senior managers of the ETB and regional tourism boards as one of the driving forces behind the inception of government legislation in 1995 & 1996. Iain served on the English Tourist Board's Activity Centres Safety Advisory Committee and the ACAC Task Force and was the official representative of the various regional associations of residential education on those committees. We are pleased that this work laid the foundations for the setting up of quality assurance standards for the industry and we welcomed the setting up of the AALA licensing system which began in 1997 pursuant to the Activity Centres (Young Persons Safety) Act 1995 and the Adventure Activity Licensing Regulations 1996. Our centre was initially inspected by AALA in July 1997 and was issued with a two year AALA license. We were routinely re-inspected again in May 1999 and re-awarded another two year license. Another AALA inspection was made again in 2001 and another two year licence issued once more. Our current license was issued on 17th July 2004 and this means we are licensed now until July 2006.
The position for some purchasers is, thankfully, changed with the advent of new legal safety requirements for activities for under-18's and sports governing body codes of conduct being adopted nationally. However, there are many other ways of benchmarking safety. Some notes are outlined below. Outdoor & Training Centres can nowadays be benchmarked on a number of criteria, including, for example : - 1) Safety Culture & Safety Track Record & 2) Customer Care Track Record 3) Relevence & Benefits & 4) Effectiveness of their events. The effectiveness of a provider may largely stem from the wisdom arising from the build up of their knowledge & experience...and whether or not the clients & delegates take on board their suggestions and go on to make significant progress and implement good ideas. This may also involve detailed post event benchmarking with purchasers, grant aid-providers, and the delegates themselves. In our case we undertake our own benchmarking and our chartered institute also independly monitors and evaluates the success of the projects we undertake with many of our blue chip customers. 5) Reliability & 6) Costs are other key performance factors to bear in mind. Customers' unsolicited endorsements recommendations and repeat business patterns are useful independent performance indicators too. Below are some more detailed notes on each of these six indicators.... (1) Ways and means of benchmarking safety Where published and open to inspection the track records and histories of established centres can speak for themselves... For example, our insurers are British Activity Holidays Insurance Services in London. We have not had any serious injury or liability claims made against our company's liability insurance since we started operations in 1981 and our accident & near misses book (always open to inspection to visitors & guests) is an exceptionally enlightening document. Sadly, not all centres have an "open book" policy on safety incident reporting, so this benchmark is not always one which can be applied across the board when comparing different providers. Group organisers are wise to check that adequate insurance is provided by any professional provider. Not all insurance cover offered by centres is the same. Anyone requiring a copy of our £5 million Public & Third Party Liability cover and our Employee Liability Cover should phone us on 01433-650345 or e-mail us. We also offer clients Travel Insurance as an additional optional extra...and special insurance for firms wishing to guard against any potential problems caused by long-term absence from work. "Discerning clients don't keep coming back if they feel you're a threat to the emotional and physical safety of their people." "Ooops ! " .....CClick to see some of our customers kind unsolicited comments, thanks & endorsements. ADVENTURE ACTIVITIES LICENSING AUTHORITY Unfortunately, other outdoor providers (e.g. some military units, many charities & all providers offering events for over 18's) are still not specifically regulated. However, most are covered by broad spectrum legislation such as the Health & Safety at Work Act. The AALA's regulations are now administered by the government's licensing authority. Currently this run by an organisation called AALS ( TQS ) based in Cardiff which is designated by the Secretary of State for Education as the government's official guardian of the AALR's. The current legislation designed to guarantee minimum safety standards are set in the staffing and management of outdoor activities for youngsters. The AALA undertakes both regular and random checks on the safety management systems at centres. Essentially the AALA inspectors are interested in finding out if the safety management procedures are sensible and as safe as they should be - and then the AALA's experienced and highly qualified inspectors check if the rules are being followed by all the staff on a day to day, week-to-week basis. In the Peak District such random checks even includes AALA inspectors unexpectedly introducing themselves to groups up on the crags or popping up out of the dark deep down inside caves and checking who's leading the party, what qualifications they have, etc. It's a welcome development and the AALA inspectors have established a lot of street cred. amongst those of us who have been