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ITEM EX14

EXECUTIVE – 27 MAY 2003

EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

Report by the Director for Learning & Culture

1. Legislation permits Children and Young People between ages 13 and 16 to work within a regulated framework that limits the hours and type of work. Whilst experience of work can be rewarding for children, giving them a sense of independence, greater social skills, increasing self esteem and the opportunity to earn their own money, there are risks that these benefits can be outweighed in some cases by the potential negative outcomes such as:

• impact on academic achievements and attendance at school and the balance of pressures between work, study and family life;
• children may be vulnerable to exploitation such as working too many hours/low pay/lack of contractual arrangements and lack of a work permit;
• susceptibility to tiredness, fatigue and potential injury in the workplace due to inexperience or inappropriate type of work undertaken.

2. Responsibility for the enforcement of the regulations in relation to child employment in Oxfordshire is within the Education Social Work Service in partnership with schools. This report sets out the current position and reviews the arrangements for monitoring the implementation of the Council’s bye-laws and for the issuing of work permits and entertainment licences.

The Legal Position

3. The main provisions governing child employment are complex and contained in various aspects of primary legislation and local authority bye-laws:-

• The Employment of Women, Young Persons and Children Act 1920 prohibits children being employed in industrial undertakings eg coal mines, quarries, factories.
• The Children and Young Persons Acts 1933 restricts employment to those age 13 or over and under 16 (minimum school leaving age) and limits the number of hours. This also allows Local Authorities to make bye-laws on the nature of the work and conditions for employment. The Oxfordshire By-laws were last amended in 1998. They are in line with national requirements and other authorities and a summary is attached at Annex 1.

• The Education Act 1996 gives the LEA power to serve notice on employers if it appears that a child registered at a community, foundation, voluntary or special school "is being employed in such a manner as to be prejudicial to his health or otherwise to render him unfit to obtain the full benefit of the education provided for him."

• In August 1998, regulations came into force in line with EC Directive 94/33 and these were further updated in 2000 which made slight changes to the rules concerning the number of hours in the working week to 12 in term time, the age for children to be allowed to work in light agricultural or horticultural work, street trading activities (age 13) taking part in performances of a dangerous nature (age 16) or modelling work.

4. In summary there should be:-

• no work without a work permit
• no work before 13^th birthday
• no work before 7.00 am or after 7.00 pm (maximum 1 hour before school starts)
• no more than 2 hours work on a school day or a Sunday
• no more than 12 hours total in a school week
• on Saturdays no more than 5 hours (at ages 13/14) or 8 hours (at ages 15/16)
• in school holidays no more than 25 hours per week (ages 13/14) or 35 hours per week (ages 15/16)
• no work in occupations prohibited by the local bye-laws or in other legislation (eg in pubs or betting shops) or in any work that is likely to be harmful to their health, well being or education
• no work in television, theatre or other similar activities, including modelling without a performance licence issued by the local authority.

5. There are also entitlements to compulsory daily and annual rest breaks:-

• There must be a break of one hour after working 4 hours
• Children must have 2 consecutive weeks free from work during the school holidays each year.

6. The Children and Young Persons Act 1963, as amended in 2000, principally restricts the employment of children in entertainment and sets out the conditions for the issuing of licences for performance by the Local Authority. See Annex 2 for a summary regarding performances and entertainment licences.

Implementation – the current position

7. Oxfordshire County Council delivers its responsibilities to enforce the law in a similar way to most other authorities through its Education Social Work (ESW) Service and through a system of issuing work permits and entertainment licences. This is overseen by the Principal Education Social Worker. There is one specialist Education Social Worker with 0.1 fte dedicated time for development work and guidance to schools, employers and others on work permits and one other specialist Education Social Worker also with 0.1 fte dedicated time to carry out checks on performance licences. All Education Social Workers have responsibility to carry out employer checks and follow up any reported cases of illegal work. They are expected to inspect the work permit registers held in schools and follow up and investigate any reported concerns about illegal employment or where attendance at school is a concern. Data is collected annually from schools by the service. This work however has been limited due to the pressure of other priorities for the service to improve attendance.
8. There have been no cases of prosecutions for some time in Oxfordshire and this reflects the low level of prosecution nationally. Enforcement powers are weak, eg there is no right of entry to premises where children may be illegally employed and there is very little awareness of the law amongst employers, children or parents. Authorities rely on parents, schools and children reporting infringements. Also generally when prosecutions were brought the low level of fines (average £200 in 1995) did not offer much of a deterrent. However this is changing for example in 2001 a large fast food company was fined £12,800, a pub chain £4,800 and the manager as an individual £3000 and a farmer £500 in 2003. Various national bodies continue to lobby for a coherent nationally agreed policy and legal framework to protect children in the work place.

