Brass Bands England (BBE) will be providing its safeguarding training online for the coming months during the ongoing Covid-19 isolation and social distancing period.

BBE BandSafe Training, developed in partnership with the NSPCC, is aimed at appropriate safeguarding officers and members responsible for children in their band.

On-line webinar

A BBE spokesperson told 4BR: "The three-and-a-half-hour training course has been successfully delivered to hundreds of members over the past year through events across England and has now been developed to suit an online webinar."

BBE will be utilising Zoom software to make the training as interactive as possible.

In 2019, BBE was granted a Body of Persons Approval (BOPA) covering events taking place in England. In 2020 it was extended to cover Wales.

Child Performance Legislation

The spokesperson added: "This has drastically changed the workload required of bands and event organisers in meeting the requirements of the Child Performance Licensing legislation.

The training makes up one of the qualifying elements that bands need to complete to use the BBE-held BOPA, alongside membership and completion of the BandSafe Toolkit."

Bands wishing to use the BOPA must have two members who have completed the training course within the last two years.

The training makes up one of the qualifying elements that bands need to complete to use the BBE-held BOPA, alongside membership and completion of the BandSafe ToolkitBrass Bands England

Three more events

The first training date has been offered to all those due to take part in cancelled courses in March and April, and is already fully booked, so due to demand, the BBE team has scheduled three more events in the coming weeks.

These dates are now available to book via the BBE website www.bbe.org.uk/events at a reduced price of £50 per person for members of Brass Bands England.

Monday 18th May: 6.00pm — 9.30pm
Tuesday 26th May: 2.00pm — 5.30pm
Tuesday 2nd June: 6.30pm — 9.30pm

Find out more

To find out more about the BandSafe Training, BandSafe Toolkit and BBE-held BOPA go to: www.bbe.org.uk/BandSafe