2025 EVOLVE Advice Snapshot
Supporting you into 2026
It’s a new year, and the EVOLVE Advice team is ready to support you in delivering safe and memorable educational visits in 2026.
5.95 million children and young people on visits
4,483 schools supported
Over the past year, our focus has been on strengthening the support we offer to our growing community of schools – 4,500 schools by the end of 2025. As we continue to grow, we remain determined that every school receives the high-quality, responsive, no-out-of-office support that sets EVOLVE Advice apart.
With quality and high standards at the heart of everything we do, we introduced new services, training opportunities and ways of working – all designed to make educational visits safer, easier to manage, and more accessible for children and young people.
Before we share what’s coming next, let’s take a look at how we supported you in 2025.
Raising standards, building confidence: how EVOLVE Advice supported you in 2025
Across all our services, our goal is simple: to help schools confidently deliver safe and memorable educational visits.
Fast, competent, in-context advice on all aspects of educational visits.
High-quality training that equips EVCs and Visit Leaders with skills and confidence.
Practical resources to support day-to-day visit planning and delivery.
Explore what was new in 2025
(Already curious about what’s coming next? Jump ahead to 2026)
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New services and support
In 2025, we expanded our services to provide more timely, specialist and resilient support for schools, including:
24/7 emergency response support
Critical incident support for educational visits is now available as an add-on to any advice package, delivered in partnership with Pharos Response. Ask for details.
Data Protection Officer (DPO) service
A new DPO service for schools seeking additional support in this increasingly complex area.
EVC of the Year Award
Launched to recognise exceptional impact, leadership and outcomes in educational visits worldwide.
A growing expert team
We welcomed new advisers, trainers and support staff enabling us to meet demand while maintaining the high standards and responsiveness schools rely on.
Improved systems and resources
We retained our ‘No-Out-of-Office’ promise, streamlined internal processes, and developed new resources to give schools a smoother, more reliable service.
First Aid Emergency Guide
A practical set of cards designed to help staff respond confidently to first aid emergencies whether at school or on an educational visit.
Building a positive future for educational visits
We strengthened partnerships across the sector to influence positive change, improve consistency, and enhance safety and quality for schools.
Supporting key publications on High Quality Outdoor Learning with the Institute for Outdoor Learning (IOL).
Supporting the LOtC Quality Badge programme with the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom – a key mark of quality and safety management.
Working with The Allergy Team to improve allergy advice and training for educational visits.
Providing training and advice to providers to help upskills their teams and align processes with schools.
Collaborating on subsidised immersive training visits for EVCs.
Sharing expertise at conferences and in publications
Networking with advisers nationwide to build greater consistency and confidence in advice to schools
Training – raising standards and building confidence
We continued to champion excellence in educational visits training, with accreditation from both the Institute for Outdoor Learning (IOL) and the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).
In 2025 this meant:
More training, when you need it
With three new advisers joining the team, we increased training capacity to meet growing demand so you can get the training you need, when you need it.
IOSH-approved EVC status
EVCs can now achieve IOSH-approved status through an optional additional assessment, strengthening professional recognition and assurance.
Completely updated Visit Leader training
Ready for launch in 2026:
Principles of Visit Leadership: a new e-learning course covering essential foundations
Blended Visit Leader training combining principles with practical, scenario-based live training led by experienced advisers
Free CPD opportunities
Including advice webinars – many available on demand. Popular sessions included Allergy Q&A and Safer educational Visits for autistic pupils.
Expanded first aid training
All our first aid courses include paediatric and outdoor first aid skills, specifically designed for school and visit contexts.
Contributing to new training for Designated Allergy Leads from The Allergy Team.
Supporting schools to manage allergies confidently, including on educational visits.
Resources and funding
With school budgets continuing to be a challenge, we focused on making educational visits more affordable and accessible, including:
Relaunching the Educational Visits Community
Offering exclusive discounts and benefits from providers, available to EVOLVE Advice clients via EVOLVE.
Get Out Grants
Awarding 12 new grants, funded through initiatives including The EVC Magazine and The National Educational Visits Conference.
CLOtC Membership
Funding 20 Council for Learning Outside the Classroom memberships for schools.
easyfundraising partnership
249 schools raised an incredible £8,000 through everyday spending. We added money raised through our easyfundraising partnership directly back into our grants pot for schools.
EVC of the Year Award
Including bursaries and funding to support educational visits.
What’s coming next?
We’ve got more planned for 2026, including:
The National Educational Visits Conference
11 June 2026, London, with special rates for EVOLVE Advice clients.Face-to-face EVC training
Live sessions in London this February. Now booking.More free advice webinars
Including repeat sessions on supporting autistic pupils and managing allergies.A subsidised teacher retreat at The Bioasis
A unique opportunity to step away from day-to-day pressures and experience an educational visit with a difference.New toolkits and planning resources
To support progression, planning and confidence in educational visits.Enhanced support for Visit Leaders
Helping build competence and confidence for safer visits.A new shorter First Aid for Educational Visits course
Ideal for visit teams and helpers, with sessions planned at residential centres nationwide.
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