Don’t get caught out by changes to your committee or management team.
We often hear reports of committee-run settings running into difficulties, especially when several key members of the committee leave at once. Often these are long standing members who had a clear grasp of what was required, both by the Committee and for the smooth running of the Club.
In the change-over, new members are often persuaded to join the management committee, just to ensure that the Club can continue to run, without knowing their roles and responsibilities. For the Club on a day-to-day basis, this may have very little impact, but things often come unstuck when the Ofsted Inspector arrives. It is not uncommon for the basics to have been overlooked, for example:
- Ofsted have not been notified of changes to the committee
- basic checks on the suitability of new members have not been undertaken
- Ofsted DBS checks have not been carried out on the new members
Failing to do any of the above when members of a committee change can result in the setting being graded ‘Not Met’.
In addition to the risk of failing an Ofsted inspection, the sudden departure of key committee members can mean that other vital knowledge of how the Club is run is lost. For example, who are the signatories on the bank account? Who is the Club insured with? When are the accounts due? Whilst these problems are rather more common for committee-run settings they can also occur in other types of club when a manager or key staff member resigns, goes on maternity leave or is on long term sick.
To avoid this situation, we recommend that you start to compile a document that describes how the setting runs on a day-to-day basis, the roles and responsibilities of staff and the Committee, and what needs to be done on an ongoing basis to ensure that the Club continues to meet the statutory requirements.
Creating a handover document of this type will be useful for most Out of School settings, as it can help provide a smooth transition when there is a change of management.
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Our Operating Manual pack contains guidance and a template to help you to create just such a handover document.