See also our dedicated Safeguarding webpage containing sources of information and support.
Safeguarding Report Form: Word or PDF Please download, complete and return this form to record any safeguarding concerns you may have that relate to EFDSS or our activities. Once completed it should be emailed as soon as possible to the relevant EFDSS Safeguarding Officer (names and contact details are contained in the EFDSS Safeguarding Policy).
The English Folk Dance and Song Society also endorses and promotes:
ISM & MU Code of Practice A set of principles to help eradicate bullying, harassment and discrimination in the music sector.
Music Education Code of Practice Helps to ensure music practitioners provide high quality music making and learning experiences for the people they work with.
We are committed to improving and advocating environmental best practice, and are working towards becoming a plastic free venue. You can fill your reusable water bottle in the Cecil Sharp House cafe. Read more about our efforts to go green
On the practice of painting faces with black paint, burnt cork or boot polish
We want to engage all people, of all backgrounds, in the folk arts. Therefore we denounce the practice of ‘blackface’.
As Black British musician, author and educationist Nate Holder said in our Library Lecture in March 2021, ‘I don't think we can cry innocence for any longer... when it comes to blackface’:
In a letter to us dated 21 November 2019, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport wrote ‘we believe that those participating should take into consideration the potential for this practice to cause offence’ (Ministerial Support Team, ref. TO2019/11979/FBM).
We champion folk music and dance at the heart of cultural life, all across England.
Donations provide immediate support. But even more than that, they prove that so many people value what we do – helping us to secure funding from partner organisations.
