Sample policy · Travel clinics

Pre-travel risk assessment and consultation policy (travel clinics)

Statutory anchor: Regulation 12 (safe care and treatment), Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/2936). The primary clinical authorities for this policy are the UKHSA Green Book (Immunisation against infectious disease) and TravelHealthPro / NaTHNaC country and clinical guidance. · primary source

1. What the regulation says

Care and treatment must be provided in a safe way for service users. (Reg 12(1) (the headline duty))

assessing the risks to the health and safety of service users of receiving the care or treatment, (Reg 12(2)(a) (risk assessment))

doing all that is reasonably practicable to mitigate any such risks, (Reg 12(2)(b) (risk mitigation))

ensuring that persons providing care or treatment to service users have the qualifications, competence, skills and experience to do so safely, (Reg 12(2)(c) (staff competence))

the proper and safe management of medicines, (Reg 12(2)(g) (medicines management))

Regulation 12 lists the areas a provider must address, including risk assessment, risk mitigation, staff competence, safe premises, safe equipment, sufficient equipment and medicines, medicines safety, infection prevention and shared-care planning.

The full text of the regulation is at https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/2936/regulation/12. Where this policy and the regulation diverge, the regulation wins.

2. Plain-English summary

Care and treatment must be provided in a safe way. The regulation lists the areas a provider must address, including risk assessment, risk mitigation, staff competence, safe premises, safe equipment, sufficient equipment and medicines, medicines safety, infection prevention and shared-care planning. Regulation 12 is central to CQC's safety expectations.

For a travel clinic, safe care starts with a proper, person-specific risk assessment using current national travel health guidance, advice that is tailored to the traveller and their trip, and a clear record of what was assessed, advised, given and declined.

3. Purpose

A safe travel health consultation is built on a proper risk assessment. The right advice depends on where the traveller is going, what they will do there, and their own health. This policy sets out how the Service assesses each traveller, gives advice based on current national guidance, and records it, so that the vaccines, antimalarials and health advice given are right for that person and that trip.

The Service must verify this policy against current national travel health guidance (TravelHealthPro / NaTHNaC and the Green Book) before adoption.

4. Scope

This policy applies to:

5. The risk assessment

For each traveller the Service assesses, using current country information:

The assessment is based on the country and clinical information current at the time of the consultation, because risk and recommendations change.

6. The advice given

From the risk assessment the Service advises on:

Advice is tailored to the person, not a generic destination handout.

7. Timing and incomplete courses

8. When the Service is not the right place

The Service is clear about the limits of what it offers. Where a traveller needs care beyond travel health (for example management of a complex condition before travel, or specialist advice for a particular risk), the Service says so and signposts the traveller to the right service rather than advising outside its competence.

9. Recording

The Service records, for each consultation: the risk assessment, the advice given, the vaccines and medicines provided (with batch numbers where given), the traveller's consent, and any advice declined. The record shows that a tailored assessment took place.

Operational controls to adapt

Roles and responsibilities

Pre-travel consultation procedure

  1. Collect the itinerary before advice is given. Record destinations, route, stopovers, travel dates, departure date, trip length, accommodation, activities and remote or rural exposure.
  2. Assess the traveller, not only the destination. Check age, pregnancy or breastfeeding, immune status, long-term conditions, allergies, medicines, previous vaccine reactions and vaccine history.
  3. Use current country and clinical guidance. Record the guidance source and access date for vaccine, malaria, outbreak, certificate and health-risk advice.
  4. Match advice to the risk assessment. Record recommended vaccines, required vaccines, malaria prevention, bite avoidance, food and water advice, accident risk, insurance advice and when to seek help abroad.
  5. Explain limits and timing. Tell late presenters what protection is realistic, what cannot be completed before travel, and any follow-up dose or course plan.
  6. Record consent and declined advice. A traveller may decline advice, vaccine or medicine, but the record must show what was explained and what risk remains.
  7. Escalate complex cases. Immunosuppression, pregnancy, significant allergy, serious comorbidity, uncertain yellow fever suitability or advice outside competence is referred to the clinical lead or specialist source.
  8. Close the loop. Follow-up appointments, remaining doses, prescriptions, certificate needs and written information are given before the consultation is closed.

