Changing from a committee led charitable organisation to . . . ?

[Ancaster]

I have been working at a committee run charitable pre-school for 10 years.

I have a fantastic team of staff who all go above and beyond to give the best care and education to the families that use the setting.

As time goes by it is becoming increasing difficult to motivate parents to join the committee and of those that do volunteer, the majority do so in name only. Our numbers are good, raising throughout the year, and are looking good for next year too.

It will soon be time for our next AGM when the current committee members will leave and the chances of me signing on replacements are minus zero!!!! Each year I am in this position, it is soooo frustrating and at this point in time I feel the need to take some sort of action to change this never ending cycle!

Has anyone changed their charity/committee group to a private business or a community group and if so what did it involve?

All comments/help/advice greatly appreciated as I am losing the will!

[hopeytg]

I am currently in the process of changing from Committee Led to a Community Interest Company - if you search CIC on Google it brings up loads of information. I am doing it for exactly the same reasons as you - we have called an EGM next week to which all parents are invited and will cast a vote as to whether they agree or not to the change. Committee have already agreed to the change, we came out of the PSLA a while ago so no longer use their constitution enabling us to change ownership without giving them our profit!!

Hope this is of some help and good luck

[Ancaster]

Thanks so much hopeytg.

 

Your comments are extremely useful, particularly regarding leave the PLA first!

Will check out the website for info and thanks again!

[Cait]

How long does the process take and do you need to re-register with Ofsted?

[Fredbear]

We became an incorporated preschool but kept our charitable status. We adopted a memorandum of articles instead of a constitution. We are still with PSLA, and infact they were very helpful when making the change.

Yes you will need to let Ofsted know, as well, as transferring all assets to a new bank account, insurance, LA, funding etc.

Good luck hope it goes well for you.

[hopeytg]

We have been told that we need to re-register with Ofsted but as I am already the registered person it will not take long. Fredbear do you have to have directors or similar - just wondered if I am making the right decision going to CIC?

[Fredbear]

In essence our committee became our directors/ trustees.

Although it does allow us to have named staff too if we wanted to.

No the re-registration didn't take long, but there are clear formats you must follow legally.

It did trigger an inspection but hey ho.

We are also accountable to both Companies house and the Charity commission now with more paperwork and costs.

I'm sure there is a new one but it was only available to new provisions or those with income below £??????? amount, although I was told by PSLA this will change in the future ( if it hasn't already). Then we would only be accountable to the Charity commission.

When I get some free time ( chuckle chuckle ) I must look into this again.

If I had my time again I think we would have hired a solicitor, but we muddled through and did it all ourselves.

To be honest we only did it as a condition of a grant we received from our LA. Speaking too soon now but we have always been really lucky in getting a healthy committee of 9 or more people.( don't know how we manage it though).

Wishing you good luck with whatever decision you make.

Edited June 18, 2014 by Fredbear

[finleysmaid]

We became an incorporated preschool but kept our charitable status. We adopted a memorandum of articles instead of a constitution. We are still with PSLA, and infact they were very helpful when making the change.

Yes you will need to let Ofsted know, as well, as transferring all assets to a new bank account, insurance, LA, funding etc.

Good luck hope it goes well for you.

we did the same (although the psla were useless! in our case!)...but we also moved at the same time so a bit more complex with ofsted

[Ancaster]

Thank you all very much for your comments - just a few questions - does that mean that you still have a committee and if so do you have to change it or can you keep the same one for as long as you want to or do they have to change every 5 years depending on the constitution/memorandum you adopt?

Gaining committee members is the issue you see - we are simply unable to persuade our parents or even the wider community members to join as members! We've tried everything from advertising, gentle persuasion to if we don't get x amount of people we will be unable to open! It's all so non productive, not to mention demoralising for the staff who are in fear of losing their jobs!

I genuinely wonder sometimes if the funding available to parents has not in some cases removed their willingness to volunteer as they see nursery provision as their "right" and no longer feel obliged (for want of a better word) to volunteer as I did when my children were younger!

I simply don't know the answers at the minute!