around a while and know what's required. What shame they only patrol and protect the youngster's end of the spectrum ! Peak Activities Ltd was most recently inspected by AALS in July 2007 and we were issued a three year AALA license which runs until July 2010. Previously we were inspected in 1997, 1999 and 2001 when each time we were granted two year AALA licenses. We are licensed by the AALA for a wide range of outdoor pursuits for under-18's including rock-climbing, abseiling, mountain-biking & trekking in remote country, orienteering, caving, potholing and mine exploration. Our watersports sub-contractor and other associates and freelance colleagues also hold separate AALA licences too. Copies of our/their licences & our insurance arrangements are available to bone fide group organisers on request. Safety qualifications of staff.... Today there is a great emphasis to stress that staff have sports coaching qualifications. This is a good thing but sometimes can blind people purchasing staff development training courses who should consider other qualifications in addition to these when choosing a suitable Outdoor Management Development training provider. Until quite recently it was hard for non-specialists purchasing outdoor training to cross-check the suitability of tutors provided by outdoor training facilitators. There was a plethora of different schemes at local level and national level...and some activities didn't have awards for leaders at all. Moreover, much to their disgrace, staff at some centres claimed they had qualifications for activities such as climbing and caving which closer inspection might have revealed were not what they seemed to be. No national inspection schemes were widely in force that had any enforcement powers or teeth...so things were a bit of a lottery. For people selecting outdoor providers in the UK today for young people, your choice isn't quite such a lottery as it used to be...thanks to the introduction of the ETB's National Code of Practice and the national inspection scheme which has now been established by the "Adventure Activities Licensing Regulations, 1996" These AALRs govern the provision of many adventurous activities by commercial providers to persons under the age of 18 not accompanied by their parents/legal guardians. However this is not the end of the story by any means. The National Governing Body awards that many centre's staff now have (e.g. SPA awards for climbing, RYA for sailing ) to comply with AALA requirements and NGB guidelines are only a partial indication of safety and relevance for adults training courses. Awards for sports training (such as sailing or caving) instruction are often cited in literature from centres like ours but often little or no mention is made of any formal training, coaching, lecturing, teaching or industrial experience in the "training" sense. If you just want s stag weekend with lots of fun and action, then you may be only need to check that the staff supervising your group are NGB (National Governing Body of Sports) qualified for each activity involved. The situation for TRAINING PARTIES from commerce and industry may, however, be quite different...... Purchasers of serious training might need to consider the need to check that the training team working on their serious training programme has both formal sports (NGB) coaching instructions awards & qualifications as well as formal training coaching awards. There are still many outdoor sports centres running management training courses and team building events with staff who do not have nationally approved and recognised TRAINERS' qualifications. These might include qualifications validated by the DFE, the Institute of Management, the Institute of Personnel & Development, the MCI, and so on. To some extent the credibility of those centres trying to run professional training courses may be prejudiced severely by other centres operating with staff who are sports-centred rather than training or learning-centred. Peak Activities employs three kinds of tutor... 1) There are those who are skilled and qualified in both training per se. and the sports which they use as vehicles for learning (e.g. someone who is an IPD Member and who is MIA qualified who can also rig ropes and supervise abseiling-based problem solving tasks as well as running good reviews afterwards. These are usually employed as senior tutors and course designers and course directors. 2) Support staff who are technically qualified in sports - who act as safety supervisors. These include some of our full time associates and ad hoc freelance staff who work as support technicians, drivers, etc. We are very careful about which freelance staff we employ for training contracts ...usually only people with a well known, trustworthy track record. 