Child performance legislation

Deadline: 
Fri, 03/08/2012
Key issues: 

The Department for Education is reviewing child performance legislation. The proposals affect people under school leaving age (ie aged 16 or over on the last Friday in June) performing or playing in front of a paying audience or in a licenced premises.

For sport

Specific exemptions have been given to sports, especially for those meeting the standards for safeguarding and protecting children in sport:

  • children aged 13 or over will be exempt if they take part in a recognised (Sport England or Olympic) sport whether they are paid or unpaid
  • children aged under 13 are exempt if they are unpaid
  • paid includes commercial or other financial sponsorship and goods as well as wages
  • sports not recognised may be classed as a performance and require a licence.

For dance

The proposals seem positive for our movement and dance division:

  • organisations with an amateur performance registration are exempt
  • a large event license – reducing the amount of licences needed per production
  • flexibility on hours of work
  • flexibility on times of education hours/days
  • parental declaration replacing the need for medical certification.

 

Relevant for: 
  • Movement and dance organisations.
  • Sports with young, paid participants.
  • Non-recognised sports with young, unpaid participants playing or performing in front of a paying audience or in a licensed premises.
Impact: 
Medium
How to reply: 

Consultation responses can be completed online by emailing childperformance.consultation@education.gsi.gov.uk or by downloading a response form from the website below. This should  be completed and sent to:

Child Performance Consultation, Targeted Safeguarding Policy Unit, Department for Education, Sanctuary Buildings, Level 1, Great Smith Street, London, SW1P 3BT.

Sports: If you agree that national governing bodies should be responsible for safeguarding and the national standards for safeguarding and protecting children in sport should cover child perfromance licences, answer question six positively in the consultation.

There are grey areas in the consultation with respect to paid involvement – you should mention that non-commercial, non-monetary contributions (eg goody bags, badges, etc) should not be classified as payment.

If you believe that these proposals affect your unrecognised sport, you should argue that sport competition is not akin to performance.

Dance: This consultation will affect movement and dance more than sport. It should be positive, but please review for your organisation. Contact the Alliance to attend its seminar on the topic on June 26.

Links: 
DfE consultation
Contact: 
jmacdougall@sportandrecreation.org.uk
  • Printer-friendly version

To receive the Sport and Recreation Alliance’s free daily sports news summary, a round-up of the day’s most interesting and informative news articles on sport and recreation, including links to original sources, email info@sportandrecreation.org.uk