Regulation Ready is BMABA’s pioneering national standard for martial arts governance and compliance. Designed to prepare clubs for future statutory licensing or regulation, it provides a clear, achievable framework that elevates instructor accountability, strengthens club operations, and ensures student safety.

This initiative is more than a badge of credibility—it is a proactive step towards securing the future of grassroots martial arts in the UK. By aligning clubs with the core pillars of quality assurance, safeguarding, data protection, insurance, and leadership responsibility, Regulation Ready sets a powerful benchmark that clubs, parents, and policymakers alike can trust.

Regulation Ready isn’t about red tape. It’s about being ready—ready for scrutiny, ready for growth, and ready to lead the industry toward excellence.

For instructors and clubs, navigating compliance can be confusing, time-consuming, and often overwhelming. Regulation Ready simplifies this by breaking complex legal, safeguarding, and governance expectations into practical, verifiable steps.

Clubs benefit from:

Ultimately, it’s about giving clubs peace of mind, credibility, and a strategic edge in a competitive landscape.

Martial arts in the UK remains largely unregulated. While this has allowed the sector to grow freely, it has also opened the door to inconsistencies in safety, training quality, and accountability. Instructors with no safeguarding training or expired insurance can still operate unchecked.

BMABA believes in grassroots freedom—but also in responsibility. Regulation Ready was born from this balance.

We created the standard because:

Regulation Ready is not just our response to these challenges—it’s our commitment to raising the bar, from the inside out.

Regulation Ready is fast becoming the gold standard in martial arts governance. Unlike simple tick-box schemes or paid badges, our framework is evidence-based, dynamic, and rooted in live club data.

We verify:

Verified clubs receive a live dashboard, automated expiry alerts, and access to public-facing badges and directories.

To support clear progression and reward clubs for their commitment to governance and compliance, the Regulation Ready framework recognises three levels of achievement: Bronze, Silver, and Gold.

This tiered award system not only encourages clubs to continuously improve but also provides a visible, public indication of how far along a club is in aligning with national standards for martial arts governance.

Bronze status is awarded to clubs that have reached the initial benchmark for compliance. This typically includes:

Achieving Bronze means a club has taken the first serious steps toward Regulation Ready accreditation. It demonstrates a foundational commitment to safety, governance, and transparency.

Bronze clubs are visible within the BMABA system as “Working Towards Gold”, with a live compliance dashboard supporting further progression.

Silver status is awarded once a club has substantially progressed beyond the basics, typically with:

At Silver level, a club is operating at a high standard of compliance, well beyond the sector’s norm. This is a clear indicator to parents, funders, and local authorities that a club is both serious and systematised in its approach to child safety and ethical delivery.

Gold status represents the highest level of accreditation under the Regulation Ready framework. To be promoted to Gold, a club must meet near-total completion of all compliance requirements, including:

Gold status is not just an internal badge—it is BMABA’s Gold Standard for Governance. Clubs at this level can proudly display the Gold Regulation Ready badge across their marketing and parent-facing materials, and will be featured in our national directory of exemplary martial arts providers.

The Compliance Register is a central tool within the Regulation Ready dashboard that provides a structured, real-time summary of your club’s core legal and safeguarding responsibilities. It is designed to give lead instructors, club managers, and compliance officers clear visibility over whether their team meets the minimum thresholds required to operate safely and professionally under BMABA’s framework — and in line with national standards.

The register consolidates data drawn from across our systems to give an automated compliance snapshot, showing at a glance which team members are meeting expectations and where attention is needed. It helps clubs stay audit-ready, support student safety, and ensure that all instruction is delivered by suitably vetted and qualified personnel.

Each club is assessed against four core compliance categories. These represent the essential areas of risk and governance required to deliver martial arts instruction in a safe, responsible, and legally compliant manner. The register displays a pass/fail status for each category and breaks this down by individual team member so you can see where action may be required.

The four categories are:

While the Compliance Register draws together the necessary information for your convenience, please note that evidence must be verified through the official process at mybmaba.org.uk/essentials/verify-your-account. This page can be accessed from the main menu by navigating to Membership > Verify Professional Checks.

Verification must include appropriate documentation (such as certificates, ID copies, or reference confirmations) and will be reviewed by the BMABA compliance team. Until verification is complete, team members will not be considered compliant within the Regulation Ready dashboard.

Maintaining a complete and accurate Compliance Register is critical to ensuring your club remains eligible for insurance, public recognition, and national programmes. It also helps your club demonstrate its commitment to safeguarding, professionalism, and governance — values at the heart of BMABA’s mission. Where gaps exist, clubs should take prompt action to resolve them and may receive automated prompts to assist with follow-up.

For questions or concerns relating to compliance requirements or interpretation of these checks, clubs should contact the BMABA compliance team directly.

The Leadership Register is designed to identify and record key individuals within a martial arts club who hold strategic, welfare, technical, or compliance-based responsibilities. These individuals are considered People with Significant Control (PwSC) — those who influence the club’s direction, oversight, or critical decision-making in areas that affect participant safety, curriculum delivery, or statutory obligations.