3) We also employ tutors who are highly skilled trainers but who may not posses the NGB awards which the other two categories of staff may hold. These colleagues work side-by-side with our technicians and training consultants. These people may be former or serving training managers from other organisations on secondment or working part time for us. Many too are fully experienced and qualified teachers and lecturers, registered with the Dept for Education and Employment. Often these colleagues are undergoing "shadowing" as part ofn their period of log book experience between successfully completing National Governing Body induction courses and final assessment as fully qualified instructors in the fields of caving, climbing, mountaineering, and so on. In our opinion, having such a community of mature, experienced specialists is healthy and gives us an edge over centres which may only employ young technicians with just NGB qualifications. However, our wages bill is considerably greater, so we are not as inexpensive as some other centres. (2) SERVICE LEVELS... Whilst minimum safety standards have now been put in place by AALA, it would be very unwise to assume that providers' service levels are all now the same. Service levels and quality of tuition still varies enormously from one provider to another...and this is to some extent reflected in fee variations and service level agreements, where they exist. The nature and duality of staffing has already been discussed above. However, staffing levels for example can vary from 1:4 to 1:12 for the same activity at different centres using exactly the same activity locations. This makes pricing comparisons quite tricky, but also has an implication for safety and the enjoyment and likely success of your activity ! Personal attention and close tuition is so much easier to guarantee with the tight staffing ratios we adopt here at Rock Lea. There are now many solo freelance operators who work alone from the back of cars and who do not own any premises or provide facilities for changing, showering, safe-keeping of valuables, loan of personal protective clothing, secure parking of clients cars, ppe issue, etc. Their costs will, of course, be much lower than ours. However, coping with changing clients' plans, increased delegate numbers, bad weather and so on may be more difficult for operators who do not have the fall-back of having a team of multi-skilled, multi-qualified staff and a centre full of kit and teaching resources immediately to hand. The level of insurance cover offered by some providers is often very much lower than some clients might assume. Many centres and individual freelancers still employ very junior, comparatively inexperienced and poorly paid staff who may be inappropriate for facilitating serious management training or sensitive staff development programmes. It may therefore important for clients to check & establish service levels, staffing experience, facilities, levels of confidentiality etc. prior to booking. Who exactly will be doing the instructing ? What sort of background experience, qualifications and insight can they offer ? This need to check may be just as true for adult groups (not regulated by the AALA) as it is for youngsters groups. A visitor to Rock Lea recently reported to us that he'd discovered all the tutors on an outdoor team development course he had been on were getting paid less than a hundred pounds per week plus living in. Needless to say, perhaps, the delegates were disappointed the quality of the tuition and the course content wasn't quite as high as they'd hoped for. None of the delegates were too happy with the person who'd supposed to have checked out the course before booking it.
The position for some purchasers is, thankfully, changed with the advent of new legal safety requirements for activities for under-18's and sports governing body codes of conduct being adopted nationally. However, there are many other ways of benchmarking safety. Some notes are outlined below. Outdoor & Training Centres can nowadays be benchmarked on a number of criteria, including, for example : - 1) Safety Culture & Safety Track Record & 2) Customer Care Track Record 3) Relevence & Benefits & 4) Effectiveness of their events. The effectiveness of a provider may largely stem from the wisdom arising from the build up of their knowledge & experience...and whether or not the clients & delegates take on board their suggestions and go on to make significant progress and implement good ideas. This may also involve detailed post event benchmarking with purchasers, grant aid-providers, and the delegates themselves. In our case we undertake our own benchmarking and our chartered institute also independly monitors and evaluates the success of the projects we undertake with many of our blue chip customers. 5) Reliability & 6) Costs are other key performance factors to bear in mind.
(1) Ways and means of benchmarking safety
For example, our insurers are British Activity Holidays Insurance Services in London. We have not had any serious injury or liability claims made against our company's liability insurance since we started operations in 1981 and our accident & near misses book (always open to inspection to visitors & guests) is an exceptionally enlightening document. Sadly, not all centres have an "open book" policy on safety incident reporting, so this benchmark is not always one which can be applied across the board when comparing different providers. Group organisers are wise to check that adequate insurance is provided by any professional provider. Not all insurance cover offered by centres is the same. Anyone requiring a copy of our £5 million Public & Third Party Liability cover and our Employee Liability Cover should phone us on 01433-650345 or e-mail us. We also offer clients Travel Insurance as an additional optional extra...and special insurance for firms wishing to guard against any potential problems caused by long-term absence from work.
