We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all Dance Live! Staff, Dance Live! Volunteers and visiting School Staff, School Volunteers and Chaperones to share this commitment.
Dance Live! are members of Safer Dance (Dance School Safeguarding Working Group). The Dance School Safeguarding Working Group is a collective voice promoting high standards of safeguarding in the Dance School sector in order to protect children and young adults. As members of Safer Dance, Dance Live! helps protect children and vulnerable adults who attend dance teaching in the UK by supporting and facilitating the implementation of high standards of safeguarding.
View our up-to-date SAFEGUARDING POLICY.
Dance Live! and the Guildhall Trust are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. Therefore, all Dance Live! Staff, Dance Live! Volunteers and visiting School Staff, School Volunteers and School Chaperones must be DBS Checked before attending a Dance Live! Event in any venue. Dance Live! will ask all schools to provide DBS Numbers of all staff before attending a Dance Live! Event. Failure to provide a DBS number for a staff member, volunteer or chaperone will mean no entry to the venue.
Dance Live! recommends updating DBS Checks every one to two years as best practice. Dance Live! recommends registering staff and volunteers with the Government’s DBS Update Service. This service automatically updates DBS Checks once a year for a fee of £13 (this service is currently free for volunteers). You must register for the Update Service within 30 days of the DBS certificate being issued. You can register for the DBS Update Service here: https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service
Hayley Reay, Head of Learning and Participation at The Guildhall Trust, is the Designated Safeguarding Lead. If you have any concerns about the safety or wellbeing of any child please send an email titled ‘FAO: Hayley Reay’ to [email protected] or call 023 9387 0193.
Cherry Lambert, Dance Live! Senior Producer, has also been trained to take a lead in safeguarding and in the absence of Hayley Reay please speak to Cherry Lambert.
Pre-event, all schools will be sent coloured wristbands for participants and school staff. Wristbands must be worn all day and can be removed for the performance only. Security staff will be stationed at the entrance to each venue and will not allow any adults or young people into the venue unless they are wearing a wristband.
Participants must not be left unsupervised during a Dance Live! Event. It is the responsibility of the school to provide enough DBS checked staff, volunteers and/or chaperones to safely supervise participants for the entirety of the event. Dance Live! Staff and Dance Live! Volunteers are not responsible for participant supervision at any time during a Dance Live! Event or Workshop.
Parents and guardians are not allowed access to dressing rooms during or after the event. All parents and guardians trying to access dressing rooms will be turned away. If a parent or guardian is dropping off an item (e.g. costume), they can do so with a member of Security or Front of House staff. This item will then be passed to the appropriate school staff to deliver to the participant. Parent and guardian collection post-event must not take place in the dressing rooms.
We want all young people participating in the event to feel welcome and comfortable. With this in mind, Dance Live! has ensured that there are gender neutral toilets and changing facilities available. We will notify schools of locations of accessible toilets and facilities on a per-venue basis. Each school will also be provided with 2 pop up tents, to be used as changing facilities.
Where possible, Dance Live! will aim to give schools their own designated toilets. We will notify schools of designated toilets on a per-venue basis.
The venue hosting Dance Live! will ensure that suitably trained First Aiders are on hand for the duration of your visit and performance. Any person requiring First Aid must be attended to by the provided First Aider so as all relevant paperwork can be completed. All minors must always be accompanied when moving around the venue to reduce accidents. Schools must have 1 designated First Aider within their party. The venue’s designated First Aider will be on hand at all times.
Dance Live! will aim to have a quiet room available in each venue and will notify schools of locations of Quiet Rooms on a per-venue basis. Wherever possible, Dance Live! will aim to locate Quiet Rooms near to the stage area.
It is the responsibility of the school to receive media consent for participants. When arriving at a venue, lead teachers must state any participants without media consent. These participants will be given a colour-coded wristband for Dance Live! Staff to identify them as having no media consent. It is the responsibility of the school to notify Dance Live! Staff of any participants that cannot be filmed or photographed.
Audience members are not allowed to film or photograph performances. A DBS Checked professional photographer is in attendance at Dance Live! Events. All professional photographs taken during the performance will be sent directly to the lead teacher. It is the lead teacher’s responsibility to notify the Dance Live! Team of any photographs that contain participants without media consent within the time frame stipulated by the Team. Any photographs highlighted as unusable by the lead teacher will be destroyed by the Dance Live! Team.
All performances will be filmed. Films of each individual school’s performance are sent to the lead teacher post-event and it is the responsibility of the school to distribute photos and films to parents depending on the media consent of their students. Dance Live! does not share or sell photos or films directly with parents or guardians for safeguarding and media consent purposes.
