Permit for employment of children and performances by children

Permit for the employment of children

Children under school leaving age need a permit to work part time in Angus.

A child who is 16 years old between 1 March and 30 September in a school year is over school age on 31 May of that school year.

A child who is 16 years old between 1 October and 28 February in a school year is over school age after the end of the Christmas term of that school year.

Applying for a permit

Employers must send us written notification within a week of employing a child. Employers and the parent or guardian of the child must complete our employment permit application and return it to the child’s school.

During the school holidays the form should be emailed to ACCESSSchoolsLearnEnrolment@angus.gov.uk.

No child of any age can be employed:

  • in a cinema, theatre, disco, dance hall or night club, except in connection with a performance given entirely by children
  • to sell or deliver alcohol
  • to deliver fuels
  • in a commercial kitchen, except as a waiter or waitress, in a hotel, restaurant or café
  • to collect or sort scrap metal, refuse etc, except in clearing of litter or tidying up of land and buildings as part of a major sporting or recreational event
  • in 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
  • in employment involving harmful exposure to physical, biological or chemical agents
  • to sell or canvass door to door
  • in work involving direct exposure to adult material or in situations which are for this reason otherwise unsuitable for children
  • in phone sales
  • in 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
  • as an attendant or assistant in a fairground or amusement arcade or in any other premises used for public amusement with automatic machines, games of chance or skill or similar devices
  • in the personal care of residents or any residential care home or nursing home unless under the supervision of a responsible adult
  • in any employment directly connected with gaming or betting
  • in any employment in or about any fish curers premises
  • in driving, feeding or attending to animals in any auction, mart or public place

Children under 13

Children aged 10 or over can be employed in light agricultural or horticultural work on an occasional basis while supervised by their parent or guardian.

Children aged over 13 and under 15

Children aged over 13 and under 15 can be employed in light work of up to 12 hours per week in:

  • agricultural or horticultural work
  • delivery of newspapers, journals and other printed material, and collecting payment 
  • shop work, including shelf stacking
  • hairdressing salons
  • office work
  • car washing by hand in a private residential setting
  • in a café or restaurant
  • in riding stables
  • domestic work in hotels and other establishments offering accommodation
  • street trading

The daily working limits are two hours per school day, two hours on Sunday and no more than five hours on Saturday.

Children aged 15 and over

Children aged 15 and over can be employed in light work up to 12 hours per week.

The daily working limits are two hours per school day, two hours on Sunday and no more than eight hours on Saturday.

Employment before school

Children can be employed for up to one hour before the start of a school day.

Performance licence and body of persons application

Children of any age involved in areas like:

  • television
  • theatre
  • modelling

Who are receiving payment and/or require time off school need a performance licence.

Where children are receiving no payment and do not require time off school, such as taking part in amateur dramatics, a Body of Persons application should be submitted.