ADVENTURE ACTIVITIES LICENSING AUTHORITY Unfortunately, other outdoor providers (e.g. some military units, many charities & all providers offering events for over 18's) are still not specifically regulated. However, most are covered by broad spectrum legislation such as the Health & Safety at Work Act.
The AALA undertakes both regular and random checks on the safety management systems at centres. Essentially the AALA inspectors are interested in finding out if the safety management procedures are sensible and as safe as they should be - and then the AALA's experienced and highly qualified inspectors check if the rules are being followed by all the staff on a day to day, week-to-week basis. In the Peak District such random checks even includes AALA inspectors unexpectedly introducing themselves to groups up on the crags or popping up out of the dark deep down inside caves and checking who's leading the party, what qualifications they have, etc. It's a welcome development and the AALA inspectors have established a lot of street cred. amongst those of us who have been around a while and know what's required. What shame they only patrol and protect the youngster's end of the spectrum ! Peak Activities Ltd was most recently inspected by AALS in July 2007 and we were issued a three year AALA license which runs until July 2010. Previously we were inspected in 1997, 1999 and 2001 when each time we were granted two year AALA licenses.
We are licensed by the AALA for a wide range of outdoor pursuits for under-18's including rock-climbing, abseiling, mountain-biking & trekking in remote country, orienteering, caving, potholing and mine exploration.
Our watersports sub-contractor and other associates and freelance colleagues also hold separate AALA licences too. Copies of our/their licences & our insurance arrangements are available to bone fide group organisers on request. Safety qualifications of staff.... Today there is a great emphasis to stress that staff have sports coaching qualifications. This is a good thing but sometimes can blind people purchasing staff development training courses who should consider other qualifications in addition to these when choosing a suitable Outdoor Management Development training provider. Until quite recently it was hard for non-specialists purchasing outdoor training to cross-check the suitability of tutors provided by outdoor training facilitators. There was a plethora of different schemes at local level and national level...and some activities didn't have awards for leaders at all. Moreover, much to their disgrace, staff at some centres claimed they had qualifications for activities such as climbing and caving which closer inspection might have revealed were not what they seemed to be. No national inspection schemes were widely in force that had any enforcement powers or teeth...so things were a bit of a lottery. For people selecting outdoor providers in the UK today for young people, your choice isn't quite such a lottery as it used to be...thanks to the introduction of the ETB's National Code of Practice and the national inspection scheme which has now been established by the "Adventure Activities Licensing Regulations, 1996" These AALRs govern the provision of many adventurous activities by commercial providers to persons under the age of 18 not accompanied by their parents/legal guardians. However this is not the end of the story by any means. The National Governing Body awards that many centre's staff now have (e.g. SPA awards for climbing, RYA for sailing ) to comply with AALA requirements and NGB guidelines are only a partial indication of safety and relevance for adults training courses. Awards for sports training (such as sailing or caving) instruction are often cited in literature from centres like ours but often little or no mention is made of any formal training, coaching, lecturing, teaching or industrial experience in the "training" sense. If you just want s stag weekend with lots of fun and action, then you may be only need to check that the staff supervising your group are NGB (National Governing Body of Sports) qualified for each activity involved. The situation for TRAINING PARTIES from commerce and industry may, however, be quite different...... Purchasers of serious training might need to consider the need to check that the training team working on their serious training programme has both formal sports (NGB) coaching instructions awards & qualifications as well as formal training coaching awards. There are still many outdoor sports centres running management training courses and team building events with staff who do not have nationally approved and recognised TRAINERS' qualifications. These might include qualifications validated by the DFE, the Institute of Management, the Institute of Personnel & Development, the MCI, and so on. To some extent the credibility of those centres trying to run professional training courses may be prejudiced severely by other centres operating with staff who are sports-centred rather than training or learning-centred. Peak Activities employs three kinds of tutor... 1) There are those who are skilled and qualified in both training per se. and the sports which they use as vehicles for learning (e.g. someone who is an IPD Member and who is MIA qualified who can also rig ropes and supervise abseiling-based problem solving tasks as well as running good reviews afterwards. These are usually employed as senior tutors and course designers and course directors. 2) Support staff who are technically qualified in sports - who act as safety supervisors. These include some of our full time associates and ad hoc freelance staff who work as support technicians, drivers, etc. We are very careful about which freelance staff we employ for training contracts ...usually only people with a well known, trustworthy track record. 3) We also employ tutors who are highly skilled trainers but who may not posses the NGB awards which the other two categories of staff may hold. These colleagues work side-by-side with our technicians and training consultants. These people may be former or serving training managers from other organisations on secondment or working part time for us. Many too are fully experienced and qualified teachers and lecturers, registered with the Dept for Education and Employment. Often these colleagues are undergoing "shadowing" as part ofn their period of log book experience between successfully completing National Governing Body induction courses and final assessment as fully qualified instructors in the fields of caving, climbing, mountaineering, and so on.
