Safety Information and Paperwork

AALA Licence
To run outdoor activities for paying clients under 18 within the UK, companies must have an AALA (Adventurous Activities Licensing Authority) licence. This is a government body, part of the Health and Safety Executive, and it is a legal requirement that we are inspected and approved. Each operator has a Registration number which is permanent, and a licence number which changes at each inspection. We have held a licence since they started in 1995, and our Registration number is R0043.

Anyone is welcome to check this via the UK Government website at: https://aala.hse.gov.uk/aala/ - just type ‘Trekking Company’ in the search box.

Notes:

• The AALA licence is only applicable to certain activities depending on the level of activity and area of operation. For example, companies don’t need a licence for: high ropes, canoeing on inland still water less than 50m from the bank, indoor climbing walls. TrekCo have a licence anyway for everything we do.

• We can’t show the actual licence online in case of unauthorised reproduction

• The AALA licence does not operate outside of the UK.

Public Liability Insurance

We hold £10 million public liability insurance cover, which is sufficient for all education authorities. If you need a copy of this, please email our office and we’ll send you a copy. It runs from 1st April each year.

Please note that this is not travel insurance. There is no cover for students getting injured, losing possessions, cancelling and the like.

Learning Outside the Classroom Badge and Adventuremark

TrekCo hold the LOtC badge and Adventuremark. These are connected, and are a measure for schools of the quality of the learning experience for students. Adventuremark applies to companies who also run adventurous activities, like ourselves.

Risk Assessments

Our Risk Assessments are available here.

Qualifications

All instructors are fully qualified with National Governing Bodies for the activity they are instructing. The minimum qualifications for our main activities would be:
All rock climbing, abseiling outdoors: Rock Climbing Instructor
Indoor climbing: Climbing Wall Instructor (with Rock Climbing Instructor in charge of the group overall)
Hillwalking: Mountain Leader Award (Summer).
DofE Expeditions: These are ‘hillwalking’ but in charge of the expedition overall when in upland locations will be a holder of the Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor qualification, or the military equivalent. Other instructors will be qualified appropriate to the location.
Canoe/Kayak: British Canoeing instructors at the appropriate level.

There are of course other activities from time to time, and these are staffed appropriately. All of the above have stipulated ratios for instruction - for example canoeing is 1:8.

School Journey Insurance

We don’t offer school journey or ‘travel insurance’ type policies. It is a requirement of booking with us that schools and colleges take out their normal school journey insurance.