DofE Risk Assessments and GPS Trackers: A Safeguarding Checklist

Updated October 2026 to include OEAP National Guidance on electronic trackers.

GPS trackers can help DofE supervisors, Scout leaders and school trip staff find a group quickly when something goes wrong. But a tracker only helps if it's chosen carefully, covered in your risk assessment, and used as part of your supervision plan, never instead of it. This guide sets out what the law and national guidance expect, and the features a safeguarding-ready tracking system should have.

Legal Responsibilities of Expedition Organisers

Organisers of Duke of Edinburgh's Award expeditions, Scouts, Cadets and school trips in the UK have a duty of care to the young people they supervise. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires employers to manage risks to the people affected by their activities, and serious failures can lead to prosecution of organisations and individuals.

The Health and Safety Executive's guidance, School trips and outdoor learning activities: tackling the health and safety myths, says schools must ensure "the precautions proposed are proportionate to the risks involved", and that the focus should be "on how the real risks are managed and not on the paperwork". For remotely supervised expeditions, where groups are out of sight for hours at a time, a well-chosen tracker can be one proportionate precaution among several.

Staff who plan and lead expeditions should also be properly supported by their employers. Providing trackers and monitoring software owned by the school or organisation, rather than relying on staff or parents to provide their own, is one practical way to do that.

What OEAP National Guidance Says About Trackers

In August 2026, OEAP National Guidance added a section on electronic trackers to document 4.2a, Group Management and Supervision. It doesn't rule trackers out, but it's clear about how they should be used. It advises:

"If trackers are to be used, they should be provided and controlled by the establishment."

It also asks leaders to consider trackers' disadvantages in the risk assessment, including the risk of an unauthorised person tracking a child, false alarms, unreliable coverage and a false sense of security, and never to treat a tracker as a substitute for supervision by competent leaders. Your risk assessment should explain how each of these is managed.

Choosing the Right GPS Tracker for Expeditions

Not every GPS tracker is suitable for an expedition. Consumer item finders such as AirTags only report a location when they're within Bluetooth range of a passing iPhone or other Apple device, which is rare on a remote hillside. Pet trackers and devices bought by parents also raise safeguarding and data protection questions, because the school doesn't control who can see the location (see point 5 below).

Essential Features of a Safeguarding-Ready GPS Tracking System

When assessing GPS tracking for DofE and other remotely supervised expeditions, look beyond whether it shows dots on a map. An expedition-ready system must address:

• Remote supervision reliability
• Safeguarding access control
• UK GDPR compliance
• Infrastructure resilience
• Emergency coordination

Below are the features schools, trusts and youth organisations should expect.

1. Secure Access Control, With No Open Tracking Links

From a safeguarding perspective, the most important control is who can see live tracking data.

Many tracking systems share expedition maps through web links. They're convenient, but they create real safeguarding risks:

• Links can be forwarded or screenshotted
• Links can stay active after the expedition ends
• There's no record of who opened the link
• Once a link has been sent, you can't control or withdraw access

For under-18s, that matters, because live tracking data reveals:

• Real-time locations
• Route history
• Overnight campsite positions
• Whether an SOS alert is active

A safeguarding-ready system should instead provide:

• Named user accounts
• Access by explicit invitation only
• Two-factor authentication
• Access you can remove at any time, which also ends automatically
• A record of who had access and when

Location data for young people should never be available through an open link.

2. Offline-Capable iOS and Android Apps

Expedition routes often pass through valleys, woodland, mountain terrain and rural signal blackspots, where a browser-based tracking page stops working.

Look for dedicated iOS and Android apps that keep working without mobile signal:

• Downloaded maps that work offline
• The last known tracker positions, still shown when offline
• Navigation to a stored location using the phone's own GPS

To reduce the risk further:

• Give every supervising adult access to the app
• Carry two-way radios for the supervision team
• Save incident locations on supervisors' phones, in case signal drops during a search

Case example: during an Oxfordshire school's Bronze DofE expedition, staff received an SOS alert from one group's tracker. The supervising teacher who cycled to the group lost mobile signal in dense woodland, but because the app had pre-downloaded 1:25,000 maps and the alert location saved, she was able to navigate to the group without signal. The team kept in touch by two-way radio.

3. Detailed 1:25,000 Outdoor Mapping

Supervising an expedition needs more detail than everyday navigation apps provide. Google Maps and Apple Maps don't show contours, footpaths, terrain features or outdoor infrastructure in enough detail.

A system used for DofE should offer:

• 1:25,000 mapping, including Ordnance Survey maps in the UK
• Contours and terrain detail
• Clear footpaths and routes
• Maps for expeditions and trips overseas

Case example: a school that first used trackers for DofE expeditions later took them on a ski trip after students became lost on an earlier trip. Offline 1:25,000 mapping let staff follow groups across an Italian resort, with lifts, pistes and run difficulty all visible.

4. Precise Location Reporting: Latitude, Longitude and OS Grid References

In an emergency, mountain rescue and the emergency services may ask for latitude and longitude, or an OS grid reference in the UK. A tracking system should give you both, so you can pass on an exact location quickly and without confusion.

5. Data Security and Hosting

Safeguarding doesn't stop at the app. Ask where the data is held and who can reach it. Location data about young people should be:

• Encrypted in transit and at rest
• Hosted in the UK
• Protected from access by unauthorised third parties

The tracking provider should be able to show you:

• Where the data is hosted, and the certifications that hosting holds, such as ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus
• A clear data processing agreement
• How long data is kept, and how it's deleted

6. Controlled Sharing and Revocation

Expeditions often need temporary access for assessors, volunteers, assistant supervisors and safeguarding leads. That access should be:

• Limited to the dates of the expedition
• Limited to the trackers each person needs to see
• Removable at any time
• Ended automatically when the expedition finishes

Links that stay active indefinitely create unnecessary safeguarding risk.

7. Battery Life for Multi-Day Expeditions

Tracking drains batteries quickly, especially in the cold and on phones and smartwatches. Expedition trackers should:

• Last at least the length of the expedition, with a margin to spare
• Use a built-in rechargeable battery
• Not rely on a young person's phone or smartwatch

A flat battery on an unaccompanied expedition is a foreseeable risk, so cover it in your risk assessment.

The Principle Behind It All

An expedition-ready tracking system does more than show dots on a map. It should:

• Prevent unauthorised access
• Work offline
• Provide detailed outdoor mapping
• Protect sensitive data
• Support your supervisors and the emergency services
• Last for a multi-day expedition

Above all, it should treat young people's location data as safeguarding information. Open tracking links are not compatible with that responsibility.

How MeiliGPS Meets This Checklist

MeiliGPS was designed in Oxford for exactly this kind of supervision. Trackers are owned and controlled by your school or organisation, and locations are shared only with named staff, assessors and volunteers, for the dates you set, with no public links. The MeiliGPS App works offline with Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 maps in the UK, shows latitude, longitude and OS grid references, and sends SOS alerts to your own supervisors. Trackers last up to 14 days on a charge. Data is hosted in the UK on Microsoft Azure, whose data centres hold Microsoft's ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus certifications.

• See how MeiliGPS works for DofE expeditions
• Download the EVC and DPO pack (PDF), with suggested risk assessment wording
• Get a quote for your school

OEAP National Guidance and HSE guidance are referenced for information only. Neither OEAP, HSE nor the DofE endorses MeiliGPS or any other product.