Sarah Patrice
Senior AssociateGovernance and commercial expert.
I lead on our work with community based organisations including charities, housing co-operatives, Tenant and Leasehold Management Organisations and Community Land Trusts. My expertise is in providing specialist governance, regulatory, contractual, charity, board and company secretarial support, to not for profit organisations and social enterprises across the range of structures, nationally, including housing associations, charities and community interest companies.
Having extensive experience of advising, negotiating and drafting governance and contractual documentation including management agreements, advising on constitutional matters including reviews and compliance, group structures and joint ventures. I regularly attend and support Board meetings, provide and facilitate training sessions and away-days, and deal with governance disputes, including investigations and Board conduct issues. I also often ‘project manage’ matters where a number of issues are on-going at any one time.
Our previous round-up began by sharing the news that two vaccines had shown very promising test results. Here we are, not even a month later, and the first vaccines have already been administered!
AGM plans gone awry with re-introduced lockdown measures? Good news: saving provisions are now in place until 30 December 2020
Whilst many of us are welcoming the recent changes to lockdown, many charities are finding the easing of lockdown more difficult to manage than going into it!
For anyone who is currently restrained from holding their General Meeting or have held such in breach of their governing documents, help is on the way!
It was the Government announcement the Community-Led Housing sector had been waiting for; the £163million fund to build new community-led housing is now live.
The focus of this response was their power to issue official warnings under the Charities Act to a charity trustee or a charity, where it considers there has been a breach of trust or duty or other misconduct or mismanagement of the charity.
The Guidance gives direction on property disposals for local authorities, alongside details of other government policies to support them to dispose of sites that could be made surplus.
Take Mr M, for example – Mr M was a tenant board member of his local housing association. Mr M, being a community minded man, got involved in supporting the vulnerable elderly couple down the road.
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