Committee led, what does yours do

[Foreveryoung]

Hi, I feel I may be doing the job of the committee so im looking at giving them stuff back to do as I need to delegate as its all too much.

Currently we have a chair, secretary and finance officer plus other members of no title. Finance officer is paid and does books, works out wages and communicates with pay roll, organises online banking and yearly returns for accountant plus pays all bills. Secretary takes meeting notes, writes up and does charity commision submission. That's it everything else (I mean everything) is done by me, timesheets, DBS checks, organising committee, Recruitment, reference requests, organising find raising events and lots more.

 

What does your committee do? Or is this normal for the expected committee work load?

(Can you tell I'm ready to run for this hills and take sanctuary in a deserted farm house)

[Guest]

Mine is pretty much like yours, although they are making a good attempt at fundraising. My treasurer does all the wages (although my deputy does the timesheets to send to her) and all the financial bits. The nominated person does the DBS checks. The chair has an HR background so has sat on interview panel with me, but I did all the donkey work for the recruitment process. I don't think I can expect them to do too much as they are voluntary and some work too. My daughter's preschool has a commitee in name only - the manager does EVERYTHING!

[thumperrabbit]

I have 3 current parent members on my committee - they do the fundraising and that is it.

My partner is Treasurer although I do time sheets, petty cash, 1/2 termly fee slips, Charity commission etc

I have 1 staff member on committee as a general member who does funding

I do everything else - there's no way I would get any help at all if parents thought they actually had to do something other than fundraise!

 

I still can't actually believe that the 'powers that be' allow committee run pre-schools to exist

[flowlow]

ours is pretty much like yours Forever young. Our chair this time is really committed and they have been very supportive in terms of listening ears and offering opinion. But most of the stuff is done by me. We do have a brilliant fundraising committee but to be honest this is only this year, last year we didn't have one and the committee was not well supported either. I think this is why I ended up with everything we were on the verge of closing as we struggled to get names on the books for committee and therefore all the jobs fell to me. Guess what thats how its stayed!!!!

Edited May 4, 2015 by Johanna1

[blondie]

we are very lucky - our chair plays a big role in our setting - and supports me fully. our treasurer is in name only as our book keeper / admin lady does time sheets, wages, funding, fees etc all the jobs that are financially related - she will also sort out contracts and all new staff things such as setting up bank details etc.,

guess we are VERY lucky after reading others comments

[Foreveryoung]

Thanks x

Think I'll let them take more a lead on fundraising, at least that's something. It sounds easy to arrange something but to do it on top of everything else that one event is a lot of work xx

[eyfs1966]

errr, just turn up to meetings!!

[diesel10]

errr, just turn up to meetings!!

I think getting their ey2's and dbs checks was an achievement for ours. It took 6 months and I think they are worn out now.

[GFCCCC]

errr, just turn up to meetings!!

 

Mine don't even manage to do that much of the time!!

[Mouseketeer]

Mine are fab fundraisers, the treasurer looks at account folder each half term.

[Fredbear]

Ours are fantastic too. We have a chairperson that oversees and supports the staff team and steers the committee.

Our treasurer does all our payments, banking and logs accounts which are then sent onto a paid financial team which we employ.

This team also pay the wages online, sends out payslips etc and does our end of year returns.

Our wages are submitted by myself and our administrator each month.

Our secretary does all committee newsletters, minutes of meetings, all fundraising correspondence.

Our administrator and myself do all intake, funding, newsletters, and day to day admin.

Fundraising is taken on by the whole committee and supported by the staff.

It does work well for us although I do understand why some groups struggle.

For me personally taking on an administrator a few years back enables me to support the staff team, work in with the children, show prospective parents around and work within a multi agency team.

[Foreveryoung]

EY2's that's a whole other story!! I'am ready to scream Ofsted have been phoning the chair fortnightly as they havn't had a ey2 for a board member, I've stressed to chair this will make us RI and told them to chase it up two months later still no joy! Guess which numpty ends up sorting it - me grrrrrrr

Never mind the kids it's managing the adults ha ha ha

[Fredbear]

Oh dear that's not helpful. I do think the whole Ey2, DBS, Ey3 , Gateway etc is all so time consuming.

So much for simplifying and less time and paperwork.

[lynned55]

Mine do ................. little bit of fundraising (i.e if we, staff, tell them what to do) and turn up to the occasional meeting. My Treasurer banks any money and the Secretary takes minutes (which I then have to hound the life out of her to get back typed up) The Chair emails me every so often to ask if all is ok and that's about it. I do everything else, wages, accounts (we were let down badly last year over the person that was doing our accounts & PAYE) etc, etc. One of our parents was an accountant and she has set us up and shown me how to use an extremely simple ledger and will audit it all for us. I always had to do the salaries and send them on to someone who then submitted our PAYE etc, to find out last year it hadnt been done anyway! To be honest it gets less and less each year, most parents work, most dont have the time, or the knowledge to do any of it. I'm quite happy to lie to Ofsted/CC about who is doing what as I cant see any way around it.

Of course they are all going in July anyway, so we start all over again.

