Club Colours Registrations, Renewals & Management

The BMABA Club Colours Award is the highest level of club recognition we offer. It represents full compliance with safeguarding, governance, and professional standards. Every club that earns a Club Colours Licence is immediately recognised as a 'School of Excellence'.

Clubs awarded this status also receive automatic certification from the Safeguarding Code in Martial Arts (SCiMA) – a Sport England-backed project – without needing to apply separately.

Club Colours is only awarded to clubs who meet the highest standards. It offers:

Clubs holding the Club Colours Licence:

This is the highest tier of professional status we award. Best of all, it's entirely free. It always has been, and always will be. Even our free affiliate members can access the Club Colours.

To apply for Club Colours, your club must:

Previously, before September 2025, applying for Club Colours required a long and often disjointed list of separate policies, checks, and forms to be submitted specifically for the award. That process has now been fully streamlined through the integrated Regulation Ready system. You can work toward compliance gradually by ‘chipping away’ at tasks in your own time. As a result, when it comes to applying for Club Colours, most clubs will already have everything in place automatically. And if you don’t, reaching the standard will mean you’re awarded both Regulation Ready and Club Colours simultaneously – a double recognition of your high standards.

You must show safeguarding information clearly on your website. This is a condition of both Club Colours and the Safeguarding Code.

As part of your Club Colours Licence and to meet the requirements of the Safeguarding Code in Martial Arts (SCiMA), your club must clearly display safeguarding information on your public website.
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This must include:

The application process is designed to be fast, transparent, and fully automated. Here’s how to apply:

SCiMA typically reviews all newly issued Club Colours Licences on a twice-weekly basis. Once your club has been reviewed and approved, you'll be able to download your SCiMA certification and accreditation marks directly from the Club Colours Dashboard. We recommend checking back regularly to see when this becomes available.

If your club already holds SCiMA certification and you’re now applying for Club Colours, please jump onto our website live chat to let us know. We’ll politely notify the SCiMA team to combine your records, which usually helps speed up the process.

Once Club Colours is issued, we automatically notify SCiMA. They will review and approve your account, usually within 7 working days.

You’ll receive:

Not every club will be ready to apply for Club Colours immediately – and that’s absolutely fine.

Your Club Colours eligibility is based on three key criteria:

You don’t need to complete everything in one go.

The Regulation Ready system allows you to work through each area at your own pace – completing one item at a time. As you progress, your compliance score updates in real time.

This means there’s no need to chase paperwork, and no need to resubmit anything. The system tracks your club’s readiness automatically.

Once your Regulation Ready Score is above 76% and all instructors, assistants, and volunteers are fully verified, the “Apply” button for Club Colours will appear on your dashboard.

If your website already meets the safeguarding display requirements, you’ll be able to apply instantly. If not, you’ll be prompted to make the necessary updates.

If you're working toward Regulation Ready and haven’t yet applied for Club Colours, reaching Bronze level (76%+) gives you dual benefit.

Once complete, you’ll be awarded both:

This ensures that clubs working to high standards are fully recognised across the board, without duplicate admin or delays.

If you're unsure about your current eligibility or need help improving your score, our team is always on hand to assist.

If you add a new team member (instructor, assistant instructor, or volunteer), or if any existing team member has an expired or unverified check (such as DBS, First Aid, or insurance), your Club Colours Licence will automatically enter a Pending Review state.
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This is part of our compliance safeguard system and ensures clubs remain fully up to date without being unfairly penalised for growing or changing their teams.

Yes. If you're aware that a required document (such as a DBS check) has been applied for but is taking longer than 14 days to return, please let us know.
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If we can confirm that the evidence is in progress – for example, submitted through our vetting team – we can usually extend your Pending Review period to prevent unnecessary disruption.

If you’re onboarding a new instructor, assistant, or volunteer who isn’t actively teaching yet or isn’t working with children or at-risk adults, you can mark them accordingly in your account.
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This can be done from the Verification Settings page here:
👉 https://mybmaba.org.uk/essentials/verify-your-account/

This will:

Once you’re ready to verify their compliance fully, simply update their teaching status to reintroduce them into the verification system.

Once your Club Colours Licence is active, your central point of control is the Club Colours Dashboard. This area gives you real-time access to everything you need to manage and promote your award status.

From the dashboard, you can:

This certificate confirms your club’s award of the BMABA Club Colours Licence and its recognition as a ‘School of Excellence’. It’s date-stamped and includes your unique licence number. You can use this for display in your venue, on your website, or when working with schools, local authorities, or grant providers.

Once the Safeguarding Code in Martial Arts (SCiMA) team has completed their review, your official SCiMA certificate will also appear on your dashboard. This is a Sport England-recognised document and is a nationally respected safeguarding endorsement. SCiMA typically reviews new Club Colours holders twice weekly.

📌 Tip: Check your dashboard regularly after activation to see when this becomes available.

