Covid-19 : Keeping you Safe on your Challenge

CLEAR & TRANSPARENT SOCIAL DISTANCING GUIDELINES

The nature of the virus, and the way in which the UK responds with specific social distancing measures and official guidelines, means that our response will be thorough and fully informed by a number of domestic, international and global health authorities, but as it is constantly evolving and changing, so will our response.

Please rest assured that we will remain connected to best practice guidance and advice and adapt our own processes and procedures to match the latest advice.

Social distancing guidelines about what additional safety measures might be appropriate and when they will apply before, during and after your challenge will be made available to participants in the ‘Final Details’ document we send out about a month before departure for UK challenges (two months for international challenges).

VISIT BRITAIN “WE’RE GOOD TO GO”

We are proud to have acquired the UK Industry Standard mark, “We’re good to go” in partnership with the Tourist Organisations of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This means that our business has followed government and industry Covid-19 guidelines, has a risk assessment in place and a process to maintain cleanliness and aid social distancing.

FREE CHALLENGE SAFE KIT

There may be moments on your challenge where it’s impossible to maintain a distance of 1 metre from other people. For example using transport, a group shelter, or first aid incidents. As a result we will be providing all participants with a Challenge Safe Kit to reduce the risk of infection on your Charity Challenge.

This includes:

• A disposable face mask
• 100ml alcohol-based hand sanitiser (72%)
• Charity Challenge Buff – Buffs are one of the most versatile items that you can carry on a challenge and can be worn in a variety of ways such as a face mask, balaclava,headband, sun guard, to name a few!

If you’re booked on a UK challenge with us, you’ll receive your kit at your meeting point. If you’re booked on an overseas challenge with us, you’ll receive your kit in the weeks before departure. Hand sanitiser will also be readily available throughout the challenge.

CHALLENGE SAFE

We have developed enhanced Covid-19 standard operating procedures and risk assessments to ensure the safety of our participants, leaders, doctors, local ground teams, and the communities we interact with on our challenges.

Our standard operating procedure (SOP) outlines the guidelines that will be adhered to on all challenge events as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. It forms part of Charity Challenge’s ‘Challenge Safe’ safety management system. A robust safety management system divides responsibility for safety between the provider, leaders and participants. Our SOPs are then used to help create specific risk assessments for each challenge event and each country.

COVID-19 INSURANCE COVER

Your safety is one of our main concerns at Charity Challenge, which is why ensuring you take out extensive travel insurance is an essential part of every booking.

We are therefore delighted to announce that our travel insurance partners at Campbell Irvine are shortly launching their new updated Campbell Irvine Direct travel insurance policy which not only includes medical emergency and repatriation cover due to Covid-19 whilst travelling overseas, but also includes pre-departure cancellation in the event that you or your insured travelling companion are diagnosed with Covid-19 before departure and instructed not to travel by your doctor.

In addition the policy also includes pre-departure cancellation cover if you or your insured travelling companion are directly exposed to someone who has been diagnosed with Coronavirus and through the governments Test and Trace programme you are instructed to quarantine prior to departure preventing you from travelling.

The policy also protects you if you are ordered to quarantine overseas as a result of being directly exposed to someone who is diagnosed with Covid-19 and you incur additional travel
and accommodation costs as a result.

Please note the policy does not extend to include any cover if due to a second wave the government orders another lockdown or the FCO or destination country advises against travel to the destination. In addition, the cover will not apply if you elect to travel against FCO advice.

WORLD TRAVEL AND TOURISM COUNCIL “SAFE TRAVELS”

We are proud to share that we have also received the World Travel and Tourism Council’s (WTTC) “Safe Travel’s” stamp, which provides travellers with assurance that we have adopted health and hygiene global standardised protocols – so you can experience “safe travel”.

COVID-19 BEST PRACTICE TRAINING

Charity Challenge will provide mandatory online training for all leaders and suppliers to explain the contents of the enhanced Covid-19 standard operating procedure and risk assessments.

Our leaders will all be carrying appropriate PPE to use when dealing with any first aid incidents and will have received training about the use of such equipment

TRANSPORT

If your challenge itinerary includes transport, then we will work with the transport supplier to make sure that the correct measures are in place in line with the most up to date government advice.

All vehicles will be cleaned and disinfected immediately prior to participants boarding the vehicle. All participants and leaders will be provided with hand sanitiser to use before boarding the vehicle, and face masks for use as per government advice.

Participants will be allowed to sit in the window seats to maintain social distancing. Whenever possible we will provide 2 seats per person. Transport guidelines will be made available to participants in the ‘Final Details’ document.

EQUIPMENT

Charity Challenge has put in place a strict cleaning schedule to ensure that all equipment will be fully cleaned and disinfected prior to, and where appropriate, during your challenge. This includes the use of bikes, kayaks, buoyancy aids, helmets, paddles and group shelters

ACCOMMODATION

If your challenge itinerary includes accommodation, then we will work with the accommodation supplier to make sure that the correct measures are in place in line with the most up to date government advice. This will include hand washing stations and cleaning schedules for bathrooms, among many other things.

We are booking single, private room for all participants unless it is clearly indicated on your booking form that you are part of the same household (ie: both of you registered as living at the same physical address). Twin/double rooms have been booked for those people travelling as one household. For more information regarding the governments guidelines to accommodation suppliers please click here. Accommodation guidelines will be made
available to participants in the ‘Final Details’ document.

REDUCED GROUP SIZE & STAGGERED STARTS

During the challenge we will be using a greater number of leaders to ensure that the group will be able to maintain social distancing whilst providing you with the same level of support. Leader ratio to be adjusted based upon government advice, the challenge environment, and group size.

From Monday 14 September we will be following the rule of 6 – one leader will be grouped with a maximum number of five participants. On challenges with larger group sizes we may
ask people to choose a ‘walking speed’ group. This will enable us to separate out the group at registration and the start of the challenge and enable social distancing more easily.