Advice needed with setting up community healthcare project

mark6262

Hi there, I am setting up a community based health care project. We will be treating eating disorders. This project will not generate any income. Funds will come at the start of the project and that will be only source of funding. There will be workers who get paid on a sessional/hourly basis, but they will not be directly employed by the project. They will be paid by BACS and then have self employed status. I will be running the project and also i will be one of the counsellors. So i too will be paid the same way as everyone else. We need to attract funds to get the project started, Someone is coming from CVS to advise me next week on how to proceed. I would like to have some idea of what is involved before she comes. Can anyone help me. Essentially we will be not for profit organisation, but i know that there are different types of these groups.

Savvy_Sue

This will probably generate more answers on the Small Biz and Charity Organisers board so I'll move it over there.

Meanwhile ... there's no legal status of 'not for profit', and I'm not on top of the new structures which are possible for charity related enterprises, so I'd advise you to look around your local CVS website and see what information is there. You're going to need some kind of governing document or constitution, and probably a committee or trustee board to run things. This is from my local CVS website, for example.

One question though is whether this is a one-off project or an ongoing service? You'd approach the two things slightly differently, I feel.

paddyrg

Also please note it'll be HMRC who'll device if staff really are self-employed, so you should take legal advice on how you draft the deals.

As for raising money, how much, how long for, what's your track record? If you can show you've managed a £1M company for x years it makes it easier for people to trust any donations will be well managed than if you've no business experience. If you don't have experience, maybe find a partner who has?

mark6262

Thanks for the replies. This is pilot project, and it's outcome will determine if the project continues.
Regarding the self employed status. I've worked for charities and had sessional contracts. It's for the individuals to then contact hmrc. I've also drawn up contracts in these circumstances. Non of the workers will be employed directly by the project. Many if them will have paye and self employed status. But it's for individuals to contact hmrc.
Thanks again

DKLS

Good luck I worked on a number of projects with Beat and a service like this is very much needed.

Icequeen99

mark6262 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. This is pilot project, and it's outcome will determine if the project continues.
Regarding the self employed status. I've worked for charities and had sessional contracts. It's for the individuals to then contact hmrc. I've also drawn up contracts in these circumstances. Non of the workers will be employed directly by the project. Many if them will have paye and self employed status. But it's for individuals to contact hmrc.
Thanks again

If they are genuinely self-employed it is for the individual to contact HMRC. But HMRC may decide that the relationship is an employment one and not self-employed - just because you draw up a contract and say they are self-employed is not enough. Whether they are or not depends on the facts - can they send a substitute to the sessions? Do they carry any risk? Do they have their own insurancE?

You should use the status indicator on the HMRC website and print out a copy of the results in case you are challenged on status at a later date.


IQ