In our opinion, having such a community of mature, experienced specialists is healthy and gives us an edge over centres which may only employ young technicians with just NGB qualifications. However, our wages bill is considerably greater, so we are not as inexpensive as some other centres.
(2) SERVICE LEVELS... Whilst minimum safety standards have now been put in place by AALA, it would be very unwise to assume that providers' service levels are all now the same. Service levels and quality of tuition still varies enormously from one provider to another...and this is to some extent reflected in fee variations and service level agreements, where they exist. The nature and duality of staffing has already been discussed above. However, staffing levels for example can vary from 1:4 to 1:12 for the same activity at different centres using exactly the same activity locations. This makes pricing comparisons quite tricky, but also has an implication for safety and the enjoyment and likely success of your activity ! Personal attention and close tuition is so much easier to guarantee with the tight staffing ratios we adopt here at Rock Lea. There are now many solo freelance operators who work alone from the back of cars and who do not own any premises or provide facilities for changing, showering, safe-keeping of valuables, loan of personal protective clothing, secure parking of clients cars, ppe issue, etc. Their costs will, of course, be much lower than ours. However, coping with changing clients' plans, increased delegate numbers, bad weather and so on may be more difficult for operators who do not have the fall-back of having a team of multi-skilled, multi-qualified staff and a centre full of kit and teaching resources immediately to hand. The level of insurance cover offered by some providers is often very much lower than some clients might assume. Many centres and individual freelancers still employ very junior, comparatively inexperienced and poorly paid staff who may be inappropriate for facilitating serious management training or sensitive staff development programmes. It may therefore important for clients to check & establish service levels, staffing experience, facilities, levels of confidentiality etc. prior to booking. Who exactly will be doing the instructing ? What sort of background experience, qualifications and insight can they offer ? This need to check may be just as true for adult groups (not regulated by the AALA) as it is for youngsters groups.
A visitor to Rock Lea recently reported to us that he'd discovered all the tutors on an outdoor team development course he had been on were getting paid less than a hundred pounds per week plus living in. Needless to say, perhaps, the delegates were disappointed the quality of the tuition and the course content wasn't quite as high as they'd hoped for. None of the delegates were too happy with the person who'd supposed to have checked out the course before booking it.
(3) Benchmarking customer care & client satisfaction...
Customer care and total quality starts at the point of enquiry & continues (hopefully) to help generate repeat business, endorsements, independent, impartial television features, favourable press reviews, personal customer recommendations & a sense of working in partnership with one's clients. If history is the dialectic between the past and the future, you can make informed predictions through judicious examination of providers' track records and the robustness of their reputations. As long standing commercial members of the Heart of England Tourist Board, Peak Activities Limited worked to the highest possible standards of customer care laid down by the English Tourist Board & our Regional Tourist Board...and to the high standards we've set ourselves. Rock Lea has developed close working links with many members of the regional tourist board & the English Tourist Board. We comply fully with the ETB's ACAC Code of Conduct for the safe running of outdoor education centres & service providers. This a document which Dr Iain Jennings, our centre director, co-authored as a leading member of the English Tourist Board's Activity Centre Advisory Committee & ACAC Task Force.
