Oh help - ds wants to act etc, but am having trouble with licences

[lolapoppins]

Have posted this in another topic as well, but thought someone here may have been in the same boat/may know another home ed family in the same situation.

Ds is in to acting/performing etc and has been accepted by an agency. Children need a license from the local council to 'work'.

One of the things they need is a form signed by the local authority to authorize any absences and a letter from the school head teacher.

Poses and obvious problem really!

We spoke to the agency. They told us to get the signature of who ever 'gives us permission' (!!!) to home school ds, so that they can authorize an adolescences (from the kitchen table? lol). We are known to the LA, but what can they do? They do in this situation? Not up to them to authorize an absence of a child not registered in school. And what if we were not known to them?

Also, a problem not related to the home ed issue, but another sticking point for us and something that someone reading this may be able to shed some light on, is that for the license the council need a letter from the family GP, stating ds is fit to work. ds is not registered with an nhs GP, we use private doctors.

We have been in touch with his private pediatrician, who he sees instead of an nhs GP who is more than happy to provide a letter declaring ds fit and healthy, but the agency are adiment they need a surgery stamp - the ped works out of three private hospitals, so no 'stamp' as such. They seem to be of the mindset that everyone is registered with an nhs GP surgery (the woman I spoke to at the agency very seriously assured me that it was 'the Law' lol!)

We are going round in circles with this, can anyone help? Especially with the permission for absence thing. Thank you!

'adolescences' should be absences obviously, flaming spell check.

IS the agency for modelling and is the agency located in the local authority where you pay your council tax?

Most acting work requires a new licence each time a job is gained. Some councils grant an "open licence" for modelling work and this sounds like this.

Many, councils are dispensing with the doctors letter for all but the most lengthy of work, (theatre tours, prolonged filming etc. It would be a good idea to phone up your local Education Welfare Officer in charge of children in entertainment and speak to them. They are the ones who grant these licences and it may be that you don't require all of these things.

Unfortunatley there is an anomoly in the system at the moment where different LEA's interpret the laws differently and there are campaigns currently ongoing with regards to this.

It is not up to the agency to demand such things, it is up to the LEA. All the agency ultimately need to see is the licence once granted.

It is perfectly permissable to put n/a or home educated on a licence application.

Speak to your EWO, hopefully you will be in an area where they are helpful.

the website www.notapushymum.com may be useful too.

Thanks - will ring them this morning.

The agency is in London and we are in east anglia, so no, not in the same area at all.

It's all such a hassle. Ds has been begging for two years now to do acting/modeling and this year I finally gave in and looked into it for him. I have a pushy child, lol.

Dh spoke to some one at the council yesterday, I don't know who it was but he said they seemed a bit clueless on the home ed front and again told him to check our records, as 'every body has an nhs gp'. Um, no they don't if they don't want one! Will make sure I call the right person today and get some sense out of them.

Thanks again. I will update on here to say how we get on incase anyone else is in the same situation - and thanks for the link to that other site.

They are probably using London forms them. All councils are different. Will try and investigate East Anglis (I'm a licensed chaperone so I have some knowledge of the rules and regs)

It is very common for performing children to be home educated. The LEA can set rules as to how many hours tutoring they receive whilst filming/touring but for one off jobs is not applicable.

I'm certain there is at least one home ed family on NAPM website.

Thanks so much - dh now has the name of the person he needs to speak to, but she is not available today apparently. We come under mid Suffolk.

So.......say if ds ever got a long shoot and needed tutoring, would they supply someone? Time off the teaching for me, or would I still be the one doing it, having 'agreed' hours. Just something to think about.

I thought this would all be more straight forward.

Tutors have to be registered and it would usually be up to the production company to supply one.

Ah, so there would be some time off for me on the teaching front then

We are having to decide between two agencies today. He got accepted to both, but one is a sole agency. So hard to decided when you don't know anything about the industry (Bizzykids and Scallywags - have you heard of either?).

Yes, I have heard of both and both are reputable.

Sole representation is most common (or there can be problems over commission if two agencies put you up for a job. However some agencies who deal with only modelling allow you to have another agent for acting work.

I take it the agency is Bizzykids/Babyshak, as they are totally clueless about everything, take anyone on and don't know anything about them and are rude and unhelpful. If it is, unfortunately too late to drop them, but any other readers - beware, don't go with them, ever! It would seriously concern me that an agent wouldn't know the correct position on this stuff. What they've told you is absolutely incorrect. A home educated child DOES NOT require the school form be signed, that part is simply missed out - part two of the form you fill out will ask for school info, where you will put home ed and that covers that. The Doctor can be private or otherwise, they don't even have to be your own Doctor. I know many parents who use drop in centres to get the letter! The letter need only be one sentence - I confirm that .... is fit for work, signed. The letter DOES NOT have to be stamped, but does need some representative info; a letter head, a business card, letters after the name, something. I've used all of those and it's passed inspection and gained us a licence. I would advise you change your agent as soon as you are able. This suggests to me they may not know about other things too, so how good an agent will they be?! Very poor I would suspect, because although the LEAs vary, as stated by a previous poster, these issues are ones outside that and quite uniform, therefore any agent should know this.

I don't see why any of this is needed.

My two girls are both home ed and have done lots and lots of professional stage work for many different people and agencies. They have had more performance licences than I can remeber and we have never had a problem. We ignore the school letter thing. I write a standard letter to the person in charge of the production (usually the lead chaperone)which goes like this-

"Dear **

I am writing to tell you that DD1 is home educated. As home educators, we set our own school hours and terms, therefore a school absence letter does not apply. We are known to the local authority as home educators and you are welcome to contact them should you need proof we are home educating."

That's it. The performance licences always say "permission to be absent from home educated", which always makes us laugh!

Honestly, that is all you need to do. Spunkie is absolutely correct that they have given you wrong information.

Anything else you want to know about the licencing process, I've got quite knowledgable over the years and I'm a licenced chaperone myself - so feel free to ask!

Oh, and letter from GP is weird too as usually you self-declare. ie, you fill in a form with any medical details in and sign at the bottom saying "I consider my child fit to undertake this work." It's only for their own protection anyway. My eldest has asthma, eczema, a very severe peanut allergy and a small hole in the heart. We have to send details to the council of what the chaperones should do in the event of a medical emergency (mainly for the allergy) but no one has ever said she can't work.

I think the GP thing is maybe an agency requirement that if you get actual work, won't be needed. We've never used an agency but the licencing process ought to be the same.

Hi, sorry I forgot to update this!

We got it all sorted. It turns out that the person we spoke to at the agency had taken it upon themselves to speak to us re licencing when they were just temping for someone who was off sick! Hence the confusion, they didn't even work for the agency, they were from a temping agency! The real agent couldn't have been more appologetic about it all.

We finaly spoke to the appropriate person at the council too. We spoke to another person who was just covering there as well. We picked the week where everyone who knew what they were talking about was off sick it seems!

Forms all fine, and we just had to put N/A next to the school info, it was fine. As was a one line letter from our private doctor.

So all is well. Ds getting called for so many auditions that we are having to pick and chose which to go to and he has already done a couple of lovely jobs which he really enjoyed.