Scotland’s first music industry Safety Certification Scheme offering free training to venues, festivals, studios, promoters and music organisations, creating an essential network of safer spaces.

Funded by Creative Scotland, the Hen Hoose Safety Certification scheme will provide free specialist training and establish identifiable safety contacts at participating venues, record labels, events and studios, giving artists, workers and audiences a clear person to approach if they experience or witness an issue.

The scheme follows consultation by Hen Hoose with its community and organisations working across Scotland, including a widely-distributed questionnaire and town hall meeting exploring safety and equality within the music industry. 

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The scheme will see nominated individuals undertake free training delivered online and in person, with courses planned to begin in the new year. The course will be created by Jayne Stynes and Dr Clare Duffin, lecturers at the University of the West of Scotland alongside FLAPS, and will cover bystander intervention, EDIA, safety and wellbeing.

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Organisations completing the training will commit to making a trained safety contact clearly identifiable and accessible. At live events, audiences, artists and workers will be informed where they can be found and contacted, with the trained contact present and visibly identified at the event. Recording studios will provide contact details when sessions are booked, giving artists and workers a clear person to approach if they experience or witness an issue.

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Once trained, participating organisations will appear in a searchable public directory, allowing artists, music workers and audiences to identify venues, studios, events and organisations that have committed to the scheme and have trained support in place.

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We are working with our pilot partners to shape and test the training and practical requirements of the scheme ahead of its rollout in the new year, helping ensure the certification can work effectively across different areas of the music industry.

The longer-term ambition is for the approach to become standard practice across Scotland’s music industry, expanding beyond the initial partners to create a visible network of safer places
to work, perform, rehearse, record and experience live music.

Hen Hoose will use learning and evidence gathered through the pilot to help determine how the scheme can develop and expand.

Pilot Partners:

432 Presents

Aberdeen Performing Arts

Berkeley 2

BIT Collective

Celtic Connections

Chem 19
FLAPS

Freakender
Hidden Door
Unique Events / Assembly
Lost Map Records
Mono

Music Broth
Pop Mutations

Stereo

The Glad Cafe
The Old Hairdressers

The Queen’s Hall
Tolbooth 

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The first training courses are expected to begin in the new year, with further details on the public directory to be announced as the pilot develops.

Lesley Shaw, Celtic Connections Festival Manager:

 “As Scotland’s leading folk, roots and world music festival, Celtic Connections welcomes the creation of the first-ever safety certification scheme for Scotland’s music industry by the Hen Hoose Collective. We wholeheartedly endorse Hen Hoose Collective’s efforts to make our country the safest place in the UK to work in music and we strongly believe this project marks an important step towards making Scotland’s music scene safer for all.” 

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We are limited in the number of partners that we can work with, but we welcome notes of interest to join the pilot. Please email: tamara@henhoose.com or yoly@henhoose.com to be added to our waiting list.

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