Child Licence petition

Voice your opinions on subjects you may feel strongly about

Moderator: busybusybusy

mathsmum
GRAMMY Award
Posts: 359
Joined: Wed Feb 22, 2006 10:32 pm
Location: london

Re: Child Licence petition

Post by mathsmum »

does an 'open licence' mean a child can be in any production over the next 6 months - if so, where is the protection in that - surely individual licences mean that for each job, the local authority checks that production company/theatre?

agree they should be quicker - ours is a week as long as your paperwork's in order
Life is complex - some of it is real, some of it is imaginary.
inconspicuous
Nominee
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jul 06, 2006 7:35 pm
Location: London

Re: Child Licence petition - DCSF review

Post by inconspicuous »

Hi everyone

The DCSF have announced today that Sarah Thane, CBE, former Chair of the Royal Television Society and former advisor to Ofcom, will be undertaking an exploratory review of the regulation of child performance.

More details at

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatter ... erformers/

Think it would be useful to keep up-to-date with progress - and make sure that our voices and points of view are heard,

All best
Lisa
User avatar
obsteve
GRAMMY Award
Posts: 133
Joined: Mon Feb 08, 2010 12:32 am
Contact:

Re: Child Licence petition

Post by obsteve »

is this link to the NNCEE useful to anyone?

http://www.bucksinfo.net/nncee/
Image
Click on the image above to go to our website
louisejudson
Nominee
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Jul 16, 2010 11:44 am

Re: Child Licence petition

Post by louisejudson »

Hi not sure what stage coach are trying to do, To me it looks like they want all the control of lincence for children, and if so does that mean that if you dont use stage coach or the agency you have no chance of being offed a job.
I have not had any problmes with getting any licensce of my cc for 6 month and they do last min lincens within 1 hour so long you dont mind going and waiting with them while they do it. The 6 month licenes that i get i for modelling and commercial. For filming or tv work you have to have a license for just that part that you are in which is not a problme. I have found that the agents in London dont seem to send of the forms that i give them for a 6 month open license? not sure why they dont as it has to come though my cc and not theirs.
mandimm1
Nominee
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Jun 14, 2011 11:53 am

Re: Child Licence petition

Post by mandimm1 »

I have come up against this licensing time scale yet again. My son lost out on a job which he really wanted to do because our authority would not under any circumstances grant a license in 4-5 days! When challenged they said they could insist on 21 days! The job was then given to a kid who lived 10 minutes down the road from us (same county different office) but whose LEA didn't have a problem! So frustrating!

It seems to me that all the LEA's should be 'singing from the same songsheet' and that a national law applies. It should not be down to the individuals in the departments who job share/haven't got enough staff/ are on holiday/ flexi time or are just power happy.

All these excuses I have been given (except the power one obviously)!

I did hear that up north in some areas you can get a license that covers any productions for 6 months!

Now that would be good.

At the end of the day we all protect our children and chaperone them.

It makes me so mad!!!
livininabox
BRIT Award
Posts: 37
Joined: Thu Jan 20, 2011 12:51 pm

Re: Child Licence petition

Post by livininabox »

Hi
That must be incredibly frustrating. In our area the council issue 6 month open licences which cover upto 10 performances...any more you have to get specific permission, but even so its an easy task. Nor do we have to get any of the GP letters i've read about...we simply fill in a health declaration! And yet a couple of miles down the roads where the council borders change its a situation similar to yours. Crazy, isn't it??
Panda
GRAMMY Award
Posts: 341
Joined: Sun Jun 15, 2008 11:00 pm
Location: Up North!

Re: Child Licence petition

Post by Panda »

I believe the 6 month licences and parents health declaration are only valid for modelling jobs and not tv/film?

Lucky person up North if that is correct, we live Up North and my DS just lost out to a fantastic job filming in Prague as International Licences have to be processed thru Bow Street/Westminster magistrates and we couldnt get down in time for a hearing.

I quite agree the whole thing needs sorting out, it is hard enough for our DCs to got thru all the castings and then get the job without more hassle for licences. In defence our LEA is pretty good most of the time, only difficult if the top lady is away.

Ra! #-o
Irishdancer
OSCAR Award
Posts: 1541
Joined: Tue Nov 13, 2007 5:33 pm

Re: Child Licence petition

Post by Irishdancer »

I am sure that there is some where up north that u can get that licence as well might be wrong but sure I heard about it, its usaly the production company who have to do the licence not u when oldest ds had to go abroad lady from sylivia youngs did the licence for ds and the other girl even though ds was n ot with Sy
User avatar
missmoneypenny
BAFTA Award
Posts: 878
Joined: Thu Aug 28, 2008 11:18 pm

Re: Child Licence petition

Post by missmoneypenny »

No, the whole country have to go to Bow Street - the usher there told me all about it when we were there :) was waiting over half an hour and knew everything about it by the time I was seen haha - he was like a court tour guide!!
User avatar
Golightly
BRIT Award
Posts: 87
Joined: Sat Dec 10, 2005 4:59 pm

Re: Child Licence petition - DCSF review

Post by Golightly »

Unfortunately the new government aren't going ahead with the proposed reforms to children's performance licensing, this is from today's Broadcast:
The government is set to drop a major reform of rules governing children appearing on TV that has been on the cards for more than two years, Broadcast has learned.


