Children Social Care measures - Employment of Children

To give more flexibility to children and employers in relation to when children can work, which will give children more opportunities to take up suitable employment whilst ensuring their health, development and education are not adversely affected.

Part II of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 (CYPA 1933) makes provision for the employment of children in England and Wales. Section 18 of the CYPA 1933 sets out age limits and restrictions on the hours that children can work and the type of work they can do. These restrictions apply to children who are under compulsory school age, defined in section 8 of the Education Act 1996.

The restrictions also apply where a child assists in a trade or occupation carried out for profit even where the child is not paid for their work. The proposed measure will remove the restriction for children to only be allowed to work for two hours on a Sunday and allow children to work until 8pm instead of 7pm.

Children will only be able to work with a work permit, to allow for a greater focus on safeguarding, and only be permitted to work for an hour before school, to ensure their education is prioritised. Most, if not all, local authority byelaws already require a work permit and permit children to work for up to an hour before school.

It is proposed that this will give children the ability to benefit from additional employment opportunities that could be suitable for them by removing outdated restrictions. The main restrictions contained in the CYPA 1933 will remain; in particular, children will still only be permitted to do light work which is defined as work that is not likely to be harmful to their safety, health or development or to their attendance at school or participation in work experience.

The measure also replaces the power in the CYPA 1933 for local authorities in England to make byelaws in relation to the employment of children with a power to the Secretary of State to make regulations in relation to children employed to work in England.

All children who are employed to work in England will be required to have a permit, issued by a local authority, to take up suitable employment. Sunday employment restrictions will be amended in England so that a Sunday is treated the same as a Saturday. Children will be able to work for up to an hour before school and until 8pm, giving greater opportunity to meaningful suitable employment, whilst still allowing children to be children and have access to education. Current caps on weekly hour limits, as well as a restriction to not be allowed to work during the school day will remain.

This means that a child that is employed to work in England will be permitted to work until 8pm on a school day, for an hour before the start of school and for more than two hours on a Sunday.

The above analysis relates to Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill which has not yet become law and may be subject to change as it passes through Parliament. We will be posting updates to this page if there are any key developments but the above may not reflect the latest changes to the legislation.  Please contact our School Support (schoolsupport@wslaw.co.uk)  or Schools HR (schoolshr@wslaw.co.uk) teams if you require an update on the latest status of the Bill.