Children on Stage.

The approval was the paperwork; the visit is the reality check. Officers of the local authority — or police — can enter without notice wherever children are performing, at any rehearsal or show, and may question anyone. Keep your approval paperwork at the venue and produce it on request. If standards aren’t met, the council can withdraw children from the performance.

The inspector looks at the children themselves, walks the venue (toilets, dressing rooms, rest areas, hazards, fire exits, first aid), watches the chaperones, checks the records, and talks to everyone. The numbers they know by heart: at most 12 children per chaperone (ABTT recommends no more than 8 in many cases), a 12-hour overnight break between days, no more than 6 consecutive days, and records kept for 6 months after the final show.

One written risk assessment per venue and production, kept current, with copies at the venue — covering stage edges, steps, moving scenery, electrical equipment, get-in hazards, crowded corridors.

A written child protection policy reviewed every 12 months, a designated safeguarding lead everyone can name, and suitability checks on every adult caring for the children.

A first aider at every session; the register holds each child’s emergency contacts, medical issues and additional needs.

Any injury or illness: record it, tell the parent immediately, tell the local authority within 24 hours. No unwell child performs.

If a child tells you something worrying: listen, don’t investigate, never promise confidentiality, tell your safeguarding lead immediately, and record it in the child’s own words.

Children must be supervised at all times by council-approved chaperones — parents helping on the night don’t count unless agreed with the council. The legal ceiling is 12 children per chaperone; with mixed ages, ABTT recommends no more than eight. Separate boys’ and girls’ rooms means at least two chaperones. A chaperone can’t hold any other role — the person running the show can’t also chaperone.

Badge every chaperone with name and dressing room; one room per chaperone, each with a list of exactly which children they hold.

Brief everyone on fire procedures, assembly points, the never-alone rule and no photographs — and their right to say no if a child is tired or unwell.

End of night: parents wait in the auditorium until called; each child is handed only to the pre-nominated adult and crossed off. No stage-door free-for-all.

The venue must provide a chill-out area with water and refreshments, sufficient clean toilets and washing facilities, and suitable changing arrangements.

Separate dressing rooms for boys and girls, separate from adults; from age five, children change only with their own sex; never where adults other than chaperones are present.

A seat for every child, name lists on doors, corridors never blocked, one controlled backstage entrance with a signing-in point.

Walk the venue with the caretaker before the first child arrives: unlock every fire exit, learn the alarm sound, agree who calls 999, find the first aid kit.

All exits available with security fastenings removed while children are on the premises, including rehearsals. Post fire instructions with an escape plan in every dressing room and chill-out area. In an evacuation, the audience follows the stewards and never goes backstage: chaperones evacuate the children, account for them against the room lists, and reunite everyone at the assembly point — say so in your front-of-house welcome.

Smoke, haze, dry ice and strobe are recommended against in children’s productions, and any proposed effect needs separate council and venue approval. With a children’s cast, the simple answer is: don’t.

Fire drills get everyone out; a lockdown keeps everyone safely in. Schools are expected to have a practised lockdown procedure, and your show should plug into it. At the walk-through, ask: what is the lockdown signal, how does it differ from the fire alarm, which rooms are used, who initiates it out of hours? If it happens mid-show: children stay put with their chaperones (dressing rooms make natural lockdown rooms), chaperones account for every child, front of house keeps the audience in the hall, and nobody is released until the all-clear.

One ring binder, at the venue for every session: approval paperwork and conditions, the register (name, address, age, emergency contacts, medical needs), signed parental fitness statements, the chaperone list with approval expiries, room allocation lists, risk assessment, safeguarding policy, accident book, contacts sheet. Signing-in sheets and daily records are filled in as it happens — not reconstructed later — and kept for six months.

Hours are capped by age. Birth to 4: at the venue 7am–10pm, 5 hours maximum, 30 minutes maximum continuous performance. Ages 5–8: 7am–11pm, 8 hours, 2.5 hours. Age 9 to school-leaving: 7am–11pm, 9.5 hours, 2.5 hours. All ages: 15-minute breaks, a 45-minute meal break on days of 4–8 hours, 1.5 hours between two same-day shows, a 12-hour overnight gap, six consecutive days at most.

Run your own mock inspection. To you: can I see your approval paperwork and conditions? Your register and parental fitness statements? Who approved your chaperones and what are tonight’s ratios? Today’s signing-in sheets and break records? Who is your safeguarding lead? How is each child getting home? To your chaperones: how many children are you responsible for — can I see your list? What do you do if the alarm sounds? Where is the first aid kit? When did your group last break? And to the children, out of your earshot: are you enjoying yourself, do you know your chaperone, have you eaten, do you know what to do if the alarm goes off? Happy, confident answers from the children are the best evidence your paperwork is real.

Before the first child arrives: paperwork checked, binder at the venue, chaperone approvals in date and briefing done, caretaker walk-through complete, rooms set up, fire instructions posted.

Every session: children signed in with times, breaks and performance periods logged live, chaperoned transfers, the front-of-house announcement made, managed collection at the end.

The non-negotiables: if the register, parental fitness statements or live time records are missing, the inspector can withdraw children and end your approvals on the spot.