Work Permits

9. In Oxfordshire the responsibility to issue work permits has been delegated to all maintained secondary and special schools and they operate within a manual of guidance provided by the LEA. Schools provide and receive applications from children and from employers, issue the permits, maintain registers and record termination of employment when notified. It is some time (1998) since the manual was reviewed and updated. Training and induction on the administrative procedures is provided for schools by the ESW service, but this has been implemented in a limited way in 2002 due in part to staff capacity. Quality control is the responsibility of the school with advice and guidance available from the ESW service. Permits for pupils at Independent Schools and a service for all pupils during school holidays is provided by administrative staff in Pupil Services. This work has been increasing steadily since September 2002 but very few permits (6 in 2002) issued to pupils from Independent Schools.
10. Children undertake many different types of work

• delivery work (newspapers, leaflets)
• catering (kitchen work, restaurants)
• retail (shops, hairdressing)
• work with children (babysitting)
• cleaning jobs
• work with animals (riding stables)
• outdoor work (farming, washing cars, local market)
• office work, (helping family members, light industrial)

11. Most are paid for their work but those that are not paid are usually helping parents, or other family members. Not all jobs require permits such as babysitting, gardening, car washing that are carried out informally but about 85% of jobs would require permits. Some jobs would be illegal such as a carer in an old people’s home, working in a butcher’s shop, or work involving use of scaffolding, handling alcohol etc.
12. There are 22,143 children aged 13-16 in Oxfordshire’s maintained schools . This figure excludes approximately 5000 children of that age group who attend Independent schools in Oxfordshire and no data was available about the proportion who board at these schools from elsewhere or who live in Oxfordshire and would be likely to have part time work. Research done by various bodies eg University of Paisley suggests that about one third of children in this age group might be expected to work at some point before they leave school. So in Oxfordshire (excluding the Independent Sector) this would suggest about 7381 pupils would require work permits at some point during the last 3 years of compulsory schooling. The numbers of work permits actually issued by schools and the LEA over the last three academic years is as follows:-
    
    

    	2000	2001	2002
    Schools	1104	1204	1160
    LEA	71	43	112
    Total	1181	1247	1272

    
    
13. Whilst there is a slight increase this clearly shows that only about 6% of the potential number of workers are working with permits in Oxfordshire. Comparisons with other authorities indicate similar levels although some are having more success (up to 17%) which may be due to higher levels of dedicated staffing resource to promote the need for work permits with parents, children and employers. Whilst most other authorities fully administer work permits in the LEA there is insufficient evidence to suggest that bringing this administrative function back centrally in Oxfordshire is likely to create a significant increase in the number of permits issued. What is needed is an increased focus on employer, child, parent and school awareness of the responsibilities and impact of child employment and improvements in the training and guidance provided to schools.
14. It would be appropriate to review the position of potentially centralising the issuing of work permits at the same point in the future when it becomes possible to develop online electronic applications for entertainment licences as part of an e-government strategy.

Entertainment Licences

15. Entertainment Licences are administered centrally in the LEA by Pupil Services and in 2002 a total of 260 performance licences were issued. again there has been an increase in the numbers of children of all ages who are involved in theatre, film or modelling activities. The Education Social Worker with specialist responsibility for this area made 26 inspection visits in 2002 (27 in 2001) to theatres, film sets, photo shoots and fashion shows and generally responds to queries regarding the law. Several visits resulted in meetings or correspondence with the license holders to ensure compliance with the legislation. Currently there are 20 chaperones licenced in Oxfordshire. Chaperones must have Criminal Records Bureau approval, provide 3 references and undergo a 20 minute interview before licensing. Licences are renewed every 3 years and CRB checks every 2 years. This system is working well although improvements could be made particularly around work with applicants to ensure that applications are received in good time to enable the necessary checks to be made prior to the performance.

Work with Employers

16. Employers are responsible for ensuring that their insurance policies cover the young people they employ and this insurance may be invalidated if the child works without a permit, leaving children unprotected. The County Council’s public liability insurance only provides cover for pupils on official work experience. It is also the responsibility of employers to ensure that any child they employ has a work permit within 7 days of starting the employment. This is an area that needs to be more proactively developed as currently the onus seems to be on the child, parent and school to ensure the application is carried out. A few large employers have policies for the employment of children.
17. Employers are also required to carry out a risk assessment (Health and Safety Young Persons Regulations 1997). This should be made available to parents/guardians who then need to confirm in the health declaration that the employment will not affect the health or well being of the child. The Low Pay Unit Survey (1999) suggests that accidents and injuries of children in the workplace annually would be as high as 44% but that this would be under recorded.