Records and register links

The consultation record should include:

Missed risk assessments, advice outside competence, wrong destination advice, vaccine or medicine errors and repeated declined-advice documentation gaps are opened on the relevant register.

10. Training and competency

Clinicians carrying out travel consultations are trained and assessed as competent for travel health, keep up to date as guidance changes, and are refreshed on a stated cadence. The Service records who is competent and the next refresher date.

11. Audit cadence

The Service checks, on a stated cadence, that:

The Registered Manager and the clinical lead review the results and record the improvement actions that follow.

12. Sources and further reading

This template is based on CQC's guidance for providers and managers, the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, and other topic-specific legislation and guidance listed below. It is a starting point for adaptation, not a substitute for legal, clinical, HR, safeguarding or specialist professional advice.

Related reading

13. When to seek further advice

Seek specialist advice where the issue involves serious harm, safeguarding, deprivation of liberty, restraint, children, professional misconduct, controlled drugs, radiation, termination of pregnancy, infection outbreak, water safety, employment dismissal, DBS barring referral, or regulatory enforcement.

14. Document control

Version Date Author Changes
v1.1 2026-07-14 Verivius (sample) Added role ownership, consultation procedure, risk-assessment records, register links and related reading.
v1 2026-06-10 Verivius (sample) Initial sample template, conformed to the Verivius policy standard.

This sample policy template was issued by Verivius. It is a template, not a substitute for legal advice or the tenant's own policy-development process. Where this template and live law or regulator guidance diverge, the live source wins.

What a CQC inspector checks

The same requirement seen through an ex-CQC-inspector's eyes: what they actually ask to see, and the gap they are testing for.

  1. Whether a documented, person-specific risk assessment sits behind the advice, gathered before advice was given, not a destination handout. The inspector tests whether the record captures the traveller's own health as well as the itinerary.

    Evidence: The itinerary, route, stopovers, dates and activities plus the health history, medicines, allergies, immune status, pregnancy or breastfeeding and vaccine history in the consultation record, and the audit check that consultations rest on a documented, person-specific risk assessment.

  2. Whether the advice rested on current country and clinical guidance, with the source and the date it was accessed recorded, because destination risk and recommendations change between consultations.

    Evidence: The guidance source used, the country page or clinical guidance date, and any specialist advice sought, recorded in the consultation.

  3. Whether the vaccines, antimalarials and health advice given actually match the assessed risk (required versus recommended vaccines, malaria advice for that route), rather than a standard bundle for the destination.

    Evidence: The recorded risk assessment set against the vaccines recommended or required, vaccines given or declined (with batch numbers where given), medicines supplied, malaria advice and non-vaccine advice, and the audit check that advice, vaccines and medicines match the assessment.

  4. Whether a traveller who declined a vaccine or medicine has a record showing what was explained and what risk remains, rather than a blank, and whether a late presenter was told honestly what protection is realistic.

    Evidence: Consent, contraindications, precautions, declined advice and late-presenter limitations in the record, and the audit check that timing, incomplete courses and declined advice are recorded.

  5. Whether complex or high-risk cases were escalated rather than advised outside competence: immunosuppression, pregnancy, significant allergy, uncertain yellow fever suitability, or needs beyond travel health referred on, with the referral recorded.

    Evidence: The specialist-advice-sought field and the escalation to the clinical lead or specialist source, with the linked referral where the case fell outside competence.

  6. Whether only clinicians assessed as competent for travel health gave the advice, kept up to date as guidance changes, rather than any available clinician.

    Evidence: The record of who is competent and the next refresher date, and the audit check that clinicians' travel health competence is current.

Related Verivius content

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Last reviewed 10 June 2026