Government plan to make school trips easier to organise

The Government are planning to make it easier for teachers to arrange schools trips by abolishing unnecessary health and safety rules.

The Department of Education's health and safety guidelines, which cover everything from minibus or car hire to medical guidance, has been shortened from 150 pages to just eight in a bid to encourage more teachers to organise trips for their children.

BBC News reports that rather than gain parental consent for each individual trip, students will only need written a one-off permission slip at the start of the school year to be allowed on as many trips as possible.

Risk assessments will also only be necessary for locations which the school has not visited before.

Many teachers have admitted that they have been put off organising schools trips because of the fear of breaking the extensive health and safety laws.

Education secretary Michael Gove said that the changes aimed to make it easier for children to engage in fun and inspiring lessons.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, he said: "Children should be able to go on exciting school trips that broaden their horizons. That is why we are cutting unnecessary red tape in schools and putting teachers back in charge."

Employment minister Chris Grayling added that school trips should be a lot easier to organise than they currently are.