Prompted by concerns around Channel 4 series Boys and Girls Alone and the appearance of 10-year-old Hollie Steel sobbing on Britain’s Got Talent, the previous Labour government launched a review of the use of children on TV in June 2009, with the aim of updating the 1963 Children and Young Persons Act and 1968 Children’s Entertainment Regulations.

Initially, the government pledged to tighten the rules. However, the focus shifted towards addressing inconsistent legislation designed for a bygone era. Reform was then championed under the coalition government by new children’s minister Tim Loughton.

New primary legislation, based on a report published last year, was expected to be pushed through under the coalition government. However, senior sources have indicated that it is unlikely to be passed during this term - and its future is now uncertain.

The report, written by industry consultant Sarah Thane, recommended a “more streamlined, proportionate and risk-based licensing” approach, starting with “a presumption in favour of licensing child performance”.

With the onus on producers to demonstrate due care, something they are already required to do under the existing Ofcom code, there would be “very few occasions when a local authority would refuse a licence based on the nature of the production”, Thane said.

She stressed the importance of updating the “anachronistic” legislation. “I would urge that the impetus around this issue be maintained,” she wrote.

However, indications are that this has now dropped down the government’s agenda, leaving the industry with rules from another era that one insider described as “an utter mess”.

A second claimed the current system amounted to a postcode lottery in which local authorities could “exercise prejudices about who deserved licences”.

They added: “Licences are given out on a case-by-case basis, which is unsatisfactory - people can make it work, but it’s not what we should be doing. If things become too difficult, the industry will just stop using children in programming.”

The Department for Education spokesman said: “We want children to have the opportunity to perform and we are continuing to develop, along with partners, our proposals for changing the safeguarding legislation. We will issue detailed options for consultation in due course.”
User avatar
It's Showtime
BRIT Award
Posts: 86
Joined: Wed Mar 11, 2009 12:39 pm
Location: south

Re: Child Licence petition

Post by It's Showtime »

missmoneypenny wrote:No, the whole country have to go to Bow Street - the usher there told me all about it when we were there :) was waiting over half an hour and knew everything about it by the time I was seen haha - he was like a court tour guide!!
Just to agree with Irish Dancer, when DS was filming abroad, the production company sorted out overseas licence with high court; we didn't attend; just had to make sure we had all the paperwork in order the court requested & dated.

The whole UK licence issue does need to be streamlined and consistent. Very lucky in our area that we have a very efficient system for UK licensing. :D Sad to hear of other lovely DC's losing work due to time constraints. :(
Bad Hair Day Anyone?
**It's Showtime Folks!**
Hecouldshine
OSCAR Award
Posts: 1084
Joined: Sat Jun 16, 2007 8:14 am
Location: Cumbria

Re: Child Licence petition

Post by Hecouldshine »

The government has opened the consultation period for proposals for changes to the child licencing system. We have until the beginning of August to register comments. The document is here (I hope)
http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/i ... r-40-years
and you can join in the consultation here http://www.education.gov.uk/consultatio ... =no&menu=1

I, for one, will not be sorry to see the need for a doctor's certificate go- it sounds like that proposal is a fairly sure thing \:D/
He could go and he could shine, not just stay here counting time,
Son, we've got the chance to let him live

from Billy Elliot the Musical
mathsmum
GRAMMY Award
Posts: 359
Joined: Wed Feb 22, 2006 10:32 pm
Location: london

Re: Child Licence petition

Post by mathsmum »

Panda wrote:I believe the 6 month licences and parents health declaration are only valid for modelling jobs and not tv/film?
i still think this is wrong - a 6 month licence means individual companies are not in any way checked to make sure they are in a position to take care of the young person

i would not be at all surprised to hear of lighter regulation around modelling - 'woman's hour' had a horrific item about sexual abuse of under-age models
Life is complex - some of it is real, some of it is imaginary.
amycompton
Nominee
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed Aug 01, 2012 11:30 am

Re: Child Licence petition

Post by amycompton »

I think that you need to get to know the responsible person at your LEA. They can make thinks easy if they want to. I teach in the same LEA and the lovely lady who deals with licenses will do it while I wait at the local office if I turn up with all the right paperwork.
User avatar
Thalias_Dad
GRAMMY Award
Posts: 216
Joined: Sun Sep 18, 2011 2:25 pm

Re: Child Licence petition

Post by Thalias_Dad »

A new one for us this year has been the introduction of fees (£30) for fast-tracking an application if required before the 21 day standard. As we all know, that's nearly all of them.
Post Reply