Impact on Learning

18. Croydon undertook a survey of working practices in among five hundred 12 to 16 year olds in 2002. The results indicated that half the children in these age groups may work part time, at least a third are working either over the permitted hours, outside the permitted time or below the permitted age. On average children were working about 7 hours per week but some were working over 35 hours (more than in some full time jobs) and earned an average of £25 per week. It should be noted that the minimum wage legislation does not cover workers below the age of 16.
19. Other surveys (University of Paisley, the Low Pay Unit (1991) and MORI) confirm similar results that large numbers of children are employed, many of them illegally, and that there is widespread ignorance about the law.
20. The surveys also found a number of concerns about the impact of combining long working hours and learning. The TUC survey suggested that children are missing school to go to paid work (about 1 in 30) contributing to unauthorised absence in school. Many arrive late, are tired and unable to prepare properly for class work or exams. There could be significant pressure to combine work, full time school, additional home work and study for key exams as well as balancing this with family and leisure time. For some children from disadvantaged families work may be an economic necessity creating other pressures. However this needs to be balanced with some of the positive benefits of working life – a sense of independence, social skills and the chance to earn money.

Proposed Actions for Service Improvement

21. The review of the current arrangements has indicated the following areas where improvements could be made in the interests of protecting the well being of children in employment whilst recognising the benefits:-

1. Improve procedures and monitoring in schools and support for schools by the LEA:

• Clarify the role of schools in issuing work permits, following up employer checks and in monitoring child employment Annex 3 (download as .doc file) sets out a starting point for clarifying responsibilities
• Provide updated guidance for schools in the administrative procedures for issuing work permits
• Raise awareness with governing bodies eg governors’ newsletters
• Encourage schools to include information in the school prospectus and annual report to parents about child employment regulations
• Encourage the use of PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) lessons to explore the benefits of work and the need to obtain permits and ensure young people understand the responsibilities of employers
• The LEA to provide training and induction for school administrative staff twice a year to improve consistency and quality control. A help line for advice for administrative staff in schools would also be helpful
• Schools should increase monitoring of attendance and attainment of pupils who are working part time and if there are concerns, withdraw the work permit.

1. Increase the pro activity of the ESW Service/LEA:

• Provide information for schools to distribute annually to parents/guardians of pupils in Years 7-11 about child employment
• Increase spot checks and visits to employers particularly during school holiday periods
• Coordinate posters, leaflets and campaigns to promote awareness with pupils and parents
• Inspect employment registers and collate data termly
• Liaise with various other partners with information to raise awareness eg Connexions, Health, Employer organisations
• Distribute guidelines drawn up by the Red Cross of good practice for pupils to cover babysitting/child minding
• Review application forms to ensure that current good attendance of a pupil is a pre-requisite to issuing a work permit together with an appropriate completed risk assessment by the employer
• Provide training and induction for all ESW staff at least twice a year on the enforcement role and updated legislation.

1. Improve the compliance of employers and raise awareness of their responsibility and the regulations and bye-laws:

• Collaborate with the LEA’s work experience team to incorporate child employment into the existing arrangements for checking and registering employers for work experience and to distribute leaflets/application forms to employers. Currently there are 8,500 employers on the database with a programme of regular (annual or biannual) visits established. This includes checks for Health and Safety, Insurance, risk etc. Teachers also visit pupils on work experience to pick up any issues or problems
• Liaise with Trading Standards and Employer Advice or Specialist Business Services to provide information about child employment
• Trading Standards staff, Schools and Work Experience to act as "Eyes and Ears" about illegal employment and report to the ESW Service
• Encourage employers to adopt policies on child employment through the dissemination of good practice/model policies. ESW Service to enlist the support of employer organisations/Education Business Partnership to achieve this.

22. The proposed actions are possible within existing resources and through collaboration with schools, other Council Services such as Trading Standards and Work Experience Services.
23. However the review has identified that additional dedicated resources in the ESW service would be beneficial to implementing a more proactive approach and provide greater support and guidance to schools and employers on child employment and work permits. Therefore it is proposed to increase the specialist Education Social Worker dedicated resource to child employment from 0.1 fte to 0.2 fte. This can be supported from existing budgets.
24. The enforcement role - employer checks, investigating illegal employment - will continue to be provided by the ESW service on a county wide basis.

RECOMMENDATIONS

25. The Executive is RECOMMENDED to agree the proposals set out in the report for improving the protection of children in employment.

KEITH BARTLEY
Director for Learning & Culture

Background Papers: Nil

Contact Officer: Sandra Bingham, Senior Education Officer, Tel 01865 816217

May 2003

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