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Application

Adventure UK

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Applications are invited for Chair of Adventure UK.

Adventure UK is representative of a wide range of stakeholders from the UK adventure activities sector. The body was formally known as the Adventure Activities Industry Advisory Council and has added to its membership the UK Adventure Industry Group to form the new body.

The aim of Adventure UK is to represent the Adventure Activities Sector in the UK in order to ensure that end users have a safe and professional adventurous experience. This is achieved by:

  • Safety Accreditation: taking a coordinating role in safety accreditation of adventurous activity and managing, developing and growing Adventuremark through Adventure Activities Industry Advisory Committee (AAIAC).
  • Representation: being a single consultative contact point for Government and other agencies in the areas of safety, risk management and good practice
  • Guidance: being a point of contact for all stakeholders, sharing good practice, developing standards and guidance
  • Development: of a non-statutory Industry Scheme to replace AALA Licensing through the Option 3 Working Group (O3WG)

Adventure UK is the body of representative organisations who oversee the election of AAIAC members and the O3WG its work plan.

Current representation:

Adventure Industry Northern Ireland

Association of Heads of Outdoor Education Centres

British Activity Providers Association

British Cycling

Council for Learning Outside the Classroom

European Ropes Course Association

Expedition Providers Association

Institute for Outdoor Learning

Mountain Training

Outdoor Council

Outdoor Education Advisers’ Panel

Scottish Adventure Activity Forum

Scottish Advisory Panel for Outdoor Education

Sport and Recreation Alliance

Sport Wales

Wales Activity Tourism Organisation

Young Explorers’ Trust

Together with 4 Observers and Advisors

A full role description and person specification is given in the application pack, which is available from  http://bit.ly/AdventureUKPost

Applications, together with two statements of support, must be returned by midday on Monday 14 October 2019 to from   [email protected]

 

 

AALA Licensing – AIM Member Survey Results

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What our members said

We recently sent out a member survey to gauge members views on the AALA Licensing review and we had an excellent response rate with members submitting their views to the three options posed by the HSE.  For those of you not familiar with this, the HSE have set up a review to the current AALA licensing scheme and were asking all providers to respond.

  • Option 1 – Retain the AALA regulations and current licensing scheme underpinned by the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and increase fees
  • Option 2 – Retain the AALA regulations and current licensing scheme underpinned by the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, extend the activities in-scope and increase fees.
  • Option 3 – Removal of the AALA regulations and move to an industry-led; not-for-profit accreditation scheme underpinned by the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, to provide assurance to users of outdoor activities

The HSE survey is now closed and the HSE have advised that all responses will be analysed and will engage further with stakeholders to further develop the preferred option. http://www.hse.gov.uk/aala/

As AIM is a membership community providing Public and Employers liability cover to activity providers we have also submitted our own response. Responses from the members can be viewed here.  If you require further information about the survey please do not hesitate to contact me on [email protected]

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AIM Surveys Members – AALA Licensing

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AALA Licensing Member Survey

The HSE has been reviewing the AALA licensing regulations to consider the future of these and the form and scope of the regulations going forward. They have now produced three options for the future.  These are:-

  • Option 1 – Retain the AALA regulations and current licensing scheme underpinned by the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and increase fees
  • Option 2 – Retain the AALA regulations and current licensing scheme underpinned by the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, extend the activities in-scope and increase fees.
  • Option 3 – Removal of the AALA regulations and move to an industry-led; not-for-profit accreditation scheme underpinned by the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, to provide assurance to users of outdoor activities

All interested parties are requested to respond to the HSE survey and the deadline date for the response is the 9th March.

AIM wishes to gauge its Members’ views in advance of this deadline date and has emailed all members requesting they complete a survey so we can assess these views.

Please check your inboxes for this email and click the link within to commence the survey.  Please will you complete the survey by the 21st February so we can review the results in advance of the deadline.

As directly involved in  the industry we strongly encourage you to respond to the HSE direct as well using the link here.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/consult/condocs/cd286.htm

The HSE have advised that after the discussion document is closed, the responses to the questions will be analysed.  They will engage further with stakeholders to further develop the preferred option.

 

AALA Review – webinar link

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Update from HSE website on AALA Licensing Review

On 3 May 2017 the HSE Board met to discuss the findings of the initial AALA consultation. Whilst the survey results showed widespread support for AALA, respondents set out a number of aspirations for improving the system.Prior to the HSE Board meeting, a group of industry stakeholders approached HSE with a suggestion that the current statutory scheme could be replaced with a government- backed, UK-wide, industry-owned and -operated scheme which would maintain current standards and levels of reassurance for service users. HSE recognises that there is potential for an effectively functioning, industry-run scheme to meet the aspirations of stakeholders expressed in responses to the survey, and has therefore stated its commitment to work with these stakeholders and others to develop this option further.

If the industry proposal meets criteria set out by HSE, it will be included in the consultation. HSE has stated that it could support a scheme providing it:

  • Is underpinned by the requirements of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
  • Meets the aspirations of stakeholders and has broad support
  • Maintains current standards
  • Provides sufficient levels of reassurance to parents and teachers
  • Reduces the burden of red tape on business
  • Provides better value for money for the public purse
  • Allows mutual recognition across other comparable existing national governing body schemes
  • Is recognised and branded as the industry standard

The HSE Board have agreed to delay the commencement of phase two of the consultation to allow the industry proposal to be developed and for a formal proposal to be submitted. We hope to begin stage 2 of the consultation process late 2017/early 2018.

Regardless of the outcome, HSE and Local Authorities will continue to have a role in regulation of adventure activities under the terms of occupational health and safety legislation. Current licensing arrangements remain in place. In the meantime we will continue to engage with and update stakeholders, such as service users and Government, including Devolved Administrations.

A webinar was held on 19 June 2017 to provide the results of the survey conducted in phase 1 of the consultation. This document provides details of how to listen to a recording of the presentation.

To view the document, click on the link below. It will either open in your browser, or in its own application depending on the document type and your computer configuration. If the document opens in your browser window and you would prefer to download a copy to disk, right-click on the link and select ‘Save Target As…’.