You'll see from our clients list & endorsements that the English Tourist Board, the British Tourist Authority and the erstwhile East Midlands Tourist Board, and our local authority The Derbyshire Dales District Council, have all used our professional planning services for their own corporate entertainment, overseas press visits & staff training events many times in recent years....which is hopefully a reassuring index towards the quality of our reliability & customer care for discerning clients. Insofar as possible we seek to exceed expectations and excel in customer care, staffing levels and safety. Our service has often been copied but is rarely surpassed by our competitors...largely thanks to the dedication and totally professional approach of our excellent team of staff and the help, ideas and support we get from many of our clients. (4) REGULAR PROFESSIONAL BENCHMARKING FOR TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT PROFESSIONALS...
You'll see from our clients list & endorsements that the English Tourist Board, the British Tourist Authority and the erstwhile East Midlands Tourist Board, and our local authority The Derbyshire Dales District Council, have all used our professional planning services for their own corporate entertainment, overseas press visits & staff training events many times in recent years....which is hopefully a reassuring index towards the quality of our reliability & customer care for discerning clients. Insofar as possible we seek to exceed expectations and excel in customer care, staffing levels and safety. Our service has often been copied but is rarely surpassed by our competitors...largely thanks to the dedication and totally professional approach of our excellent team of staff and the help, ideas and support we get from many of our clients.
(4) REGULAR PROFESSIONAL BENCHMARKING FOR TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT PROFESSIONALS...
We also run such follow-up evaluation sessions with all our other clients to help gain feedback to gauge and improve our quality and maintain our "performance performance". This helps us continuously improve our events. Our training team includes Chartered Members and Chartered Fellows of the CIPD...the UK's Chartered Institute for HRD Professionals, which requires its members to work to strict codes of ethics & professional conduct. The IPD was formed when two earlier existing institutes combined. The former UK Institute of Training and Development joined forces with the former UK Institute of Personnel Management. It is now the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development. The CIPD is now internationally recognised as the UK's leading institute for HR consultancy, staff training & development. Training Director, Iain Jennings' long standing membership of the CIPD's prestigious Register of Chartered Consultants is dependent upon a strict process of annual benchmarking amongst samples of our clients for that year by the CIPD. In an age when so many people between jobs can so easily call themselves "consultants", it is reassuring that we have been annually vetted and verified by the worlds leading personnel development and training institute. At the end of the day the best benchmark is whether customers want to use your services again and whether they'll suggest their friends use you. That's why we've taken time on this website to put in a few of the many unsolicited customers endorsements we get each each year. There are dozens of these on file here, which are freely open to inspection.
We also run such follow-up evaluation sessions with all our other clients to help gain feedback to gauge and improve our quality and maintain our "performance performance". This helps us continuously improve our events.
Our training team includes Chartered Members and Chartered Fellows of the CIPD...the UK's Chartered Institute for HRD Professionals, which requires its members to work to strict codes of ethics & professional conduct.
The IPD was formed when two earlier existing institutes combined. The former UK Institute of Training and Development joined forces with the former UK Institute of Personnel Management. It is now the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development. The CIPD is now internationally recognised as the UK's leading institute for HR consultancy, staff training & development. Training Director, Iain Jennings' long standing membership of the CIPD's prestigious Register of Chartered Consultants is dependent upon a strict process of annual benchmarking amongst samples of our clients for that year by the CIPD. In an age when so many people between jobs can so easily call themselves "consultants", it is reassuring that we have been annually vetted and verified by the worlds leading personnel development and training institute. At the end of the day the best benchmark is whether customers want to use your services again and whether they'll suggest their friends use you. That's why we've taken time on this website to put in a few of the many unsolicited customers endorsements we get each each year. There are dozens of these on file here, which are freely open to inspection.
