A voluntary management committee is a committed group of people who manage a community service. The committee is the employer of the staff at the provision and is legally and financially responsible for the business. A checklist has been developed to help settings with their roles in running a committee:
Recruiting and registration
All members of the committee are part of the registered body and are required to register and have their suitability checked with Ofsted. When new members wish to join the committee, they will need to apply online to be on the Early Years Register.
How to register on the Early Years register
Download and read the Guide to registration on the Early Years Register, including Annexe A which states in a table that ‘Each individual in the committee is considered as the registered person and is equally responsible and accountable for the provision.’
Apply online
- Individual prospective committee members must do this. Open a Government Gateway account (unless already held) in order to access the EY2 declaration and consent form.
EY2 form
- This is completed by each individual prospective committee member. The name of the setting and its Ofsted Unique Reference Number (URN) is required. Follow the link on the EY2 form to a Disclosure and Barring Scheme (DBS) application form.
DBS check application
- Complete this form and input OfstedA when prompted for Ofsted reference number.
- Submit EY2 form.
Nominated person
Does everyone on the committee and working at the setting know who and what the nominated person is – what the person does/ their responsibility? If a setting is owned/run by a committee:-
- That committee has legal responsibility under Ofsted and committee members are responsible for ensuring these are met. Even though the committee as a whole is responsible, Ofsted can take action against individual members.
- Ofsted is informed of all committee members [including any newly ones] and DBS checked. Normal recruitment and selection practices should be followed.
- The committee appoints suitability qualified and experienced practitioners to run the setting on a day to day basis, but the committee remains ultimately responsible for the setting.
- The nominated person represents the committee in its dealings with Ofsted and normally this should be a committee member. The committee must ensure that the nominated person has a full and through understanding of their role and is able to represent the organisation in relation to the registered childcare provision. The nominated person is responsible for making sure the whole of the committee knows about the requirements for registration and their responsibility for meeting them and notifying Ofsted of any changes to the committee. All committee members should have access to a copy of the EYFS.
- The manager of the setting cannot be the registered provider if the committee is the organisation that is responsible.
Committee roles
There are different positions on the committee including:
- Chairperson
- Treasurer
- Secretary
- The committee members
All these positions have specific roles that they undertake in ensuring that the setting is run according to the constitution. The Charity’s Constitution will usually set out the responsibility of all these positions.
Supervision and appraisals
A person from the committee, with knowledge of the EYFS should undertake supervision/appraisals with the manager. The manager is likely to carry these out for the practitioners; however the committee needs to have a system where the manager informs them of any issues.
The need to factor in to the business plan the cost of continuous professional development [training/staff cover] needs to be considered by the committee.
How is the committee involved in reviewing and evaluating the provision to drive improvement?
- How does the committee contribute to the SEF, including the section on the leadership and management of the Early Years provision?
- Is the setting part of an external Quality Assurance scheme?
How is the committee kept up to date with the operation of the setting?
- Are there regular meeting between the manager and the committee chair/rep?
- Are there reports presented at committee meetings?
- Are there committee minutes of decisions made?
- Are decisions/actions followed up?
Constitutions
- Is the committee constituted in such a way to limit individual committee member’s liability financially? If grants are sought/ awarded what to the claw back processes mean if the setting closed/moved for the committee members?
- If the setting has charitable status is the committee aware of and following the requirements of the Charities Commission?
Governor-run early years provision
Impact and best practice for Governors can be found on the Early years provision on a school site page.
This information is also very useful for headteachers, EYFS Co-ordinators and early years leaders / managers.