main content Child employment summary

The employment of children is governed by national legislation, which lays down the hours they may work, and local bye-laws, which set out the types of work they can and cannot do.

Eligibility

• Any child of statutory school age wishing to undertake any form of employment must obtain a work permit.
• A child ceases to be of statutory school age on the last Friday in June in the school year in which he/she reaches 16.
• No child under the age of 13 may be employed.

Details

• Work permits are issued in connection with a particular company and are not transferable.
• Only certain types of work are acceptable. These include, but are not limited to the following:
  delivery of newspapers, journals and other printed material;
  agricultural or horticultural work;
  in shops, including shelf stacking;
  in 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.
• No child may be employed:
  in a cinema, theatre, discotheque, dance hall or nightclub, except in a performance given entirely by children or under a Child Performance licence;
  to sell or deliver alcohol, except in sealed containers;
  to deliver milk;
  to deliver fuel oils;
  in a commercial kitchen;
  to collect or sort refuse;
  in any work which is more than three metres above ground or floor level;
  in work involving harmful exposure to physical, biological or chemical agents;
  to collect money or to sell or canvass door to door, except under the supervision of an adult;
  in work involving exposure to adult material or in situations which are for this reason otherwise unsuitable for children;
  in telephone 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 the purposes of public amusement by means of automatic machines, games of chance or skill or similar devices;
  in the personal care of residents of any residential care home or nursing home unless under the supervision of an adult.

Next Steps

The following leaflets are available:

• Child Employment - Information for Employers Leaflet
• Child Employment - Information for Parents Leaflet
• Child Employment - Information for Young People Leaflet
• Work Permit Application Form

Please contact the Child Employment Officer for further information.

Contact Details

Telephone:  020 8313 4151
Fax:  020 8313 4145
e-mail:  education.welfare@bromley.gov.uk

Address:
Child Employment Officer, Children and Young People Department, Education Welfare Service, 1st Floor Stockwell Building, Civic Centre, Stockwell Close, Bromley, BR1 3UH