Unlicensed work?

[twirlymum]

Hi,
A friend of mine's DD regularly does commercial/modelling work. She is seven, and in full time school. It is a well known agency, with some high profile clients.
My DS is with a different agency, and has had to have a license for every single job.
My friend has always taken her daughter off sick from school when she has had a job, and when I asked her about licenses, she said the agency told her they were not necessary, as a license was only for TV/film work?
I just wondered if this goes on regularly, as it is a real pain (and stressful!) getting licenses all the time. I also don't agree with going sick from school. I have always asked permission, and been given it, when going to castings etc.

[sophiesocks]

my dd once did a modelling job for a new brochure for a residential care home, the local child employment officer turned up to check as my dd was the only child licensed to do the job and she was surprised there wasn't at least 1 other child going to be there to be the back up, she said she has often turned up to check up on the working conditions of a licensed child to find several others there unlicensed. as it was my dd was the only child on the day, but if you don't get your child licensed and others are then there could be a child employment officer from the local area turning up on set, I'm not sure what the repercussions would be but for me personally i would prefer my child to be licensed.

[twirlymum]

I agree, I would always prefer my child to be licensed, but my borough is not the quickest at issuing them. My DS has missed out on jobs before because of this. If some agencies are using unlicensed children, surely it makes it harder for the rest of us who do things properly?

[Panda]

Could she have a 6 month licence as its modelling/photographic? Hmmm - if she regularly gets work then she must be regularly ill . Surprised school havent picked up on it, no way my 7 year old could keep his mouth shut !! We did two shoots in the last two months and both times had a surprise visit by Licencing Lady, one photographic, one commercial. I am sure they are clamping down. I'm sorry you have lost work because of it

[Flosmom]

My girls went for an audition today for a film role. We were asked if they would be ready to start work next week if they are cast, so I mentioned that our LEA would usually issue their licenses in that time, no problem.

They were genuinely bemused by this. 'Why would they need to be licensed?' '....erm, because they are children...' 'We've never licensed a child before...' 'Well, you'll need to for this job' - by this time they were looking at me like I'd grown another head.

I've done my best to be helpful and sent info about the relevant legislation, processes etc, even though I don't think either of my girls is likely to be cast (especially as they have a two-headed mother). But don't film-makers get taught about this at film school?

Deb x

[missmoneypenny]

Good for you Deb - it amazes me that they don't go into child licensing at the film schools! We have had to talk a few producers through licensing in the past and they were very keen to know all about it. x

[paulears]

What made you think they cover this? The business element of all the media, music and performing arts courses is always a bit weak. Very often even basic stuff like tax, national insurance and self-employment is a one session do and forget feature. It's made worse because some councils don't even know they are responsible for licensing, if they don't have a busy theatre in their area who do kids stuff. As for agencies? You can open one with no knowledge whatsoever, apart from a few contacts in your phone.

[begolina]

My dc have done only a couple of student films. I didn't apply for the licence because in the LEA website they were saying that if the job in unpaid and out of school hours (which it was) there was no need of a licence. So, I don't know yet how difficult (or easy) is to get the licence from our LEA. One of the director asked for availability during school time but after every parents turned it down he did film during the weekend.