Being in the Scouts or Girl Guides brings young people many exciting opportunities for adventure, and groups often venture overseas for their annual summer camp or an international event.

We believe that the young people and the adults who support them should be able to travel in confidence that they have all the essential insurance to cover the unexpected, because even Scouts cannot be prepared for everything.  Dealing with an accident far from home is difficult enough without the added stress of large medical and travel bills.

A case study

A recent incident on the other side of the Atlantic has highlighted where even well-prepared people can fall foul of insufficient insurance. Each member of the group had their own individual travel insurance, so they decided not to take out the group Scout policy.

Staying behind with hospitalised young people

In Canada, one of the youngsters had quite a serious skiing accident and was taken to hospital, accompanied by one of the adult leaders. Understandably, the leader stayed for the duration of the youngster’s treatment, paying out for their accommodation and a new flight home to England. 

When they got back, the leader pursued a claim for these expenses under their personal travel insurance policy, but the claim was declined. Unfortunately, the event was not covered because the leader was not related to the injured person and their insurance, like many individual policies, only extended to accompanying hospitalised family members. The costs amounted to around £600, a rather significant sum of money by any measure.

The additional cover from a Group Travel Policy

These costs could have been avoided with a Scout group policy, which covers accompanying any hospitalised person on group policy. The claim for the additional expense for accommodation and a new flight would have been accepted subject only to any policy limits.

Our account handlers are happy to advise on and arrange worldwide travel insurance that extends to every named passenger on the trip, thereby protecting all young people and adults under a group policy.

On our website you can find more details of specialist travel policies for your Scouts and Girlguiding travel: