Managing staff and self-employed people

Information for forums on how to recruit and manage staff. It also looks at the rules around employment and self-employment.

It is important that the forum finds out what their legal responsibilities are if they employ people and have clear processes for recruiting, managing and supporting staff.

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If you need support you can talk to community matters or your local voluntary development agency. Some forums use an accountant or human resources provider to manage their payroll.

Before you start:

Video: Employer responsibilities

Employing staff

How you employ staff will depend on your legal structure.

If you are an unincorporated association who is not hosted, you will need to think about this carefully. Individual members are personally responsible for any debts and contractual obligations. Watch our online learning session on small forums and contracts for more information.

If you are hosted, you may be able to employ staff through the host organisation. This will depend on the agreement you have in place.

If you are a Charity, Charitable incorporated organisation, Community interest company or any other legal structure you will be able to employ staff directly.

There are no set rules about how to run an application process but the process should be fair, transparent and non-discriminatory.

Self-employed people

Sometimes forums use self-employed people to provide services for the forum. You will need to use the HMRC checker to ensure that they are truly self-employed.

If a forum does have self employed people, it is important to agree a clear contract. This can sometimes be called a ‘contract for services’. Depending on the level of work they’re providing, you can draw up a simple agreement in an email. The forum can outline the work required; a provider outlines what they can offer and how much they would charge either per day or for the whole project, and you can email agreement. Here is some guidance on how to write a joint working agreement from NCVO. You may also want to get in touch with Community Matters for support.

The forum needs to ensure self-employed people understand that they are responsible for their own tax and national insurance. You can direct them to guidance from Gov.uk, they have a range of helpful videos about self -assessment on their YouTube channel: New to self assessment and an introduction to self-employment tax return.

Self-employed people will not generally be covered under the forum’s insurance and should have their own professional indemnity and personal liability insurance. You will need to contact your insurance company for a conversation about what you coverage includes.

People who are self-employed are not entitled to the national minimum wage. They would submit a quote for a piece of work and you would agree the amount. You would need to consider carefully why you would pay someone less than the national minimum wage for a piece of work. The National Minimum Wage and Living Wage: Who gets the minimum wage – GOV.UK

It is good practice for self-employed people to submit invoices to the forum as it keeps the relationship and finances clear for all involved. It is the law that you need to submit an invoice if you sell someone a product or service if the self employed person and the forum are registered for VAT. Invoicing and taking payment from customers: Overview – GOV.UK

Details of what the invoice must include are here: Invoicing and taking payment from customers: Invoices – what they must include – GOV.UK

Supporting people that work for the forum 

As with volunteers, a forum should ensure employees receive appropriate induction and training to support them to fulfil their roles. A forum may also choose to give some training to self-employed people, this would be outlined in any agreement.

A forum will want to think about who in the forum will be responsible for managing staff or self-employed workers. Some forums manage this themselves while others outsource this to an external company or organisation.

Additional considerations for the forum would include Health and Safety requirements and having adequate insurance. 

You can find out more about the responsibilities of being an employer on the Government website page Contract types and employer responsibilities” or by visiting the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) website. 

CIC wellbeing portal has support for managers Well Online – Managers and a managerial adviceline Well Online – Managerial Adviceline. If you want to access these services please contact your contact adviser for the login details.

Video: Staffing and workforce development: getting your hr right


Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) website

ACAS provide support for employers and employees visit their website: ACAS

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