Guest Posted April 21, 2015 Posted April 21, 2015 hiya i have wrote to the PLA and asked them to approve our new constitutions as we need the 60% parents rule removing. they have refused. has anyone got the PLA to agree to any changes to this?i know i can go to the charity commission and get them to approve it so i may just have to do that but wanted to check thanks gen
lashes2508 Posted April 21, 2015 Posted April 21, 2015 Might be worth opting out of pla , to be honest there's no support really nowadays from pla for us 2
sunnyday Posted April 21, 2015 Posted April 21, 2015 Hmmm - I'm not a Committee led setting so no experience to offer........however I second Lashes post - I have let my PSLA membership lapse this year - wasn't at all sure what i was getting for my money!
Inge Posted April 21, 2015 Posted April 21, 2015 You don't need to follow the PLA constitution or have their approval on it to be a member.. we only stayed member s as their insurance was cheapest for us.. even when we included the subscription cost as part of the insurance costs.. We had the Charity commission approve ours as we did not want all our assets going to PLA if we folded and also wanted to have local community people on the committee who could also be officers.. it was in place before I took over the management so not sure how long it took but was all Ok. Needless to say PLA were not impressed with it when they used to visit, but it was legal and nothing they could do about it. .. not that they visit any more . (Sorry but I don't work any more so no way to get a copy to post.). 2
diesel10 Posted April 21, 2015 Posted April 21, 2015 (edited) It might be ok to have local people and parents but you need at least 5 to cover main roles. Staff cannot vote on issues involving them. By the way, what year is their latest constitution? Edited April 21, 2015 by diesel10
GFCCCC Posted April 21, 2015 Posted April 21, 2015 I'm sure the committee itself can vote on it's own changes to the constitution at an AGM or an EGM. I have found it's much better to broaden the scope of who can be committee members because you can then have people with a special interest or special skills that are much more appropriate. And as I've written before, the committees that are mostly made up of parents are more like a PTA and parents are often (not always before anyone shouts at me!) only interested in the setting to the extent that it affects their child. I sometimes find the PSLA are not flexible enough. When it comes to local organisations, they really need local input into their management. We left the PSLA long ago - we like the idea of 'locally driven, professionally led'
Mouseketeer Posted April 21, 2015 Posted April 21, 2015 We've only stayed with them because the insurance even including membership has worked out cheaper than others, no input ( or output for that matter) from them for years.
GFCCCC Posted April 21, 2015 Posted April 21, 2015 Not sure what the PSLA insurance is like but we get ours through Morton Michel which is a specialist childcare insurance provider and they are really very good. They also have a childcare club for settings insured with them which has brilliant training material on. We download their ready prepared power points and videos for use in staff meetings/training sessions. They were several hundred pounds cheaper than our previous insurance provider (I don't work for them - not advertising or anything - just sharing something I have found really useful) 1
Mouseketeer Posted April 21, 2015 Posted April 21, 2015 Lol all other insurers are available, my quote last year from MM was 200 more than pla with their membership
MegaMum Posted April 21, 2015 Posted April 21, 2015 We ceased being members of the PLA so we could become a community interest company (have been slow at moving forward with this however) as its just too hard to keep recruiting committee members. We went with Morton Michel and we are very pleased with them and reasonable for us too. 1
eyfs1966 Posted April 21, 2015 Posted April 21, 2015 i thought their approval was required. isn't it a clause in the constitution?
Foreveryoung Posted April 21, 2015 Posted April 21, 2015 Oh gosh I'm not good at all this side of it but a vote was held a few years ago now where it got changed in ours from 60% to 2 current parents to which we stated a current parent is classed as such for a period after departure (not sure exactly what) also we re defined parents as family members so as to allow grandparents to be classed as such, from what I remember the secretary re did MA and notified chairty peeps I think. Sorry not much use I know but I thought it was worth while writting to let you know we did it x
Guest Posted April 21, 2015 Posted April 21, 2015 thanks everyone, i have sent a new constitution to the charity commission see what they say
lsp Posted May 25, 2015 Posted May 25, 2015 thanks everyone, i have sent a new constitution to the charity commission see what they say Hi AJR7 - just wondering how you got on with your new constitution?
Tcha Posted November 20, 2015 Posted November 20, 2015 I was just wondering where did you get your constitution from or did you adapt the one from PLA. I'm thinking of taking this to the committee so any advice would be great thank you.
Tcha Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 Hi really would like to know more about making our own constitution, I know it differs to each setting but if there's anyone who has made their own and have had it ok'd by Charity commission then I'd really like to here from you. At the moment we are using the PLSA constitution. Thank you
eyfs1966 Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 Tcha, I tried to change ours but to no avail, so would also be very interested to hear of "acceptable" changes.
lynned55 Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 (edited) We have our own. It is very similar to PSLA but our admission criteria is slightly different (we are an RC group) and we altered the last bit about donating our assets to them if we close. It wasn't a change though this is what we set up with many years ago when we all had to become registered charities and have constitutions. I can post it here if you wish to see it. Edited January 11, 2016 by lynned55
Tcha Posted January 14, 2016 Posted January 14, 2016 Hi Lynne, that would be great if you could post it here. Has it been ok'd by charity commission too? Thank you
lynned55 Posted January 15, 2016 Posted January 15, 2016 (edited) Here we are and yes it was approved many, many years ago by the CC. I think in maybe 2008 we added some amendments to it that were also approved. I must be clear though this is basically the constitution that we had from the beginning and although 'based' on PSLA's is not the same. For example if we dissolve, assets will go to PSLA OR another similar charity as ours. So this was not because of any changes made. However the changes that were made were agreed by our members, our constitution allows for this, yours may not. Hope it helps. CONSTITUTION fsf.doc Edited January 15, 2016 by lynned55
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