Travelling on University work overseas policy

Policy statement

The University of Dundee acknowledges the risks to staff, and to students under their duty of care when travelling and working overseas. These risks arise primarily from work practices and procedures, health issues and personal security. The University manages these risks by ensuring a Working Overseas Risk Assessment is completed before the work starts, and that all reasonable measures are implemented to minimise risk. In exceptional circumstances, the risks may be unacceptable and in these cases, staff may not travel overseas or may have to return home.

Arrangements

The Overseas Travel Policy outlines the arrangements for work-related travel.

For low risk work overseas for a short period in North America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or a European Union country when travel is by a scheduled air-line to a recognised public airport (e.g. attending a Conference, recruiting activities, meeting a collaborator) then fulfilling the requirements of the following generic working overseas risk assessment is sufficient:

The travelling member of staff must:

• Read and follow the guidance in the University’s Staff Travel Handbook
• Notify the Secretary of their School or Department of dates, destination and purpose of trip, and contact details of host organisation, accommodation, next of kin and emergency arrangements. This can be achieved by photocopying the relevant pages from the Staff Travel Handbook.
  This information may be made available to other relevant parties such as Head of International Development
• Notify travel and discuss insurance arrangements with Finance Manager (Assets and Insurance) to ensure cover is adequate
• Contact the Occupational Health Service if they have any concerns about their health or fitness for travel

For work outwith these countries, or for working overseas for more than a month, or for higher risk work (e.g. working in a laboratory, in a clinical environment or field work) then a more detailed and specific risk assessment is required as detailed on this page.

The travelling member of staff must:

• Identify risks and actions taken to prevent or minimise them. Guidance and an outline risk assessment are given below. A suitable risk assessment form is given in Appendix 5. An essential component of this risk assessment is to check the Foreign & Commonwealth Office website for travel advice and restrictions.
• Notify travel and discuss insurance arrangements with the Finance Manager (Assets and Insurance) to ensure cover is adequate
• Discuss the risk assessment with the appropriate Senior Manager (i.e. Dean/Director/Vice-Principal/University Secretary/Principal) and obtain their approval. In exceptional circumstances the risks may be unacceptable and in these rare cases the Senior Manager will not give approval, or may require the staff member to return home if they have already travelled.
• For travel to a part of a country where the Foreign & Commonwealth Office have advised against travel, the approval of the Senior Management Team must be obtained
• Read and follow the guidance found in the Staff Travel Handbook
• Notify the Secretary of their School or Department of dates, destination and purpose of trip, and contact details of host organisation, accommodation, next of kin and emergency arrangements. This can be achieved by photocopying the relevant pages from the Staff Travel Handbook.
  This information may be made available to other relevant parties such as Head of International Development.
• Contact their General Practitioner or a Travel Health Clinic (see Staff Travel Handbook for Dundee providers) to be given appropriate advice and any immunisations/prophylactic drugs that are recommended.
• Contact the Occupational Health Service if they have any concerns about their health or fitness for travel

Where staff are working abroad by taking students on an organised event they must also:

• Carry out a risk assessment that considers additional risks from travelling and working overseas as well as risks arising from the activities which the students will undertake abroad. Guidance and an outline risk assessment are given below. A suitable risk assessment form is given in Appendix 5.
• Discuss the risk assessment with their Dean, and obtain their approval.
• Ensure that they have fully briefed the students in the findings of the risk assessment and the standard of behaviour expected of them as well as emergency arrangements. During this briefing, students should be encouraged to report any health or other concerns they have about their ability to complete the fieldwork.
• Review the trip on return and report to their Dean any significant health and safety issues which arose with recommendations for avoiding these in future.

Where staff are travelling abroad with students on an event organised by students they must exercise their professional judgement to:

• Bring any shortcoming in arrangements to the organisers’ attention immediately
• Take any action they consider necessary to prevent injury or ill health
• Report concerns to the University as soon as possible

All staff must take reasonable care of themselves and others when working in an unfamiliar environment overseas and should act as ambassadors for the University. They should notify their line manager of injuries or ill health as soon as possible, and report any H&S concerns upon their return so that risk assessments can be reviewed and updated if necessary.

Specific and detailed risk assessments must be kept for 5 years after the work overseas has finished. Outline risk assessments can be found in Guidance.

Contact Safety Services for advice on risk assessments, and the People team for advice on employment and contractual issues on working overseas. Further information can be found on the CIPD web site.

Guidance Note on Specific Working Overseas Risk Assessments

Staff working overseas must carry out a risk assessment for the risks that arise from travelling or working overseas, as well as activity specific risks as detailed in Policy above. An outline risk assessment for working overseas and for taking students on an organised event overseas is available on the Safety Services Sharepoint website. Further information about activity specific risks is available in the University’s Safety Policy Arrangement - Fieldwork.

Appendix 3 lists other risks that should be considered in the working overseas risk assessment, and Appendix 4 gives checklists that may be helpful in completing the risk assessment.

To support the University’s policy on Working Overseas a Staff Travel Handbook and a Student Travel Handbook giving detailed advice on common problems that can arise when travelling abroad are available on the Safety Services Sharepoint website.