Terms and conditions for a children's entertainer

A children's entertainer needs terms that deal with the things that actually go wrong: the party cancelled at short notice, the hall with no power point, the child nobody mentioned was allergic to face paint, and the school that pays whenever its finance office gets round to it. I draft customer terms around how you take bookings, for a fixed fee of £995, delivered in five working days.

Who this is for

Children's entertainers, party magicians, face painters, balloon modellers, character performers and children's disco hosts in England and Wales, whether you trade as a sole trader or a limited company. Most bookings come from parents, who are consumers, and the rest from schools, nurseries, councils, agencies and employers running family days, who are business customers. One set of terms has to handle both.

What matters in a children's entertainer's terms

Deposits and the date you cannot resell

A Saturday slot that a parent cancels shortly before the party is usually lost income, because the date has gone and nobody else is looking for an entertainer at that notice. Your terms should set out a cancellation scale that reflects what you actually lose as the date approaches, and say plainly what the deposit secures. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 a term that keeps a prepayment on cancellation without a matching obligation on you sits on the grey list, as does a disproportionate default charge, so the figures have to be defensible rather than punitive.

Parents booking by message or at the kitchen table

Most parties are booked by phone, email or a message on social media, or agreed in the family's home. Those are distance and off-premises contracts under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, and the consumer has fourteen days to cancel a service contract, running from the date of the contract. Exceptions apply, including off-premises bookings of £42 or less. If you perform inside the period without the consumer's express request you may be paid nothing, and with one you are entitled to a proportionate amount. Missing cancellation information can extend the period by up to twelve months.

The slot, the venue and who is supervising

A party is a defined slot, not an open-ended afternoon. The terms should state the running time, the maximum number of children and the age range the show is built for, what you need from the venue in the way of space, a power supply and somewhere to park, and what happens if the booker keeps you waiting or asks you to stay on. They should also record that supervision of the children remains with the booker, with a responsible adult present throughout. You are engaged to entertain, not to provide childcare, and the terms should say so.

Face paint, balloons and what nobody told you

Face paint, glitter, balloons and sweets produce the same argument after the event: nobody mentioned it. This is risk allocation in your contract rather than a compliance exercise, so the terms should require the booker to tell you in advance of allergies or sensitivities they know about, to identify any child who should not be painted, and to accept that you may decline where that information has not been given. Neither the Consumer Rights Act 2015 nor the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 permits you to exclude liability for personal injury caused by your own negligence, so the clause sits alongside your public liability cover, not instead of it.

Schools, nurseries and corporate family days

Schools, holiday clubs, councils and employers pay on invoice and on their own timetable, often against a purchase order raised after the event. Your business terms should fix when payment falls due and can rely on the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, which supplies a default credit period of thirty days where none is agreed, with statutory interest and fixed compensation. If you prefer your own interest rate, it displaces the Act only where it amounts to a substantial remedy. The same section should set out what you will provide on request, such as evidence of insurance, and how much notice you need.

Your act, your photographs and other people's children

Your routine, scripts, characters and website images are your property, and under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 work you create as a freelancer stays with you unless you assign it in writing, which matters when an agency or a venue starts reusing your material. As a commercial protection rather than a legal requirement, the terms should also say who is responsible for obtaining parents' permission before photographs of children are taken or used in your promotion, and confirm that the booker deals with any permission the venue itself requires.

What it costs

Customer or supplier terms and conditions, £995. One set of terms, customer-facing or supplier-facing, drafted around your business. Five working days.

Review of your existing terms, £495. You already have terms and want to know how much of a problem they are. Returned marked up with my amendments and an explanation of the changes. Three working days.

Buying online forms the engagement on payment. The scope is what the terms and conditions drafting page describes, you accept the Terms of Service at checkout, and I email you within four working hours to get started. If you would rather ask something first, email me.

What you get

• A full set of terms drafted around your business, not a template with your name inserted
• A covering note in plain English explaining every commercial choice I made and why, so you can defend the terms in a negotiation without ringing me
• Liability, payment, termination and IP provisions set at a level that will survive a procurement review
• Consumer-facing wording drafted to be enforceable where you sell to consumers
• Guidance on how to incorporate the terms properly, which is where most businesses actually fail
• One round of amendments after you have read them

What is not included

• Negotiating your terms with individual customers
• Sector-specific regulatory compliance beyond the contract terms themselves
• Website privacy notice and cookie compliance, which I quote separately
• Terms governed by the law of another country

Questions I am often asked

A parent has cancelled and wants the deposit back. Where do I stand?

It turns on when and how they booked and what your terms say. Outside any cancellation period, a proportionate charge reflecting the date you cannot now sell is usually defensible; keeping everything as a matter of course is not. The strongest position is a written scale the parent actually saw before booking, which is as much about incorporation as drafting.

Do I need separate terms for schools and booking agencies?

One set can serve both, provided the consumer provisions sit in their own clearly marked section and the business provisions in another. What fails is handing a parent a document written for a school, because the parts a parent is most likely to challenge are exactly the parts that will not bind them.

Can I limit what I am liable for if something goes wrong at a party?

Limits do real work against business bookers, where they are judged for reasonableness under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977. Against a parent, liability for a service cannot be limited to less than the price, and liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence cannot be excluded at all. Your insurance carries that risk.

Related guidance and services

• Terms and conditions drafting, £995, the service this page describes
• Consultancy and contractor agreements, £595
• Ask Caesar, £495 a month
• Terms and conditions for a DJ or wedding band

This page is general guidance for businesses in England and Wales, not advice on your own circumstances. Last reviewed: September 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.