The Planning of Overseas Visits that entail accommodating participants with host families introduces additional considerations. These include:
- Choice of host families. If working with a partner school, or agent, they should normally undertake this role
- Matching each participant to a suitable family
- Vetting host families. In the EU there are normally systems in place to allow this to take place. If working with a partner school, or agent, they should undertake this role. Where no system exists it will be necessary to cover the possible consequences in the risk assessment, and provide detailed information to parents to enable them to give informed consent
- Setting up a communication system. This should include having a system so that participants can request staff support should they feel vulnerable or unsafe
- Ensuring that the itinerary and activities whilst with the host families are compatible with the overall ethos and are acceptable to the parents
- Checking that the accommodation arrangements are suitable. Participants should have his/her own bedroom that is not part of a passage to other bedrooms, and a lockable bathroom
- Checking that additional support needs can be adequately accommodated
- Ensuring that at an early stage there are good communication channels with key personnel at the location and in the exchange country
Additional planning resources can be found in the Toolkits section.
