UKC

My daughter is starting her silver award and has asked if I can help with the expedition, however the school has asked whether I am ML. I am ML trained but not assessed. I cannot find anything obvious on the D of E website so I turn to yourselves knowledgeable in this matter. I don't know to what extent I will be needed to help.

In reply to tony forster: To help with the expedition you do not need any recognised competence at all. Is it in wild country? Silver expeditions do not need to be.
If they are requiring you to take responsibility for groups I would ask for details on how much responsibility and who else is involved and to what extent. How many groups are there out? Are you responsible for the group containing your daughter? This is not usually acceptable as it means your loyalties will be split if you have to chose between your daughter and the rest of the group.
Rather than looking at the DofE website talk to the person who is acting as the responsible person within the DofE license. If it is a state school this will be someone in the Local Authority, if it is an independent school then someone within the shcool.

In reply to oggi: Thanks for the reply. The school is a state school and as yet I am not aware of what exactly is to be required. my daughter simply said the school had asked whether any parent of a child taking part had a mountain leader qualification. She knew I had done some ML work but didn't know how much. I will wait to see what the school comes back to me with.

In reply to tony forster: It could be down to the role that you are being asked to do and/or where they are going to hold the expedition. The Supervisor is responsible for the team whilst they are trained, practiced and qualify. (not nessicarily the same person on each session)
On qualifying the supervisors role is to remotely supervise the team. Not by going to the cafe. Working out where the team may go wrong and be in a position to circumvent it.

From the recently released DofE Expedition Guide, page 18 "Whilst the DofE does not insist on specific qualifications, it is strongly recommended that suitable national qualifications for the choosen mode of travel are obtained"

Silver can be completed in Wild Country so an ML may be an advantage. ML dosen't solve all the problems as there are plenty of people with the appropriate experience who could supervise an expedition without an ML.

However the school will conduct a Risk Assessment and one of the mitigating solutions could be to use supervisors with ML as DofE are "recommending" that to be best practice.

On the other hand to have a keen, ML trained, volunteer parent to assist with an expedition I don't understand why they haven't snatched your hand off. Good logbook time in my opinion. Second guessing where a group of teenagers could go wrong and be in a position to able to locate them and to help them work out where they should be. Saves a lot of time and stress.

I hope that you enjoy the experience.

In reply to annieman: I take it the DofE expedition guide is only available to DofE leaders/trainers. I will hopefully hear from the xhool in the next few days to see what's involved. I suspect though that its to do with training as the children have only just started to course.

In reply to tony forster: Available from the DofE bookshop £15

http://www.dofeshop.org/Shop/ProductDetails.aspx?id=185&large=on&su...

School should have one that you could borrow to look at before you splash the cash. Depends really if you're going to get involved for only the duration of your daughter exped or plan to make more of it.

In reply to annieman: Many thanks. Suspect I will only be involved whilst my daughter is at school although depending on how it goes, I may look to take it further. It would be an incentive to finish my ML which I have been intending to sort for some time now.

In reply to tony forster:

Im a volunteer leader, assessor and have my ML with a group here in Edinburgh. The outdoor quals are usually required by the operating authority (Edinburgh Council for me) This does not necessarily mean an ML, but depending on the exped route could be a BELA or WGL qualification. Technically, as said above, no qual is necessary but it's rare to find an operator that allows this.

In reply to tony forster: When we did our Silver -- hell, when we did our Gold -- our expedition "leader" was pretty hopeless, and as far as I'm aware, didn't have much in the way of outdoor qualifications. Our D of E group was very small though, it consisted of about 3 or 4 people.

In reply to tony forster:

I am an accredited d of e assessor. I do not have a ML qualification.

It's the supervisor who needs to have the relevant qualification. They are the ones who are responsible.

In reply to Tim Davies:

I am an accredited assessor and supervisor and I don't have ML (yet). There was no competency check on my training course at all to ensure I had the proper skills. It was all about my roles and responsibilities. A bit worrying really but noone is 'required' to have anything by DofE. Operating authorities like LEAs (RIP) and the Scouts may do though and that will vary between areas.

I know of at least one supervisor in my area who can't tell the front of the map from the back (but they are getting better!)