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Welcome to the Just Dance! website. All photos on this masthead are © 2006 Jupiterimages Corporation, except for centre and far right, which are by Mark Pepperall / Hot Pepper Design.Welcome to the Just Dance! website. All photos on this masthead are © 2006 Jupiterimages Corporation, except for centre and far right, which are by Mark Pepperall / Hot Pepper Design.

Keeping Safe and Secure

Just Dance! is committed to ensuring the safest possible environment for everyone to enjoy dance, especially children, young people and vulnerable adults. On the Find a Teacher page, we've included some useful tips on what to look for in a dance teacher, but we'd also recommend you take a closer look at the information on this page, including:

Advice on Finding a Teacher to Work with Children, Young People and/or Vulnerable Adults

Due to recent legislation, and to ensure good practice, all practitioners / teachers / volunteers that work with children, young people (u18) and/or vulnerable adults are required to have a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) certificate and an awareness of good practice and child protection.

If you are seeking to employ a dance practitioner, Just Dance! recommends that at least 2 to 3 references are taken up in addition to the following CRB requirements:

Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) - Recent Legislation

The Police Act 1997 makes it a criminal offence for an employer not to check an employee working with children or vulnerable adults and/or to knowingly give a job to someone who is inappropriate to work with children or vulnerable adults.

The Protection of Children Act 1999 was the government's first step towards establishing a coherent framework for identifying those adults considered unsuitable to work with children. The Act requires childcare organisations to make use of the Disclosures Services in their recruitment and reporting processes (and strongly urges other organisations involved with children and young adults to do so). The Act was superseded by the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 which is specifically about disclosures and child protection issues.

Why Bother with CRB Checks?

New policies have been prompted through an increased awareness of child protection issues and, since 2002, there have been significant developments and incidents that have placed the issue at the forefront. These include:

  • The introduction of the Criminal Records Bureau Disclosures Service April 2002
  • The establishment of the National Care Standards Commission to regulate 'social care', which includes any activity with children under the age of 8 that lasts for longer than 2 hours and happens on more than 5 occasions in a year
  • High profile cases of children and young people murdered or abused by adults known to them
  • The Department for Education and Skills requirement for increased vigilance regarding recruitment of staff and admittance of visitors to schools
  • A growing public awareness of how the internet can be exploited for the purposes of child sexual abuse.

Who Should Have a CRB Check?

The CRB Disclosure Application Form and Enhanced Disclosure Certificate. Click to enlarge.There are two levels of CRB check - a Standard Disclosure which is needed for roles whose duties involve regular contact with children. This will contain details of any spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands and final warnings recorded centrally by the police.

An Enhanced Disclosure is needed for roles whose duties involve regularly caring for, training, supervising or being in sole charge of children under 18. It will include the same information as a Standard Disclosure but may also contain non-conviction information from local police records considered relevant.

Just Dance! highly recommends that all dance practitioners delivering to children, young people (U18) and/or vulnerable adults complete an Enhanced Disclosure CRB check.

For Practitioners - How to Get a CRB Certificate

If you do not already have an Enhanced Disclosure CRB certificate, we strongly advise that you obtain one. For more information on how to apply, visit the CRB website. NB: This opens in a new window.

There is a small cost for getting your CRB certificate (£36 for an Enhanced Disclosure, £31 for a Standard Disclosure, as at 5th April 2006), but it is well worth the effort in terms of complying with legislation and ensuring that you are operating best practice for the safety of your participants and yourself.

Other Useful Links

Please note that the links will open in a new window.

Good Practice Disclaimer Statement

Just Dance! is not an umbrella body for carrying out CRB checks for dance practitioners and we therefore recommend that all practitioners go direct to CRB to gain their check and obtain their CRB certificate.

If any practitioners work in partnership with Just Dance! they will be required to produce a CRB certificate. If your CRB certificate is over 3 years old, there will be a requirement to fill out a disclosure form to update it.

Just Dance! will not be held responsible if you use any dance practitioner listed on this site. It is your responsibility to ensure that the practitioner has a recent CRB certificate, a relevant dance qualification and to check at least 2 (preferably 3) references for that person prior to working with them.