RANDOM SAFETY BENCHMARK INSPECTIONS As mentioned above, because we offer activities for under-18's, Rock Lea is inspected & licensed by AALA (the UK government's Adventure Activities Licensing Authority). Random spot checks from their inspectors and periodical scheduled checks suggest our safety systems, management & operating procedures for young persons are quite satisfactory. Since we adopt exactly the same systems for working with over 18's this should reassure groups of over 18's too ! Prior to 1996 all we had was voluntary schemes such as the British Activity Holidays Association's inspection system. We were Founder Members of the BAHA and we had first hand experience of being approved as a centre by the BAHA scheme. This offered quasi-independent inspections by nonetheless competent inspectors for its own members only. Obviously any "cowboys" who were not members would not be inspected, so there was no uniformity across the country to aid prospective purchasers. Moreover, the Lyme Regis disaster investigation highlighted the lack of "street cred" of a self-regulatory system run by the members for the members of a self- selected trade association. The local centre's DARE inspection scheme which we were pleased to be involved with had the same sort of problems too. Self-regulation could be too easily accused of nepotism to be credible and it also lacked the guts to take tough decisions against miscreants. Much of the common sense concepts found earlier in the BAHA scheme is still be found in the AALA operation - but the AALA now has teeth and has a healthy independence, so there is scope to revoke or modify operators licenses. In the writer's opinion, the statutory AALA scheme was long overdue & we look forward to possibly seeing the scope of the legislation being extended sometime to include more activities and to include activities for over 18's too. We care a lot about all our customers. Like many other outdoor education professionals, we feel the legislation needs to encompass provision for over-18's and all youngsters' charity groups too in due course. In March 1998 the AALA published a 50 page text entitled "Self Assessment and Guidance for Providers of Outdoor Activities". This was developed from the British Quality Foundation model and incorporated the collective experience of the AALA inspectorate. This booklet is now available to and offers detailed guidance to all providers (and customers) and the sentiments apply to all activities - not just those within scope of the current legislation. According to Marcus Bailie (Head of Inspection Services at the AALA) the experience gained by the AALA is now being used to improve safety for both young persons not covered by the regulations and those of all ages partaking in non-scheduled outdoor activities. Many readers will be aware that at present activities ( such as the driving of "jet bikes" with unqualified staff ) are not within scope - but many in the industry feel a driver training and coaching qualification needs to be mandatory. As this one of many examples demonstrates, there is still much room for improvement, but at least we have made a good start and are now in a position where purchasers can feel reassured they are buying from license holders who have been checked by independent safety assessors. Senior staff from the English Tourist Board, the British Tourist Authority and the East Midlands Tourist Board (our former regional tourist board) have frequently employed Peak Activities Ltd's resources & facilities for tailoring their own corporate team building events for their staff and for visiting overseas & UK VIP's. It's comforting to know that our centre is often the tourism professional's first choice when they're wanting to introduce their own personnel and press & travel feature writers to safe, well-managed outdoor activities in the Peak Park. The ETB & EMTB have also consulted our senior colleagues as advisors when setting up national outdoor centre policies & guidelines. Peak Activities Ltd is pleased to have developed such trust with these organisations over the last decade.
RANDOM SAFETY BENCHMARK INSPECTIONS As mentioned above, because we offer activities for under-18's, Rock Lea is inspected & licensed by AALA (the UK government's Adventure Activities Licensing Authority). Random spot checks from their inspectors and periodical scheduled checks suggest our safety systems, management & operating procedures for young persons are quite satisfactory. Since we adopt exactly the same systems for working with over 18's this should reassure groups of over 18's too ! Prior to 1996 all we had was voluntary schemes such as the British Activity Holidays Association's inspection system. We were Founder Members of the BAHA and we had first hand experience of being approved as a centre by the BAHA scheme. This offered quasi-independent inspections by nonetheless competent inspectors for its own members only. Obviously any "cowboys" who were not members would not be inspected, so there was no uniformity across the country to aid prospective purchasers. Moreover, the Lyme Regis disaster investigation highlighted the lack of "street cred" of a self-regulatory system run by the members for the members of a self- selected trade association. The local centre's