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Holiday club parental consent forms and photo permissions

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The short answer

Tell families clearly what they are agreeing to. Keep permission to take part, permission for medicines and optional photo choices separate. Explain how you will use personal information. One general tick box cannot cover every decision.

Scope: England · School-age holiday clubs and daytime activities · Check the rules for your club

Start with the information needed for safe attendance

The Department for Education (DfE) recommends getting parental permission, relevant health information and emergency contacts, and keeping attendance registers. Where reasonably possible, seek more than one emergency contact. Registered provision must also meet its specific record requirements. [1][2]

Our suggested booking pack explains the provider, dates, location, ages, activities, contacts, collection arrangements and how to update information. Ask who may collect the child and how a change will be confirmed. Our event registration form is a starting point. You must still check it covers your club’s requirements.

Keep different decisions separate

Our suggested structure separates ordinary participation, any specifically described outing or activity, and optional publicity photography. Give families enough detail to understand each choice. Avoid pre-ticked optional permissions and a blanket “anything the club decides” statement.

Medicine permissions need their own arrangements. Where the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework applies, you need written permission for the particular medicine. Keep a record of each dose given and tell parents. A generic permission to attend does not meet that requirement. Read the medical information chapter alongside your forms. [3]

Make photo choices usable on the day

NSPCC recommends consulting children about photography and obtaining parental permission for under-16s. Explain the intended use and respect a refusal without excluding the child from the activity. Permission for an internal record should not automatically become permission for public social media. [4]

Our suggested process records the agreed uses, tells the photographer how to check them discreetly and provides a route for families to change their choice. Brief visiting photographers and volunteers too. Adapt the photo consent form to your actual channels and arrangements; do not publish an image because a form merely exists.

Permission to attend does not cover every use of information

Consent to an activity is not automatically the lawful basis for every use of personal information. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) explains the legal reasons you may use children’s information. If you rely on consent, it must meet data protection rules. Health information also needs an additional legal condition because it has extra protection. [5][6]

Tell families and children why you need their information, who you will share it with, how long you will keep it and who can answer questions. Use language they can understand. Review forms when activities or data uses change. Avoid retaining every form indefinitely “just in case”; set and justify periods that account for applicable duties. [7]

Evidence behind this page

Sources and further reading

Fact-checked against these sources on . We check sources each month. This is our editorial review, not an independent legal or medical assessment.

The numbers in the text link to the sources below. Follow the original guidance for full details and later changes. How we check this guide.

  1. Department for Education. Out-of-school settings: safeguarding guidance for providers↩Publication updated 9 February 2026; PDF history dated 2 February 2026.Parental consent and attendance registers. Read the document (PDF).
  2. Ofsted. Daycare providers on the compulsory Childcare Register: requirements↩Updated 1 September 2026.Keeping records.
  3. Department for Education. EYFS statutory framework for group and school-based providers↩Effective 1 September 2026.Paragraphs 3.61–3.62. Read the document (PDF).
  4. NSPCC Learning. Photographing and filming children↩Current online guidance.Permission, refusing photographs and data protection.
  5. Information Commissioner’s Office. Lawful bases for children’s personal information↩Current online guidance.Consent and special category information.
  6. Information Commissioner’s Office. What are the rules on special category data?↩Current online guidance.Article 6, Article 9, necessity and safeguards.
  7. Information Commissioner’s Office. Storage limitation↩Current guidance; ICO flags review following the Data (Use and Access) Act.Retention periods, review and deletion.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0, where applicable. Specialist sources are attributed to their respective publishers.