EVOLVE Advice digest - educational visits news, guidance and updates

10 September 2025

Welcome back everyone!

We hope you had the opportunity to recharge your batteries over the holiday and that you’re ready for another brilliant year of educational visits.

Last year, schools in the EVOLVE Advice community organised 326,565 educational visits, enjoyed by over 6.2 million children and young people. That’s amazing!

We know you’ve got lots of visits planned for the coming year, and we’re here to help with specialist advice, guidance and training.

EVOLVE Advice clients - look out for your welcome back email from us (via EVOLVE), which includes updates, training discounts for our clients, and a new year checklist.

Here are some more resources to get you started…

Don’t miss these free advice sessions…

This week! Friday 12 Sept at 9.30am.

Scrutinising Visit Forms for Heads and EVCs - a 20 minute online session with our Director, Jake. Register now

Allergy and educational visits webinar. An online Q&A with The Allergy Team and EVOLVE Advice.

24 September, 12.30pm – FREE. Book here.

In this week’s Digest:

National Guidance updates
Guidance and policy news: DfE, Borders, Ofsted
Funding opportunities
Training and CPD - dates for your diary

Advice and guidance

New and updated National Guidance

Over the summer, OEAP National Guidance revised 25 English and Welsh guidance documents - a few to highlight are:

4.4d Medication – added reference to non-prescription medicines.
7.1k Unaccompanied expeditions – reinforcing that these are not unsupervised visits.
7.2i Group safety at water margins – with additions around water quality and rescuing someone from the water.

Newly published guidance since July includes ten new Welsh translations of existing guidance and one new guidance document: 4.4r Participants with autism.

OEAP also published helpful summary articles about what guidance says about using swimming pools during off-site visits and about group safety in crowded places.

For a full list of new and updated guidance, and details of the changes, click the button below.

OEAP NATIONAL GUIDANCE UPDATES

News & policy

DfE Safeguarding in out of school settings

Consultation extended to 21 September

The Government is running a Call for Evidence (a type of pre-consultation) on safeguarding in out of school settings (OOSS), which includes educational visits and activities off the school site. The aim is to collect evidence and information that will inform government policy, specifically:

Existing safeguarding practices in OOSS
Potential options to strengthen safeguarding across the sector

The Call for Evidence has been extended, giving more people the chance to share their experiences and help shape proposals to support safe and positive environments for children.

COMPLETE THE SURVEY

Travelling overseas

Passport and visa requirements are a big topic of conversation in the school travel industry and, understandably, schools are looking for certainty, particularly around the impact of the Entry/Exit System (EES).

The Department for Transport is issuing regular updates to travel companies and your provider will be able to talk you through the current situation for your specific visit. Anecdotally, it appears that that border control is phasing-in changes – concentrating on larger groups/coaches first to help limit delays.

The Port of Dover border pilot for school groups https://www.evolveadvice.co.uk/latest-news/2025/border-pilot is live but you should continue to plan on the basis that border crossings and passport control may take longer. Contact your adviser for support about overseas visits.

Ofsted and the new inspection regime

We’re keeping an eye on developments with Ofsted. It’s unclear yet where educational visits could fall in the new system but with a greater emphasis on students’ personal development, it’s likely that this will be included. We’ll update you on any relevant changes as we hear them.

Spread the word

This Evolve Advice Digest is available to all EVCs, Visit Leaders, SLT and anyone else involved in educational visits. If you know someone who would benefit from receiving news and updates from us, please share this link so they can sign up.

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Funding & Offers

Latest grants for educational visits:

Ninevah Trust – Grants of £3,000 - 5,000 available for UK schools, PTAs and not-for-profit organisations, for projects that promote a better understanding of the environment.

The RDC Foundation - £1000 grants for young people undertaking significant life changing adventurous activities, or to purchase equipment to engage young people in adventurous activities.

Visit our Funding Finder webpage for more grants and fundraising tips.

Winners of this year’s Get Out! Grants will be announced soon – watch this space…

VIEW FUNDING FINDER

Training and CPD

Dates for your diary

Scrutinising visit forms for approval - 12 September 9.30am. 20 min session for heads and EVCs
Allergy and educational visits live Q&A with The Allergy Team and EVOLVE Advice. 24 September, 12.30pm. FREE
Council For Learning Outside the Classroom conference. 12-14 November, Leeds
Schools and Academies Show. 19-20 November, Birmingham

Booking opens next week for EVOLVE Advice clients - thanks to the generous support of our headline sponsor PGL Beyond, and our exhibitors, EVOLVE Advice client and early bird tickets this year cost just £95 + VAT at 20%.

MORE EVENTS AND WEBINARS

Subscribe to these specialist magazines for more educational visits advice and inspiration.

Educational visits training and development

EVOLVE Advice provides EVC Training; Visit Leader Training and e-learning; Snowsport Visits Training and Risk Assessment for Educational Visits.

FIND COURSES

www.evolveadvice.co.uk

This publication includes a general summary of guidance. It should not replace advice tailored to your specific circumstances.