This register serves as a reference point for BMABA, safeguarding authorities, parents, and internal club personnel to understand who is responsible for specific functions within the club. It also ensures that those holding these posts have undergone appropriate vetting, are listed against the correct role, and can be held accountable for the duties associated with their position.

While many clubs will operate with a small team or even a single instructor managing multiple responsibilities, it remains vital that each role is clearly understood and assigned — even if filled by the same person.

Below is a detailed breakdown of each role recorded within the Leadership Register. These roles form part of your club’s Regulation Ready assessment and may be subject to verification through internal or external audits.

The DSL is responsible for the overall safeguarding strategy and culture within the club. This includes maintaining up-to-date safeguarding training, responding to concerns, reporting to external authorities where necessary, and ensuring all safeguarding policies and procedures are in place. For Regulation Ready, the DSL is also considered the club’s primary Welfare Officer and must be confident handling concerns raised at any level, from minor incidents to disclosures.

The SENCO leads on inclusive practice within the club and supports members with additional needs. This role involves liaising with parents, carers, and participants to assess individual requirements and ensure reasonable adjustments are made. The SENCO is expected to be the first point of contact for all matters relating to learning difficulties, disabilities, and neurodiversity, and should champion inclusion across the club’s instructional and operational activity.

The Pedagogy Lead is responsible for managing the educational and instructional framework within the club. This includes syllabus design or oversight, monitoring teaching standards, managing progression and gradings, and developing the club’s coaching philosophy. The individual in this role must have a sound understanding of age-appropriate instruction, student development, and technical standards relevant to the club’s discipline(s). This position is particularly important in multi-instructor clubs or those delivering structured learning pathways.

The Compliance Officer oversees the operational and legal integrity of the club. They are responsible for ensuring that all instructor and volunteer checks are up to date, that safeguarding and policy documents are in place, and that insurance and regulatory requirements are met. This person is also the main liaison with BMABA’s central systems, including verifying accounts and keeping club compliance up to date via the appropriate online portals.

The Lead Instructor is the person with overall control and authority within the club. This may be the same person as the club owner or a different individual, depending on the club structure. For the purposes of Regulation Ready, the Lead Instructor is considered the main point of contact for BMABA membership, club oversight, and administration. This person will be held accountable for ensuring the team structure is correct and that all leadership and safeguarding responsibilities are being fulfilled.

By requiring clubs to complete and maintain a Leadership Register, BMABA ensures that clubs are not only internally organised but externally accountable. This supports both safeguarding compliance and public transparency. In the event of a safeguarding concern, complaint, or technical matter, the Leadership Register provides a clear escalation route and helps clarify who holds responsibility for key areas.

You must keep your Leadership Register up to date via the Regulation Ready dashboard. Changes to leadership personnel should be reflected in a timely manner, and each individual must meet the training and vetting expectations associated with their role. Clubs are encouraged to review their register quarterly or whenever a change in team structure occurs.

The Policy Register forms a key part of your club’s compliance and governance record under the Regulation Ready framework. It acts as your central index of critical club-level policies, frameworks, and operational standards, and is essential in demonstrating due diligence, safeguarding, and risk management.
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The Policy Register is a structured section of your club’s compliance profile where you are required to upload copies of key documents relating to your governance, safeguarding, data protection, and operational management.

Each policy listed within the register must be:

This ensures stakeholders, parents, regulators, and BMABA can confidently view your club’s position on essential matters.
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The specific policies and frameworks requested within the Policy Register include (but are not limited to):

Each field within your register provides clear guidance on what's expected, with the option to upload new versions at any time.
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To maintain regulatory alignment and good governance:

While clubs are permitted to self-declare the accuracy and presence of uploaded policies, BMABA audits at least 25% of clubs annually. This process includes:

Non-compliance may result in a temporary suspension of Regulation Ready status, depending on severity.
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Maintaining an up-to-date Policy Register demonstrates your club’s commitment to transparency, child protection, and operational integrity. It reduces your exposure to legal or reputational risk, provides assurance to members and parents, and is a key factor in determining your overall leadership readiness.

One of the key benefits of the Regulation Ready framework is its seamless integration with the wider BMABA ecosystem. Clubs do not need to manually apply for certificates or badges—the system automatically tracks compliance across multiple registers and activities, awarding recognition the moment eligibility is met.

The Policy Register, Compliance Register, and Leadership Register are all embedded within the Regulation Ready Dashboard, which acts as your club's central hub for compliance tracking.

As clubs engage with these tools—for example, by:

The dashboard automatically updates your club’s Regulation Ready score in real time.

There is no duplication of effort. Whether a club uploads evidence through the Club Management Platform, completes a LearnDash training module, or updates their staff credentials, the system tracks it centrally.

As your club reaches each Regulation Ready milestone—Bronze, Silver, and finally Gold—the system will:

These assets are available directly from your Regulation Ready Dashboard, under the Certification & Badges tab once eligibility is reached.

You don’t need to request approval or wait for admin review—everything is live, dynamic, and fully automated.

This approach ensures clubs are rewarded immediately for their efforts and can confidently showcase their commitment to best-practice governance with the full weight of BMABA accreditation behind them.