Thumper Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 Hello My setting is part of the PLSA however I'm starting to wonder if it's something we should keep on with. I find that we still ave to pay for various things like policies and that when we do buy them OFSTED don't really like us using them. Are any of you members? Is it worth it? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Possum Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 What would you do instead? Would you be a community group instead? Do you use their constitution? We are members but don't know whether we will be for long Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mouseketeer Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 We are also members, but have considered not paying our membership for the last couple of years, long gone are the days (well at least where we are) where you actually had a plsa representative, we never use their training or buy their publications or policies.....but having looked around for diff insurance even including the membership fee it's still cheaper than anything else we,ve found so we have kept it going. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sn0wdr0p Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 We are members but simply because the insurance is cheeper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diesel10 Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 Insurance is the only reason we keep going. I can't say that I have had anything useful from them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fredbear Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 Hi yes we are also insured with the PSLA. We do use the Policy documents but only as a template and then tweak to fit our provision. Have to say we were extremely grateful to our PSLA Advisor when we were applying for a Capital Building Grant about three years ago, but we have very little contact with our local representatives now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thumper Posted October 2, 2012 Author Share Posted October 2, 2012 What would you do instead? Would you be a community group instead? Do you use their constitution? We are members but don't know whether we will be for long We do use their constitution, however don't use anything else. I'm really wondering if it's worth it, I've never even spoken to one of the representitives Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 We don't have a representative at all. We joined by a kind of mistake actually as we were told that we had to be members - and now there seems to be no easy way of getting out of it, without dissolving Preschool completely and reinventing it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melba Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 We had a phonecall from one of their reps to tell me how much it would cost for us to ask them for help from now on! So what is the annual fee for? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panders Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 I could never work out what the annual fee was for either! Been a long time since PLSA had any local involvement here. I stopped our subscription many years ago when PLSA were dragging their feet about support PVI's over the low rate of funding grant and have not missed them one bit> Have you had quotes from Morton Michel for your insurance I have found them to be competitive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hopeytg Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Same as others - only use for the insurance and next week we are changing our constitution to a non PSLA one so we don't have to renew our membership next year. Never done anything for us and when tried to get advice not had anything of use or that is available from other sources. Perhaps if more settings cancelled their membership they may look at what they offer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Hopeytg - would it be possible to have some info about how you are doing this? Has your new constitution been approved by the charities commission? Would it be possible to see it if it has? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 We were a member but again only because of the cost of insurance. We altered our constitution 2 years ago when we began to think we might have to close down and simply recorded the changes on our annual return to the Charity Commission. Then when we closed this summer we followed the (new) constitution to the letter in terms of redistribution of the resources and monies. PLA know we are closing and have only said ring us f you want help with anything so I'm happy we have done everything by the book. The advice about changing the constitution I got from on here somewhere and the CC website - basically so long as we informed them of the changes and they agreed to them it was fine. Obviously we didn't change it to say I was getting a big windfall! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thumper Posted October 3, 2012 Author Share Posted October 3, 2012 Same as others - only use for the insurance and next week we are changing our constitution to a non PSLA one so we don't have to renew our membership next year. Never done anything for us and when tried to get advice not had anything of use or that is available from other sources. Perhaps if more settings cancelled their membership they may look at what they offer? Hi I'd really like some more info on how you did this and if your constitution has been approved by the charities commission, if you don't mind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 We held an extraordinary general meeting at the same time as our AGM, following all the rules for that as laid out in the constitution. Then we sent copies of the minutes and the new wording to the CC. When we heard nothing back from them we assumed approval and carried on regardless. Heaven help me if they come after us now as the money has all been redistributed to a local group with similar aims but not a member of the PLA! The advice we were given was that the PLA constitution was pre-approved by the CC making it easier for charity preschools to set up without having to get approval in advance. As our amendments did not materially alter the charity nature of the group (ie we didn't have someone benefiting from the closure) I assume the CC was happy to accept the changes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 So you had to dissolve your assets and give money away? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Well we sold everything we could and paid redundancy. As well as that we have made a donation to a local children's group who shared our building and may have also gone under without some support, and we used some money to take the children on a day out with all their families and had two parties at no cost to families. As we had always run on a shoestring budget there wasn't a huge amount of money anyway, but I resented the fact that under our old PLA constitution the PLA could have just taken everything and distributed as they wanted. The group we donated to runs a playscheme and Friday club for children from reception age and most of our children "graduate" to them when they leave us. Other local preschools benefited from our closing by virtue of gaining the small number of children we couldn't accommodate anymore and by getting some huge bargains in our closing down sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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