Member’s Charter
Member’s Charter
Aims of Year Out Group’s Code of Practice and Member’s Charter
The principal aims of Year Out Group’s Code of Practice and Member’s Charter are:
A. To reassure potential participants about the standing of their chosen year out provider, the security of their money and the support they will be given when on their year out activity.
B. To set guidelines aimed at ensuring certain standards of quality and professional conduct. This should make placements with Year Out Group members more attractive than those offered by non-members, while enhancing the reputation of the specialist providers.
Adherence to Year Out Group’s Member’s Charter is a condition of membership and all members are required to sign a declaration of agreement to abide by it. The Membership Committee will consider breaches of the Charter. Proven offences will result in a warning and may attract a reprimand and ultimately, expulsion from the Group.
Year Out Group Member’s Charter
1. Adherence to the law
All members must adhere to the terms of current legislation and act within the law. Those operating overseas should be particularly aware of legislation relating to the travel industry.
2. Maintaining the reputation of Year Out Group
Members will not do anything that will bring Year Out Group or its members into disrepute. Members should act toward each other in a manner that they themselves would wish to be treated.
3. Year Out Group's Code of Practice
Year Out Group's Code of Practice is the Group's consumer promise and forms part of this Charter. All members agree to adhere to its terms. Year Out Group's Code of Practice must be referred to on all members' websites with a direct link to where it can be read in full. The Code of Practice is also to be referred to in member's main brochure and readers directed to where it can be referred to in full.
4. Consumer Financial Protection
All monies paid by customers to the member for the arrangement of year out programmes and sold under the Year Out Group logo are to be covered by a bond or other arrangement for financial protection [as approved by the Group's Executive Committee]. All members are to display their bonding or other financial security arrangement prominently on their website, main brochure and Terms and Conditions. Evidence of the member's financial security arrangement are to be provided to the Year Out Group office on an annual basis or at any time that the arrangements change during the year.
5. Promotional materials
All members' promotional materials, both printed and electronic, should be accurate and clear.
A copy of each new main brochure is to be submitted to the Year Out Group office as soon as it is published. Details (address/URL) of each website created by the member must be submitted to the Year Out Group office as soon as they are created and listed on the annual renewal form.
6. Display and use of the Year Out Group logo
The Year Out Group logo is available to members to support and endorse the promotion of their year out programmes. The Group wishes to establish and maintain the logo as a sign of quality in the year out sector. It is in the interests of the Group and its members that the logo is seen widely and often. The Year Out Group logo must appear on the website, in the main brochure and where possible on other promotional material and advertisements. On the website the logo is to be on the home page; in a brochure the logo is to appear on the front or back cover, or on pages 2 or 3. In each case the logo should be at a reasonable size. The Year Out Group logo should not be used in any way that is misleading, nor to support any products that do not form part of approved Year Out Group membership.
7. Customer Service
Year Out Group members are to produce Terms and Conditions that are clearly worded and easily understood. Customers should then receive the best possible standards of service. This should be reflected in the speed with which telephones and correspondence are answered, in the courtesy extended to customers, in the swift dispatch of information, in confirming bookings as quickly as possible, in clear invoicing and documentation and in high standards of service from suppliers, host organisations, employees and representatives both in UK and overseas.
8. Customer Complaints and Year Out Group's Independent Dispute Settlement Service.
Year Out Group members must include a complaints procedure in their Terms and Conditions. Any complaints received from customers by members should be responded to with speed and courtesy. Year Out Group has developed an Independent Dispute Settlement Service for use by members should they be unable to resolve a dispute with a customer and should the customer elect to refer the matter to this service. If they elect to do so both parties will be required to abide by the ruling of the arbitrator. Members must comply fully with the conditions of the Group's Independent Dispute Settlement Service. This service is currently being piloted by a number of members and does not apply to them all. Full details are available from the Year Out Group office.
9. Relations with Staff and Suppliers
Year Out Group members should be committed to an open and ethical policy towards both suppliers and employees, and to maintaining a well-trained and knowledgeable workforce.
10. Public Liability
All Year Out Group members must hold public liability insurance to cover all aspects of the activities, including the operation of road vehicles and boats where relevant with a minimum cover of £2 million. Year Out Group members produce the details of their public liability insurance cover as part of their annual application to renew Year Out Group membership.
11. Monitoring Quality Performance
Belief in quality is the core element of Year Out Group. It is important that we all strive to substantiate this consumer promise. In order to assess the quality performance of members the following is required: All members must ask their customers to complete a post placement questionnaire that contains the following questions:
How would you describe your level of satisfaction with:
- The placement?
- The service?
- The overall experience?
The preferred grading of answers is as follows: “excellent, good, fair or unsatisfactory”.
An analysis of responses to these question(s) is to be submitted by each member to the Year Out Group office together with a copy of the questionnaire as part of the annual membership renewal process.
12. Communications between Year Out Group and the members
In the spirit of cooperation and efficiency, Year Out Group office and Year Out Group members should endeavour to achieve swift and courteous mutual exchange of communications whenever possible. Members should submit all required information, payments or other supporting materials in a timely fashion.
13. Attendance at Year Out Group meetings
All members are encouraged to play an active part in the Group's work and to attend general meetings as frequently as possible, in order for Year Out Group to thrive as a dynamic and interactive organisation.
14. Supporting Year Out Group's aims
Members are required to support the aims of Year Out Group. It is particularly important that when introducing young people to the concept and benefits of a well-structured year out programme, members should outline the range of options available and indicate how to plan their year in order to achieve the best possible results.
15. Travel Advice
A year out is often the first opportunity for a young person to travel independently. Year Out Group is a partner in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office's Know Before You Go campaign and actively encourages those planning a year out to access the FCO's website, www.fco.gov.uk/travel, and use it to research their destination country and abide by the advice for travellers in its Know Before You Go campaign. Year Out Group members are encouraged to seek partnership in their own right.
16. Security and Safety
Members endeavour to ensure that good safety procedures are observed throughout their programmes and adequate checks are made on any third party suppliers. Security is equally important and members adhere to Foreign Office advice relating to their featured destinations. Participants are fully briefed on any safety and security issues prior to departure.
17. Risk and Crisis Management
Members are required to have risk management registers and crisis management plans and procedures that are kept under constant review. Staff are trained to deal with any situation that may arise.
18. Ethical Issues
As an Association of individual, independent companies, each with their own distinctive style and field of operation, individual members are encouraged to develop their own ways of fulfilling the details of these responsibilities by:
- Establishing their own policies, and involving their staff.
- Informing their clients about Responsible Tourism and, where appropriate, Encouraging them to participate.
- Working with their suppliers and partners to achieve responsible goals and practices.
- Publicising good practice to encourage and spread Responsible Tourism.