Your club will automatically be listed on BMABA’s national Club Colours register, which is publicly accessible 24/7. This real-time entry confirms your Club Colours status, includes your club name, and links to verified instructor and safeguarding information.

You can link to your listing from your website, email signature, or printed materials to demonstrate compliance and credibility.

The dashboard provides access to the official BMABA Club Colours trustmark, designed for digital and print use. You can also download optional graphic banners and assets to help showcase your status on social media, marketing materials, or your club website.

These graphics are fully licensed for use while your Club Colours Licence remains active.

The Club Colours Award is 100% funded and operated by BMABA CIC.

We receive no external funding or subsidies from Sport England, SCiMA, or any other public or private body to run this programme.

Everything you see within the Club Colours scheme – including:

...is funded entirely by BMABA through membership fees.

That means every active BMABA member is directly supporting this initiative – helping to raise national safeguarding standards, increase public trust in martial arts, and create a safe and professional space for students across the UK.

We created Club Colours because we believe that safeguarding, compliance, and governance should not be optional or paywalled. They should be a visible and attainable gold standard for every credible club – and our members make that possible.

When you see a Club Colours licensed club, you're not just seeing a mark of excellence. You're seeing the collective power of community-driven safeguarding, funded by instructors and organisations committed to doing things properly.

It can be frustrating to see your Club Colours status change to Pending Review, especially if you're confident that your club is fully up to date. However, our system is intentionally built to be vigilant and secure — this ensures the integrity of the SCiMA certification and public trust in the Club Colours standard.

If your club has been downgraded unexpectedly, here’s how to troubleshoot and resolve the issue quickly:

Start by visiting the official Club Colours dashboard

Regulation Ready Score

Ensure your club’s Regulation Ready Score is still within the eligible range (currently 76% or higher). If it has dropped due to expired policies or compliance gaps, this will trigger a review status.

Team Compliance Summary

Check the full list of Instructors, Assistant Instructors, and Volunteers displayed on your dashboard. Look for:

Even a small gap — such as one volunteer missing a declared suitability category — can trigger a system downgrade.

Our system may display an alert at the top of the page if there are unresolved suitability declarations, expired evidence, or other issues. These are important indicators that should be resolved before reactivating.

In some cases, your status may be affected not by your own compliance, but by your Lead Instructor’s. In most cases, you (the lead instructor) may be applying, but you may have some instances where you have a 'technical lead' (for example, a governing body, management account, franchise owner or so on) and whilst you are technically your own club, the person who is logged as your lead (who is considered a person with significant control) also needs to be Club Colours Licenced.

Crucially, they don't need to have an active club colours licence for their own account, but they do need to be compliant (vetted and checked) and have their club colours licence activated.

If you identify any of the above, you can usually resolve it by:

Once the issue is corrected, our system will automatically review and, if everything is compliant, your Club Colours status will return to Active without delay.

If you’re unsure what’s caused your status change and nothing obvious shows on the dashboard, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team. We’re happy to look into it with you — but in most cases, the issue can be resolved from within your dashboard in just a few minutes.

If your club is fully compliant and your dashboard shows all required checks are in place, you can safely click “Activate” on your dashboard to restore your Club Colours licence immediately. There is no penalty for reactivating when your club is in good standing — this is built into the system to help clubs remain in control of their compliance. The system will in most cases automatically re-licence your club, but there's no harm manually pushing it through to know it's instantly up to date.

Your Club Colours Licence is a live, compliance-based accreditation – and like all high-level governance awards, it requires ongoing oversight.

We will usually contact clubs 60 days before their Club Colours Licence is due to expire, prompting you to log in and review your evidence. However, this reminder should not be relied upon. Likewise, if your licence moves from Active to Pending Review due to expired or missing evidence, you may not receive an automatic notification.

For this reason, we strongly recommend that you log in to MyBMABA at least once a week to check your Club Colours status. You can quickly view your current status from:

Please be aware:
We reserve the right to suspend Club Colours licences without prior notice where there is a failure to meet required standards. This includes, but is not limited to:

Our system will usually detect these issues automatically and place your licence in suspension if no corrective action is taken.

We recommend you treat your Club Colours Licence as a living, breathing part of your club’s professional foundation. Just like insurance or safeguarding training, it requires ongoing attention and regular checks to ensure your club remains compliant, recognised, and trusted by the public.

Your Club Colours Licence is directly tied to your active BMABA membership. If your membership expires or is not renewed, your Club Colours Licence will automatically expire at the same time. Once expired, the licence is no longer valid or recognised, and you must immediately cease all use of:

Continued use of any marks, branding, or materials relating to Club Colours or SCiMA after your membership has lapsed may be considered a misrepresentation of your club’s safeguarding status.

For this reason, please ensure your BMABA membership remains active if you wish to maintain your Club Colours accreditation.