23 October 2020 07:18

New independent body launched to promote safeguarding in dance schools

A new independent body, the Dance School Safeguarding Working Group, is being launched following the RAD's recent warning of a "wake up call to the dance teaching profession" after recent allegations of sexual abuse at a ballet school. It also comes on the heels of the Department for Education's new voluntary guidelines: Keeping Children Safe in Community Clubs, After-School Clubs and Tuition.

Along with many other voluntary groups and clubs for children, dance schools are not regulated by any single organisation and the government’s guidance remains non-statutory. Leading lights in the world of dance have now set up a new Safer Dance group to promote safeguarding in their field.

This development is an initiative of Peter Flew, a Trustee of the Royal Academy of Dance and Director of the School of Education at the University of Roehampton.

“I was shocked to learn that most of the basic safeguarding requirements in the out-of-school arena are non-statutory and will remain that way. Without a regulator such as Ofsted for the sector, parents may well assume a school is following good safeguarding practice when it in fact isn’t.”

The new working group is made up of individuals from across the dance, education and safeguarding sectors who will work together informally to support good practice in dance schools. It aims to be a conduit for good practice, to lobby for increased awareness and regulatory control, to offer advice, and to provide links to training organisations.

Luke Rittner, Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Dance said, “We applaud this initiative and will do everything we can to further the aims of the Safer Dance working group.”

Find out more on the Dance School Safeguarding Working Group website.