A body of persons licence allows children to perform in amateur productions without a child performance licence.
The licence is only issued to a group of responsible adults such as a youth organisation, amateur dramatics club or church.
Children must always be supervised by a licensed chaperone who's allowed to look after a maximum of 12 children.
The licence is only valid for a single production.
You'll need to complete two documents:
- a application form (green button)
- and a spreadsheet providing details of the children (XLS, 38KB) you need a licence for.
You'll need the:
- names and dates of birth of all young people who are performing
- name of the school each child attends
- venues and dates of performances
- details of the licensed chaperones at the performance
Further information
Licencing good practice guide for voluntary amateur dramatic organisations.
You must keep records of each young person who performs for 6 months after the last performance and these should be submitted to the Child Employment office.
Under a body of persons licence a child can only perform if they:
- receive no payment
- don't take time off from school for a performance
- perform fewer than six days out of seven, or five days if there is a mix of rehearsals and performances
- don't take part in a performance that lasts for more than 3 hours and 30 minutes or perform for more than 2 hours and 30 minutes
- don't take part in more than two performances, or one performance and one rehearsal in a day
- take a break of 1 hour and 30 minutes between two performances or rehearsals on the same day; this break can be reduced to 45 minutes on two days a week as long as the child is not at the place of performance for more than 6 hours
- have a break of 14 hours between each day they perform and / or rehearse
- perform between 10:00am and 10.00pm if they are under 13 years old, or between 10:00am and 10:30 pm if they are older than 13
Young people must also be supervised by a licensed chaperone who's allowed to look after a maximum of 12 children.
Call the Child Employment office on 01473 265195.
Address
Child Employment Office
Suffolk County Council
Endeavour House
8 Russell Road
Ipswich
Suffolk
IP1 2BX
- child employment licence
- chaperone licence
- child performance licence
- matron and chaperone licence (Word, 87KB)
- sporting licence (Word, 172 KB)