Information for leaders supporting the Duke of Edinburgh's Award

Completing the form

Read through this guidance to make sure you fill in the form correctly and get your DofE group out and about in the great outdoors.

This form is designed for DofE expeditions, but you can also use it if you're planning a Queen’s Guide award expedition (if it isn’t a DofE expedition as well). Check with your commissioner first in case they would prefer you to use a REN form.

Before you start

• You need to complete 1 form per group doing their expedition.
• Check out the information on Guides and Rangers walking without a leader to make sure the supervisor has the right qualifications.
• If you’re an expedition group based in Scotland or Wales, check the approval process with your country or region office, as these use different DofE licenses to the England and Ulster license. See the information below on which branch of Girlguiding to notify.
• You need to submit this form 6-8 weeks before your expedition takes place. If you don’t have all the documents ready then, you can re-submit the form and send the extra information once you have it.

Who’s involved?

There are a few different roles involved with the DofE expedition form process:

• The volunteer submitting the form. They're responsible for making sure the information is correct and sent to the DofE adviser in time for approval.
• The expedition supervisor. They're responsible for the training of the group (or checking the group have been trained before they set out if another leader is doing this) and are legally responsible for the group during the expedition. They need to have qualifications for the mode of travel and terrain or water the group is going on.

What other documents do I need to submit with my form?

There are a few things your adviser will need to see to be able to approve your expedition. Ideally, send these in with your form 6 weeks before. But if they’re not ready you can ask your adviser if you can submit them 4 weeks before, separate to the form. They won’t be able to approve your expedition form until they’ve had all these documents, but they can check everything else.

Things to include:

• Supervision plan.
• Your risk assessment.
• Route cards.
• Activity plan.
• Home contact agreement form.
• Proof of the a safe space training level completed by each member of the expedition leadership team. This can be a screenshot from a GO record.
• Proof of other training and qualifications as necessary. For example, first aid qualifications, mode of travel.
• Maps of the route being taken.
• You’ll also need to get parent or carer consent for any girls under 18, and for all participants. You don’t need to send this off for approval, but make sure you have them for the expedition.

We’d recommend sending the form password protected, as it will contain personal data.

Guidance for weather warnings

Supervisors are responsible for completing a risk assessment for the expedition and deciding if it's safe for a group to complete it. If a weather warning is issued for the area where your expedition is due to take place, you must update your risk assessment. The result of this risk assessment will inform you as to your next steps which may include cancelling/rescheduling your expedition, considering an alternative route that may be safer or proceeding with your initial plans with additional mitigations in place.

Risk assessments should be updated, and a clear plan of action agreed in regard to the weather warning to ensure the group’s wellbeing and safety. If re-routing the expedition due to a weather warning you should ensure that you have thoroughly risk assessed the alternative route and recorded this risk assessment – normally we would expect ‘escape route’ options to be identified in advance. 

If the weather warning is issued during your expedition or is worse than expected, you must do a dynamic risk assessment. That will result in whether you continue, cancel, or re-route your expedition to keep the group safe.  A deviation from a planned route due to unforeseen circumstances does not require a recorded risk assessment.

Adult team qualifications

You also need to make sure the relevant qualifications and trainings are in date and not going to expire before or during the expedition. This includes the assessor accreditations and A Safe Space trainings.

Expedition support volunteers

Part of your adult leadership team might include other volunteers outside of the assessor and supervisor. These will be other members of Girlguiding involved in DofE delivery and will help support.

There isn’t a specific role for this on GO at the moment, but as they are working directly with young members, they’ll need to hold a young member-facing role in another capacity and have the correct A Safe Space training levels for that role. They also don’t have to have qualifications in the mode of travel, or first aid, but if they do you can note these down on the form too.

Grid references

If you’re doing an expedition internationally, or water based, you might not be able to include the grid references for your route. Chat to your DofE adviser and the relevant adviser (water, walking, international) if this is the case.

Which branch of Girlguiding do I notify?

Girlguiding operates under 3 licensed areas:

• Girlguiding England and Ulster.
• Girlguiding Scotland.
• Girlguiding Cymru.

All areas use the same form but it will need to be submitted to different places.

If you are based in England or Ulster, see the information below on who to send the form to. 

If you are based in Scotland, send it to [email protected].

If you are based in Cymru, send it to the Girlguiding Cymru DofE adviser. Your county DofE adviser can put you in touch.

Who do I send the form to? 

You need to get your DofE adviser to approve your expedition. For most leaders, this is your county DofE adviser. If you are a county adviser, or your county adviser is part of the expedition team, you’ll need to send it to your country or region adviser.

If your area doesn’t have a county DofE adviser, get in touch with your country or region DofE adviser or county commissioner. You can do this through your country or region office.

Once they’ve approved your expedition, you’ll then need to send the form to the expedition assessor. This is so they can check the expedition will meet the 20 conditions and they have all information they need to assess the group, like their aim and route.

You then need to contact the county adviser in the area the expedition is taking place. Let them know the dates and area you’re planning to do the expedition. This is so they can share any local knowledge of anything you need to be aware of, like temporary works affecting your planned route. They don’t need to approve anything, and if you aren’t sure how to contact them, ask your county DofE adviser, or email [email protected].

What to check for when you’re getting the form approved

• A Safe Space training levels of the expedition supervision team. The supervisor and assessor need levels 1-3. You can check this through your local commissioner, or ask for proof, like screenshots of completed training.
• Does the supervisor have the correct first aid qualification? Again, you can either check this through your local commissioner, or ask for proof, like a certificate or screenshots of completed training.
• Is the assessor accredited with DofE? There are several ways to check this. You can ask for a photo of their assessor card or look at their qualification on GO. They need to be familiar with the area they are assessing in. Assessors can now assess all levels.
• The supervisor must have the right qualifications for the countryside/water classification the route is going on. If you aren’t sure, check this with your local relevant adviser.
• That the route planned is feasible, sensible, and safe. For example, that the route doesn’t involve crossing a river, or walking through private property.
• This also goes for the supervision plan. It isn't mandatory to have this as a written document but we do recommend it, particularly for newer supervisors or where multiple groups are going out at once. It’s good to have an idea from the leadership team as to what they are planning to do and check they have thought about who will be where for the group at certain points.
• Have you been sent all the documents outlined in the checklist? This includes an appropriate risk assessment, home contact etc. If not, do you know when to expect them?
• Has the DofE leader got parent or carer consent for all those under 18?
• Are the group all on eDofE, registered under the right award level, with their expedition information up to date? If the group includes participants outside of county, check with this with your country/region DofE adviser (if they are still in your country or region) or [email protected] if they are outside your country or region.
• Have the group been trained for the countryside/water they are going to be in, as well as following the DofE expedition training framework?
• What's the make-up of the group? Does it include members of another organisation? If it includes mixed genders, and over/under 18s, have plans been made for separate sleeping and washing facilities?
• If it includes a night before or after, or an acclimatisation day, what are the plans for this?
• Once you are happy with the expedition plans, you can approve the form.

Between you and the leader submitting the form, one of you needs to notify the local commissioner and the host county DofE adviser (if taking place in a different area) to let them know the dates the expedition is taking place.