DARE inspection scheme which we were pleased to be involved with had the same sort of problems too. Self-regulation could be too easily accused of nepotism to be credible and it also lacked the guts to take tough decisions against miscreants. Much of the common sense concepts found earlier in the BAHA scheme is still be found in the AALA operation - but the AALA now has teeth and has a healthy independence, so there is scope to revoke or modify operators licenses. In the writer's opinion, the statutory AALA scheme was long overdue & we look forward to possibly seeing the scope of the legislation being extended sometime to include more activities and to include activities for over 18's too. We care a lot about all our customers. Like many other outdoor education professionals, we feel the legislation needs to encompass provision for over-18's and all youngsters' charity groups too in due course. In March 1998 the AALA published a 50 page text entitled "Self Assessment and Guidance for Providers of Outdoor Activities". This was developed from the British Quality Foundation model and incorporated the collective experience of the AALA inspectorate. This booklet is now available to and offers detailed guidance to all providers (and customers) and the sentiments apply to all activities - not just those within scope of the current legislation. According to Marcus Bailie (Head of Inspection Services at the AALA) the experience gained by the AALA is now being used to improve safety for both young persons not covered by the regulations and those of all ages partaking in non-scheduled outdoor activities. Many readers will be aware that at present activities ( such as the driving of "jet bikes" with unqualified staff ) are not within scope - but many in the industry feel a driver training and coaching qualification needs to be mandatory. As this one of many examples demonstrates, there is still much room for improvement, but at least we have made a good start and are now in a position where purchasers can feel reassured they are buying from license holders who have been checked by independent safety assessors. Senior staff from the English Tourist Board, the British Tourist Authority and the East Midlands Tourist Board (our former regional tourist board) have frequently employed Peak Activities Ltd's resources & facilities for tailoring their own corporate team building events for their staff and for visiting overseas & UK VIP's. It's comforting to know that our centre is often the tourism professional's first choice when they're wanting to introduce their own personnel and press & travel feature writers to safe, well-managed outdoor activities in the Peak Park.
The ETB & EMTB have also consulted our senior colleagues as advisors when setting up national outdoor centre policies & guidelines. Peak Activities Ltd is pleased to have developed such trust with these organisations over the last decade.
Rock Lea was a long-serving active member of the Derbyshire Association of Residential Education throughout the past 20+ years until D.A.R.E. was disbanded in early 2007. Iain Jennings is a former D.A.R.E. Hon. Secretary and has represented D.A.R.E. and other Associations of Residential Providers at the highest national and government level, including providing evidence for the House of Commons Education Select Committee. As a member of DARE Peak Activities Ltd was a signatory to the Peak Charter ....a code set up for the responsible & sensitive use of the Peak District National Park's environment by outdoor training groups. We urge all users of the Peak Park to consider adopting this charter. Other conservation codes we endorse include the BMC's recently published "Groups Guide" to behaviour & ethics on local crags. Go to MAIN INDEX A-Z ALPHABETICAL INDEX List of some of our corporate clients Click for notes on our staff....our quality shapers Case studies - events run for quality-conscious firms such as Lucas, Bosch, & Rolls Royce Television & media coverage Youngsters & teachers groups... Tel. 01433-650345 ...... Copyright : Dr. Iain Jennings 2002-2005. Unauthorised publication elsewhere of any extract of this website is prohibited.
Rock Lea was a long-serving active member of the Derbyshire Association of Residential Education throughout the past 20+ years until D.A.R.E. was disbanded in early 2007. Iain Jennings is a former D.A.R.E. Hon. Secretary and has represented D.A.R.E. and other Associations of Residential Providers at the highest national and government level, including providing evidence for the House of Commons Education Select Committee. As a member of DARE Peak Activities Ltd was a signatory to the Peak Charter ....a code set up for the responsible & sensitive use of the Peak District National Park's environment by outdoor training groups. We urge all users of the Peak Park to consider adopting this charter. Other conservation codes we endorse include the BMC's recently published "Groups Guide" to behaviour & ethics on local crags. Go to MAIN INDEX A-Z ALPHABETICAL INDEX List of some of our corporate clients Click for notes on our staff....our quality shapers Case studies - events run for quality-conscious firms such as Lucas, Bosch, & Rolls Royce Television & media coverage
Youngsters & teachers groups...
Tel. 01433-650345