Guidelines for Mentors and Parents/Guardians For Trips

Team trips have long been part of the tradition of St. Vincents. Players love the opportunity to test their skills against clubs outside of Dublin and experience the fun of travelling with their team-mates.

The safety and protection of young players is of the utmost importance to the members of St. Vincents GAA club. We want the players and parents to have assurance that their child is in a safe environment when travelling with the club. We also want to ensure that our mentors are protected.

The purpose of this document is to provide a common understanding of the behaviours and practices expected for team trips.

There are 2 kinds of trips

Day Trips – coach hired to take group to play a friendly/tournament down the country and return the same day (some parents travel on the coach)
Overnight/weekend Trips – coach hired to take group, group stays overnight in hostel or hosted by local club.

Definitions

Mentor – for the purposes of this guideline a mentor is a paid up member of the club who has passed Garda Vetting and is identified with the juvenile section as part of the management of the relevant team.

Child – a “child” means anyone who is under 18 years of age. (Child Care Act (1991))

Guidelines

Before undertaking any trip consent must be received from the club executive. For insurance purposes the county board must be informed of any challenge matches. Any Dublin fixtures must be rescheduled according to Co. Board guidelines.
All players must have their subs in order to be insured for playing.
As per club policy all mentors must be Garda vetted.
For each trip a parental consent form must be signed by a parent/guardian before a child gets on a coach. A template form is available from at this link.
For each trip have a list of all the players attending and contact details for parents/guardians.
All Parents/Guardians are responsible to be contactable for the period that their child is on the trip.
Parents/guardians have primary responsibility for the medical needs of their children. The parental consent form requests that any relevant medical or dietary information be provided by the parent/guardian.
There should always be an adequate number of mentors for the group travelling (ratio of 1:8)
Parents can travel with the group but are only responsible for their own children unless written consent is given by another parent/guardian to the team mentors.
As a mentor do not put yourself in a position where you are alone with a child.
For overnight trips mentors and children should be accommodated separately in the same building.
If using a hostel – exclusive use should be requested. If exclusive use is not possible assess any potential risks and review with the juvenile committee and child protection officer.
If a child is homesick and wants to go home the parent must be contacted and requested to bring their child home.
Misbehaviour of children – appropriate consequences can be applied but in cases of persistent bad behaviour progressively applied. Ultimately the parent can be contacted and requested to bring the child home.
Should an accident/incident occur while on a team trip, all the facts, contact details of all concerned, any medical intervention (if necessary) must be adequately recorded. Post incident the parent and club executive must be informed.
Mobile Phones – mobile phones are expensive devices and are in effect a portable computer with cameras and access to the internet. It is preferable that mobile phones and other electronic devices are not brought by children on trips. Children can contact their parents at any time by using a mentor phone; parents can also contact their child via the mentor.
Once the trip is over and the coach has returned to St. Vincents the child should only be handed over to the relevant Parent/Guardian.
For mixed groups (boys and girls) there must be at least two mentors of each gender in the travelling party.

A pdf version of this guideline can be downloaded here.

A template for consent forms in word format is available here.