Do you need a licence to run a kids' club in the UK?

Short answer: no licence, several registrations

A weekly football, dance, drama, music or swimming class for children can be run in England without a licence from anyone. Nobody inspects you before your first session. What you do need is to be on the right side of a handful of rules that apply to any organisation working with children, handling their data, employing people or playing music. Miss one and the consequence is not usually a fine on day one; it is a venue that will not confirm your booking, an insurer that will not pay out, or a parent who asks a question you cannot answer.

The list below is the honest version of 'the licence'. Most clubs need four or five of the seven. Wraparound and holiday childcare for young children needs all of them.

1. Ofsted registration, or its equivalent outside England

The closest thing to a licence is registration as a childcare provider. In England that is Ofsted's Childcare Register, and it is compulsory when you care for children under eight beyond the thresholds, unless an exemption applies. The exemption most clubs rely on is the activity-based one: provision whose purpose is teaching or coaching a specific activity, drawn from no more than two activity categories, where no child attends for more than two hours a day. A one-hour Saturday gymnastics class is exempt. A nine-to-three holiday club for five-year-olds doing crafts, sport and games is not.

Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland run their own systems. In Wales, Care Inspectorate Wales registers care for children under twelve outside the home, with exemptions for short sessions. In Scotland, the Care Inspectorate registers day care of children. In Northern Ireland, registration is with the Early Years Team at the local Health and Social Care Trust, again for under-twelves, with provision under two hours a day or fewer than six days a year outside it. The exemptions are similar in spirit to England's but not identical, so read the relevant regulator's guidance rather than assuming the English rule travels.

Registration is also what unlocks Tax-Free Childcare and childcare vouchers for parents. Clubs that do not have to register sometimes join the voluntary part of the register for exactly that reason. Our Ofsted guide walks through the exemptions in more detail.

2. DBS checks for everyone in regulated activity

Anyone who teaches, trains, instructs, supervises or cares for children frequently, or unsupervised, is in regulated activity and needs an enhanced DBS check with a check of the children's barred list. That covers your coaches and helpers, paid or volunteer. Volunteers' checks are free; paid staff pay a fee.

A club cannot apply for a DBS check directly unless it is a registered body, which almost no small club is. You apply through an umbrella body, which is typically your sport's governing body, your local council's voluntary sector organisation or a commercial umbrella. Gov.uk keeps a list. Ask staff to join the DBS Update Service when their certificate is issued, so you can check its status online instead of re-applying each year.

Scotland uses the PVG scheme run by Disclosure Scotland instead of DBS: anyone in a regulated role with children must be a PVG scheme member. Northern Ireland uses AccessNI. A check from one nation's scheme is not automatically valid in another.

A DBS check is the floor, not the safeguarding policy. You still need a written policy, a named safeguarding lead, and safer recruitment: references, an interview, a conversation about gaps. The Department for Education's code of practice for out-of-school settings is the standard venues and parents will measure you against.

3. Insurance: one policy is required by law, one by everyone else

If you employ anyone, even one part-time coach on a contract, you must hold employers' liability insurance of at least five million pounds and display the certificate. That is a legal requirement enforced by the Health and Safety Executive, with a daily fine for being without it. Genuine volunteers and a sole trader working alone are outside it, but the moment a helper is paid, you are in.

Public liability insurance is not required by statute, and in practice you cannot operate without it: every leisure centre, school and church hall will ask for the certificate before confirming a booking, and most governing bodies require it as a condition of affiliation. Specialist policies for children's activity providers exist and are priced on what you teach, the ages and the numbers. Professional indemnity is worth having if you coach a technical skill where a parent could claim bad instruction caused an injury.

4. The ICO data protection fee

Your booking list is personal data, and a child's medical notes are special category data. Any organisation that processes personal data must pay the ICO's annual data protection fee unless it is exempt, and most clubs that keep records on a computer or in a booking system are not exempt. The fee is tiered on size and turnover; a small club sits in the lowest tier at a few tens of pounds a year. Use the ICO's online self-assessment: it takes three minutes and gives you a definite answer.

Paying the fee is not the same as complying with UK GDPR. You also need a plain-words privacy notice, a reason for each thing you collect, explicit consent for medical information, and a retention rule for when a family leaves. Our GDPR guide covers the practical version.

5. Food: register if you provide it regularly

If you give children food as a regular, organised part of what you do, which includes an after-school club serving tea or a holiday club providing lunch, you must register as a food business with your local council at least 28 days before you start. Registration is free, cannot be refused, and applies whether or not you charge for the food. You will then be inspected and given a hygiene rating.

A squash and a biscuit at the end of a Saturday class does not usually make you a food business. The government's guidance on community and charity food provision sets out where the line falls. Whatever you serve, you need to know the allergies on your register, which is why the register should carry them, not a separate form in a drawer.

6. First aid

There is no law that says a children's club must have a qualified first aider present, but three things get you to the same place. Health and safety law requires any employer to assess its first aid needs and provide what that assessment shows, and for an activity with children the assessment is not going to conclude 'nothing'. Registered childcare must have a paediatric first aider available. And your insurer and governing body will almost always require a current certificate as a condition of cover or affiliation.

The practical standard is at least one person with a current paediatric or emergency first aid certificate at every session, a kit that matches your activity, and an accident book. Renew every three years and keep a copy of the certificates where you can find them when a venue asks.

7. A music licence if you play recorded music

Dance schools, gymnastics clubs, cheer, drama and most fitness-style classes play recorded music. Playing music in public, which includes a class, normally needs TheMusicLicence from PPL PRS, which covers both the performers' rights and the songwriters' rights in one payment. The tariff for dance and exercise classes is priced on the number of sessions, and it is your responsibility, not the venue's, unless the venue's own licence explicitly covers hirers. Ask; most do not.

Live music you play yourself, or a music school teaching instruments, is a different situation. If you are unsure, PPL PRS will tell you which tariff applies, and the cost of asking is nothing.

What about accreditation?

Accreditation is voluntary and is not a licence. Swim England's SwimMark, England Football Accredited (formerly Charter Standard), British Gymnastics' club accreditation and their equivalents are quality marks that say a club meets its governing body's standards on safeguarding, coaching qualifications and governance. Nobody can stop you running a club without one.

They matter for two reasons. Some councils and school venues prefer or require accredited clubs. And parents who search for 'accredited' are asking whether you are safe, which is a question you want an easy answer to. If your sport has a scheme, the requirements are usually the same things you should be doing anyway, so the cost is mostly paperwork.

The things people forget

Tell HMRC you are trading, as a sole trader or a limited company, before the first payment lands. Write a risk assessment for the venue and the activity; it is the document an insurer asks for first after an accident. If you use a school or council venue, read their hire conditions, which often specify insurance limits, DBS and first aid in more detail than the law does. And keep the evidence for all of it, certificates, policies, DBS numbers and dates, somewhere you can find it in a minute, because the day you need it is the day you are least able to look.