Gaps in residential visits provision revealed

A new report highlights geographical differences across England in residential provision, and confirms that there have been fundamental changes in residential provision since the pandemic and financial crisis.  

The report, published by the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom (CLOtC), in partnership with eduFOCUS, captures data from more than 25,000 educational settings in England, and is a large-scale quantitative analysis of residential provision across English regions.

The findings suggest that children and young people attending schools in the North of England are less likely to take part in and benefit from residential visits than those attending schools in the South, particularly for domestic adventurous and overseas residential visits. The geographical pattern seen closely mirrors that for Free School Meals eligibility, indicating a possible link between socio-demographic factors and opportunity to take part in residential visits. 

Aggregated results from the regions that make up the North, Midlands, and South of England showed a gradient in residential provision from North to South. This gradient appears to reflect relative deprivation as measured by eligibility for Free School Meals, which may indicate that socio-economic factors are involved.

There is evidence of reduced opportunity for students to take part in residentials, particularly non-adventurous residentials and overseas residentials, since the pandemic and financial crisis. Overall, there are less residential visits being organised per school/setting, suggesting fewer opportunities to benefit from these experiences. 

The findings are likely to reflect the impact of pressure on schools and families, including rising transport and other costs, reduced budgets, and heightened anxiety. The possible shift to fewer, slightly shorter visits suggested by these findings could reflect an imperative to manage costs.  

Dr Anne Hunt, CEO of the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom, said: “This analysis was commissioned to help us validate what teachers, advisers, and learning outside the classroom (LOtC) providers have been telling us — as their feedback was that the scale and scope of learning beyond the classroom is changing in response to financial and other pressures, and that there are regional differences in opportunity depending on where you live. The finding that there are differences in residential provision over time and across regions in England is important insight if we are to remove barriers to opportunity and deliver an entitlement for enrichment. In particular, the apparent similarity between the gradients seen for residential provision and eligibility for Free School Meals as you move from the North to the South of England is striking."

The report calls for further collaboration to better understand the implications of these findings, and in particular to understand whether some groups of children and young people are missing out on residential experiences, and why, and a more nuanced and complete understanding of the differences in LOtC provision across all schools, all home nations, and for all types of LOtC. 
 
Ensuring equitable access to high-quality residential experiences is an important strategy in supporting all students to thrive and achieve.