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If you employ children or are thinking of employing children, you need to be aware of the laws and regulations that protect them while they are at work.
The law and child employment
Child employment is subject to a number of other acts and regulations including:
A child is employed if they assist in any trade or occupation carried out for profit, whether or not the child receives pay or reward.
A summary of the regulations
- No child under 13 years old may be employed.
- A child can only do light work.
- The hours a child can work are different for children under 15. years old.
- A child must be allowed rest periods.
- The employer must ensure that a child's health and safety is protected.
- Children are of compulsory school age until the last Friday in June of the school year (1 September to 31 August) in which they have their 16th birthday.
Children of compulsory school age can only be employed in Medway if they have been issued with a work permit by Medway Council.
A work permit can be refused or cancelled if the employment is considered likely to be harmful to the education, health or physical development of the child.
NB: a permit can be refused or withdrawn if a child's school attendance is not satisfactory.
National insurance number
It is important to understand that possession of a national insurance number does not mean that a child can leave school or work full time.
Applying for a work permit
Employers in Medway are responsible for getting a work permit for each child they employ, wherever the child lives.
Application forms (pdf 365KB) can be downloaded from this page. To use this file you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have it on your computer, please use our advice page.
Forms can also be obtained by using the contact information at the foot of this page.
NB: the Association of British Insurers has stated that, unless a child is registered with their local authority, they may not be included under the employer's liability insurance.
The Education Welfare Service will issue the work permit and send the original to you (with copies to the child and headteacher), when it is satisfied that the work is legal and meets the bye-laws.
You must instruct the child to carry the permit with them when they are working, as it must be produced to a police officer or authorised council officer on demand.
A work permit is personal to the child and specific to the employment, the place of work and the authorised hours. If any details change, a new permit must be obtained.
Hours of work
Children may not work before 7am or after 7pm on any day.
No child may work for more than two hours on any school day (with no more than one hour before school).
Ages 13 and 14
- Term time - maximum 12 hours per week.
- Saturdays and school holidays - maximum 25 hours a week when not required to attend school. Maximum five hours on any day.
- Sundays - maximum two hours.
Ages 15 and 16
- Term time - maximum 12 hours a week.
- Saturdays and school holidays - maximum 35 hours per week when not required to attend school. Maximum eight hours on any day.
- Sundays - maximum two hours.
Rest breaks
There must be a break of at least one hour after four hours work on any day.
School holiday employment
In a year there must be at least two consecutive weeks free from school and from employment.
Prohibited employment
No child of any age may be employed in:
- a cinema, theatre, discotheque, dance hall or night club, except in connection with a performance given entirely by children;
- selling or delivering alcohol, except in sealed containers;
- delivering milk as part of a house to house milk delivery round;
- delivering fuel oils;
- a commercial kitchen;
- collecting or sorting refuse;
- any work which is more than three metres above ground level or in the case of internal work, more than three metres above floor level;
- employment involving harmful exposure to physical, biological or chemical agents;
- collecting money or selling or canvassing door-to-door, except under adult supervision;
- work involving exposure to adult material or in situations which are, for this reason, otherwise unsuitable for children;
- telephone sales;
- any slaughterhouse or in that part of any butcher's shop or other premises connected with the killing of livestock, butchery or the preparation of carcasses or meat for sale;
- attending or assisting in a fairground or amusement arcade or in any other premises used for the purpose of public amusement by means of automatic machines, games of chance or skill or similar devices;
- the personal care of residents of any residential care home or nursing home (unless supervised by a responsible adult);
- any activity concerned with the use of firearms;
- outdoor or indoor markets (unless the child is employed by his or her parent, in connection with the parent's retail business and under the parent's direct supervision.
This information is for general guidance only.
More detailed information can be obtained from the address below.
Copies of the byelaws, can be examined free of charge at the same address or in Medway libraries.
Children in entertainment (on television, in theatres, films or in paid sport or modelling) are subject to different regulations. Any queries regarding such children should be made to the Education Welfare Service.
Penalties
- Section 21 of the Children and Young Person's Act 1933 as amended provides, among other things, that if a person is employed in contravention of Section 18 of the Act or of the provisions of any bye-laws made thereunder, the employer and any other person (other than the person employed) to whose act or default the contravention is attributable shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the Standard Scale (£1,000).
- Section 559 of the Education Act 1996 empowers a local education authority to prohibit or restrict the employment of children and any person found guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable to a fine (as above) and/or up to one month in prison.
- See the government information website YouGov.(www.direct.gov.uk/Parents/FamilyIssuesAndTheLaw)
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