Accreditation on OutdoorNI.com

Dear Activity Provider,

Outdoor Recreation NI (formerly CAAN) wishes to give those activity providers with recognised safety accreditation prominence on OutdoorNI.com.

With the introduction of Adventuremark in Northern Ireland it is now felt that there are a range of appropriate safety accreditation schemes which sufficiently cover the wide range of activities available on OutdoorNI.com.

As the majority of these forms of accreditation are voluntary rather than statutory then those without such accreditation will not be excluded from OutdoorNI.com but will not receive prominence.

Full details of this proposal are outlined in the document which is available to download from the red link at the bottom of this notification.

A presentation and Q&A session is being made on this topic at the Activity Tourism Forum on Tuesday 16th Oct. The full agenda and timings of this meeting were circulated earlier this week.

Kind Regards,
Chris Scott
Activity Tourism Manager
Outdoor Recreation Northern Ireland
chris@outdoorrecreationni.com
02890 306 940

Chris,

I think you know my feelings on giving prominence to those companies with Adventuremark. Whilst I acknowledge that it is a positive thing to have a scheme which encompasses the vast range of activities covered by Outdoor NI, to give prominence to those organisations is ridiculous. To take Rock and Ride Outdoors as an example, we have Ireland's most qualified bike tutor, an MIC (top mountaineering qual) and an MIA who is an aspirant MIC. We are the most qualified company in Ireland and also obviously have insurers who understand the environment we operate in. To give prominence based on an accreditation which has no ongoing checks for 3 years and allows people to operate just with on-site training (validated by MIA's and MIC's!) is an insult to all those like us who have gone away and spent the years it takes to attain our level of qualification and competence.

You could ask why we don't just get accredited and the simple reason is that firstly, it adds nothing to the safety and validity of what we do. Getting personally qualified and gaining experience is what counts there, and secondly the cost ongoing will be inhibitive.

Why not give prominence to companies who can demonstrate that EVERYONE who works for them has a minimum level qualification (NGB if applicable, not in-house) and valid insurance.

As you know, I also run NI Bootcamp, our clients know nothing of Adventuremark and also are unlikely to care. However, our insurers are very clear on the minimum level NGB qualifications that our instructors must hold. This is a very clear definition, if we were stupid enough to use an unqualified or in-house qualified instructor it invalidates our insurance.

Our insurers also obviously insist on holding copies of Health and Safety Policies and all risk assessments.

I think the Outdoor NI organisation and site are both superb and have provided a great format for free promotion for small businesses like ourselves. To start messing around and weighting that format based on a standard which is way below what some organisations operate at currently is wrong.

I'm hoping to be at the meeting to make my point in person, I must admit I'd be extremely disappointed if this decision has already been made and I'm wasting my time.

Thanks,

Ian Bailey.

This is a joke, you are going to push the start ups out of business and give prominence to the established operators who will simply take advantage by hiking their prices. You can take my business off your site immediately, I have no time for this sort of Elitism.