Employment Services for Charities Factsheet

Employment Services for Charities

Strategic employment advice makes a key contribution to any organisation and assists in planning and decision making – and charities are no different.

The Edwin Coe Employment Team has extensive experience in advising charities and not-for-profit organisations on all aspects of employment law.

Given our experience we understand the challenges faced by such organisations including the pressures on funding and time commitments for Trustees. We appreciate that Trustees are specialists in their respective fields but not in employment law and we therefore provide concise and practical advice communicated in an accessible way.

We also understand that the personal commitment made by staff to the charitable objectives of the organisation can have an impact on the employment relationship and brings with it particular sensitivities which need to be identified and handled carefully.

As a product of working closely with our clients and the Edwin Coe Charities Team we are able to provide an early advisory role, helping to maintain organisation stability and prevent costly claims and litigation. We provide a value-for-money, partner-led service and advise on all contentious and non-contentious employment matters.

We work to the highest ethical standards and provide a clear and competitive cost structure. Where possible we will agree a fixed fee for project work and otherwise agree budgets at regular intervals.

Examples of our work

• Advising a mental health charity on whistleblowing allegations made by a Trustee.
• Advising a sporting charity on the differences between employees, interns and volunteers to safe guard the organisation in relation to holiday, national minimum wage and possible employment related claims.
• Advising a cancer charity on the acquisition of a similar charity under the TUPE regulations including the preparation of draft communications to staff and guidance throughout the consultation period.
• Acting in relation to the merger of two charities under the TUPE regulations.
• Advising an educational charity in relation to a reorganisation of the management of the charity and advising on and implementing the consequent redundancy process.
• Providing strategic advice in relation to the employment impact of organisational change.
• Effecting changes to employment contracts.
• Advising on salary sacrifice arrangements.
• Defending claims for unfair dismissal.
• Drafting and negotiating settlement agreements for departing employees.
• Providing day to day advice regarding maternity and family friendly statutory entitlements.
• Providing employment contracts, a staff handbook and relevant policies.
• Advising an animal charity on redundancies.
• Advising an Islamic charity on recruitment policies.
• Advising Boards of Governors on a range of employment and trustee issues.

Charities & Non-profit

Edwin Coe has a mainstream charities practice and acts for charities and non-profit organisations operating in a diverse range of areas. We advise on a full spectrum of charity law issues including:

• advice on constitutional, trust and tax matters;
• establishing new charities and handling registration and other dealings with the Charity Commission
• corporate and commercial matters including negotiating commercial contracts, charity mergers and structuring other forms of collaboration between charities
• employment law
• intellectual property matters such as branding, IP protection and exploitation, and reputational issues
• litigation: including mediating charity trustee disputes and dealing with compliance issues
• a wide range of property matters from investments to charity premises
• international charity issues, including working overseas and structuring charities to work efficiently across borders
• providing bespoke training sessions for charity Trustees on their duties and obligations.

Our Charities team has strong contacts with other professionals working in the charity/non-profit sector such as accountants, consultants and recruitment experts who specialise in this area.

An area in which we have particular expertise is setting up charities and philanthropic structures for both high-net-worth philanthropists and major UK charities. We have advised many UK operational charities on trust, tax and general charity law matters and our charities team includes a partner who has contributed to the charity sections of a number of leading legal textbooks.

Special rates are available to charities and non-profit organisations and we are happy to offer a free initial consultation to assess whether we are able to assist you with your legal needs. We are deeply committed to the charities and non-profit sector and have established a pro-bono programme which includes undertaking work for a number of charities and locally based projects.