To CRB check or not to CRB check that is the question

Andy from Street Urban Dance co give his insight on the CRB checking

The other day I was trawling the good old forum sites of facebook and some guy from the ceroc industry was posing a question to a forum "Do I need CRB check if I’m working with people under 18? He went on to say that the checks don’t prove a thing etc?". So as you do with forums you wait to see what people’s replies were and sure enough amazing the comments some people were putting 'no you don’t need one if you’re running your own classes etc' and yet again another person who has probably hasn't got any official qualification goes out there and sets up a class without any official checks.

Even within the street dance industry I've seen the same thing happen; organisations taking people on to teach a class when you know that the teacher doesn’t have the correct first aid certificates, or music licenses, insurance and CRB.

For me it’s a bit like this: Would you drive your car without insurance?.............the answer is hopefully NO! And it’s the same thing with certification and especially CRB checks. For sure there are loop holes in the CRB check system BUT....the checks are there for a reason....to protect young adults and vulnerable people. For me, would I employ someone who hadn’t had one done if they were working closely with students....NO! Because at the end of the day that person is representing your company and if something happens well hey that's your company’s reputation gone.

Sadly though this did happen in a dance company a few years and an instructor was prosecuted, would parents send their kids there? OK its true realistically these incidents are few and far between and sure the media always in this day and age publish bad news, BUT is it worth the risk taking someone on board who hasn’t been checked....no!

For sure getting a CRB check is a pain (trust me waiting weeks and weeks for it to come through....seriously frustrating) since you can’t actually get one done yourself as a self employed person but have to go through an organisation, however I think it does go to show even if you don’t work with young people that you are serious about your art and your work as well. Let’s face it being a dance teacher can be expensive after you pay out the insurance costs, music licenses, getting first aid trained, venue cost you’re not let with pretty much and again there are a lot of cowboys out there not having any of the above and venues and organisation should ask for these details before letting out their premises (BUT sadly a lot don’t).

My advice is get the certification, get CRB checked....Rule 1. Always cover your back because that one time you try and cut corners you never know when it’s going to come back at you. Even though the CRB check covers you from when you last had it done a lot of schools carry out a check 99 which will look into any offences that may have occurred since the last CRB check. These days a lot of the schools will be ok with a CRB check of 3 years and others 2 years so I would recommend getting it done every 2 years and usually costs about £60.

So please if your going to be teaching under 18's and want to be taken seriously as a professional dance practioner get your CRB check or just dont teach under 18s.


Andy Moore
Choreographer / Instructor
SUDC