News
Legal Update for the Third Sector (edition 2)
13th July 2009
Sandy Adirondack has been a freelance trainer and consultant in the voluntary sector since 1980, working primarily on governance issues with a wide range of charities, campaigns and community-based organisations. Her main specialism is legal aspects of voluntary sector management.
She writes widely about voluntary sector management. Her best known books, both referred to as "voluntary sector bibles", are Just About Managing? Effective management for voluntary organisations and community groups (first published in 1989 and now in its 4th edition) and The Voluntary Sector Legal Handbook (published in 1996 and 2001, with a 3rd edition scheduled for 2008).Employment & volunteering:
Updated or added to the legal update website for voluntary organisations
Important: new code of practice for Criminal Records Bureau registered bodies and for organisations which use CRB disclosures - in effect from 6 April 2009.
www.sandy-a.co.uk/employment.htm#criminalrecordchecks
New (postponed) dates for implementation of the Independent Safeguarding Authority's vetting and barring scheme and for related changes in CRB checks.
www.sandy-a.co.uk/employment.htm#vbs
Free NSPCC toolkit for voluntary and community organisations working with children and young people (also available in Bengali, Punjabi, Urdu and Welsh).
www.sandy-a.co.uk/employment.htm#children-resources
or go direct to http://tinyurl.com/57574g
Reimbursement of costs incurred in actual volunteering (e.g. travel costs in doing the actual volunteering) has never entitled the volunteer to minimum wage, but there was some concern that reimbursement of expenses incurred in order to volunteer (e.g. travel costs to place of volunteering, childcare & other care costs) could lead to entitlement to minimum wage. From 13 January it was confirmed that reimbursement of costs in order to volunteer does not entitle a volunteer to minimum wage.
www.sandy-a.co.uk/employment.htm#volscarecosts
The increase in maximum weekly pay for the purposes of calculating statutory redundancy pay, as announced in the Budget, is expected to take effect for redundancies on or after 1 October 2009. The date is not yet definite.
Registration scheme for workers from A8 states (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) is extended until 30 April 2011. (It had been expected to end 30 April 2009.)
Points based system tier 4 (students) and tougher requirements for tier 1 (highly skilled workers) in effect from 31 March 2009.
www.sandy-a.co.uk/employment.htm#righttowork
I neglected to put on the legal update website last autumn that from 1 October 2008, it is no longer required to keep employer's liability insurance certificates for at least 40 years. But it is good practice to keep them.
www.sandy-a.co.uk/employment.htm#empliability-insurance