[manor]

Hi Foreveryoung,

 

Here is one of those guidance of the 'Roles of the Committee' which when you start to look through, can be quite daunting for volunteer parents to take on. Gone are the days when, if you did get a committee, you just had a few coffee mornings to raise funds for new equipment. Now you have to be accountable for everything and with all the red tape of committee having to have DBS checks, is it any wonder settings are finding it really hard to get parents on board. Then the catch is, if you don't have one you cant operate. I think if you do manage to get a committee you have to kind of mentor them, you can't just give them a role and expect them to get on with it. You know as manager how things are run, all the legal stuff your setting has to have in place e.t.c . So you are going to need lots of patience and time to talk all this over with them (preferably without scaring them off, if you can?!)

 

Good Luck

 

Roles and responsibilities committee1.doc

[Mouseketeer]

If you delete all the things you do rather than the committee there'd be 5 lines (at a push) not 5 pages !

[finleysmaid]

Ahh the reason we have changed to a limited company...still need trustees of course but they can stay as long as you like and have limited liability....dont even have to have any connection to pre-school.

[thumperrabbit]

Ahh the reason we have changed to a limited company...still need trustees of course but they can stay as long as you like and have limited liability....dont even have to have any connection to pre-school.

Can the trustees be all staff? How many trustees would you need? If not allowed staff, I'd still struggle unless you can get away with 1 trustee who would have to be my relative

[Guest]

I think getting their ey2's and dbs checks was an achievement for ours. It took 6 months and I think they are worn out now.

Almost 2.5 terms in and we are still waiting for 3 of ours to do theirs! Blood and stones spring to mind...

[lynned55]

Well my Chairperson is leaving in July and I have now given up asking for her to bring me her passport etc to verify her id!

 

I understand the difference between trustees and committee (sort of) in theory but in practise I could see us still begging for these? Nobody wants to or has the time to commit nowadays

[finleysmaid]

Can the trustees be all staff? How many trustees would you need? If not allowed staff, I'd still struggle unless you can get away with 1 trustee who would have to be my relative

Three would really be minimum...but they are much more like governors so you could have noteable people in the community or a local teacher or????? the sky's the limit. We operate on 5 but they have to do 2 years minimum and most stay for more (they only have to get together once a term!!!) Though our chair is a bit more involved. The advantage for them is that they become a director of a company which is great for CV's etc...perhaps if there was another pre-school struggling near you you could do the job for each other?

[lsp]

Just had committee meeting. What can I say - just had a committee meeting! 6 people - Chair, Secretary, 2 members (1 Staff) and 2 other staff members. So not even quorate. What did we achieve - date of next meeting.

[Smiles]

As much as it is a pain to get Committee members to do there checks and EY2 's ........ Please please please get them done! At our recent OFSTED inspection our Commttee members had not been tied in to our setting by their EY2 form and so they were not down as Commitee members so we were judged as inadequate for not notifying OFSTED in changes to our setting. We also had a safeguarding issue but got GOOD for our Learning and Develooment but were really upset by our judgement. Our parents were very supportive of us and we have now everything in order so awaiting re inspection.m

[lsp]

As much as it is a pain to get Committee members to do there checks and EY2 's ........ Please please please get them done! At our recent OFSTED inspection our Commttee members had not been tied in to our setting by their EY2 form and so they were not down as Commitee members so we were judged as inadequate for not notifying OFSTED in changes to our setting. We also had a safeguarding issue but got GOOD for our Learning and Develooment but were really upset by our judgement. Our parents were very supportive of us and we have now everything in order so awaiting re inspection.m

We had feedback from our LA on inspections carried out before Christmas and this was a real issue that OFSTED were really focusing on the committee members. Groups were being marked down on not keeping OFSTED informed of changes to the committee. As others have said always keep a copy of everything and dates when things were sent or filled in. :blink:

[Guest]

And even when we do inform Ofsted, they don't change it on their own records! Damned if we do, damned if we don't

[finleysmaid]

ok having panic! my trustees have done their ey2's but cannot find any links to ey3's......except the 2012 one which i think is out of date....Where is the new one and how do i get to it???

[lynned55]

I have always informed OFSTED of our changes however without fail they always, always have the wrong name!

[Guest]

i am the chair in our setting and as a committee we do

organize and attend fund raising - however we ask the staff to attend some to support

dbs checks

recruitment - reference checks, support invoices - lead deals with the responses as she has the access to the email they reply too

manage the website

manage the policies (with support the lead)

manage all paper work - such as new prospectus/handbook

staff development - records, plan

budgeting/ cash flow/ wages/ invoice payments - lead deals with nef amounts

currently we are moving to a new system - i have set up all training and support for this

deal with ofsted

 

i try to do as much as i can but it is really difficult with a full time job, 2 kids and another charity that i run.

 

does sound like your committee needs to do more though.

 

x

[Mouseketeer]

My committee does point 1

[Smiles]

ok having panic! my trustees have done their ey2's but cannot find any links to ey3's......except the 2012 one which i think is out of date....Where is the new one and how do i get to it???

 

The Ey2 will link them to your setting . The 2010 one is the one I sent to OFSTED for good measure taken old committee memebers off and adding new one. OFSTED accepted this one and sent me this one in a letter regarding our inspection.