Many member bands have been in touch with us in recent months asking about the requirements for Child Performance Licensing at the different contests. BBE has been working with organisers in both Whit Friday areas and their respective licensing officers to create a solution that works for bands, while also staying within the spirit of the event. Both areas are now in receipt of a Body Of Persons Approved (BOPA) to cover young people playing on the day with the same requirements in both contest areas. This means that competing bands will need to provide the following information to band organisers.
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Number of under 16s that will be performing with the band
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Number of Chaperones/DBS checked adults that will accompany minors
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Confirmation that each band with any performers under 16 has a robust safeguarding policy
Bands will need to ensure they meet the required ratio of adults to children of 1:12 on the day to comply. Any band needing DBS checks can have these done via through BBE by emailing dbs@bbe.org.uk. Enhanced Volunteer checks can be done for free for member bands.
For bands planning to go to Saddleworth this year, the area organisers are trialing a new system to speed up the collation of results by getting bands to ‘tell us you are coming’ which will also collect the BOPA data in advance so you don’t need to do it on the day. The very simple form can be found here https://saddleworthwhitfriday.co.uk/?page_id=10
For more information about the Tameside area contests, information and road closures please visit https://www.tamesidebrassbands.org/ and for Saddleworth please visit the new official website https://saddleworthwhitfriday.co.uk/
Good luck to everyone and have a brilliant day and night out at the contests!