a) Visits during your day off
You are able to showcase your place of work by bringing your child/ren in for a visit on your day off or during some planned leave. You will need line manager’s approval to do - your Line Manager must complete a pre-visit request form at least 24 hours in advance of your arrival to ensure reception (or the person with responsibility for visitors to your building) is aware and can make any necessary arrangements. Please ensure pre-visit request forms are submitted at least 24 hours in advance of arrival; forms are processed between the hours of 0900-1700 Mon-Fri only.
Your child must remain with you at all times; a colleague cannot look after your child at any point during your visit.
Please make sure you avoid entering any areas where live production / recording is taking place to comply with safety regulations and allow your colleagues to complete their work without any disruptions.
b) Visits during Parent Leave
You can arrange with your line manager to bring your baby in to meet your colleagues during your leave period. If you have other pre-school age children, they may also accompany you.
Your Line Manager must complete a pre-visit request form which includes the details of your visit to ensure reception (or the person with responsibility for visitors to your building), is aware and can make any necessary arrangements.
Upon arrival, please sign in both yourself and your baby in so to comply with building safety requirements. If you do not have your work , you will need to collect a temporary staff badge from reception.
Your baby must remain with you at all times: a colleague cannot look after your baby at any point during your visit.
Upon departure, you will need to sign-out and return your visitors’ badge.
Official tours of BBC main sites are organised throughout the year by the BBC workplace event team or BBC official tours (Cardiff). These tours are organised in collaboration with BBC safety, security, and safeguarding teams to ensure all standards are met to comply with BBC insurance requirements. BBC Events and Tours Team or BBC Wales Tours (Cardiff) for further .
Unofficial or ad-hoc tours of BBC sites, studios, locations, or buildings are not permitted for children under the age of 18 under any circumstances.
Children are welcomed to visit BBC sites as part of a pre-planned visit by a school, college or university, charity, or community group.
These visits require planning between the external trip organiser and their BBC . It is important that the following teams are consulted with prior to the visit to ensure all of the necessary considerations are in place: BBC Security, BBC Safeguarding, and reception.
The safeguarding and wellbeing of children visiting BBC sites as part of an organised visit is the responsibility of the external trip organiser. The Designated Safeguarding Lead for the BBC is Kim Collins, Head of Safeguarding.
It is important that the organisation arranging the trip has a clear safeguarding procedure in place. Check that the organisation has a trip policy/process and a safeguarding lead to the completion of the BBC risk assessment. Please the BBC Safety Team for with completing a risk assessment.
If there are any concerns during the visit, please email the BBC Safeguarding Team
There are a number of opportunities for young people to gain an insight into the world of the BBC via outreach sessions, events, and taster days as a pipeline to a potential apprenticeship opportunity managed by the Early Careers Team. Further information can be found on the Early Careers webpage.
Ad-hoc work experience or work shadowing opportunities outside of the official BBC Early Careers programme are not permitted.
It is recommended that children do not accompany adults involved in on-air content.
The BBC's policy should be explained during the booking stage with the on-air presenter, guest, or contributor. However, due to the nature of live broadcasts, there may be instances where this is unavoidable, and children accompany their parents to BBC sites or studios. In these instances, the booker must inform reception and ensure the child/ren are accompanied by another supervising adult (not BBC member of staff).
Designated areas away from production spaces, such as reception, the Media Café at London Broadcasting House, or a green room, should be used to accommodate guests while they are on-site.
BBC staff should never assume responsibility for individuals under 18 while they are at work.
For exceptions in unplanned or emergency situations i.e. where you have no childcare available due to illness, you should your Line Manager to agree on working arrangements such as exceptional leave or to work from home.
Please refer to the BBC HR 'ing Working Lives' policy for further guidance.
