Governance and finance

Template contract for working with a Music Director

This model contract has been developed to provide a starting point for negotiations when engaging a Music Director.

Orchestra Tax Relief (OTR) overview - webinar

This online webinar will introduce you to Orchestra Tax Relief, a new source of income for instrumental groups with 12 or more performers, explaining what it is and how your group can benefit from it.

 

You can find out more about OTR, including whether you are eligible and how to claim, in our resources:

How to approach health and safety

Health and Safety is one of those terms that can bring dread and derision in equal measure. With some of the stories you hear it’s easy to see why it has a bad reputation. In practical terms though, all it really means is spending a little bit of time thinking about what risks exist in a particular situation and what can be done to minimise them.

Health and safety policy template

This is a template Health and Safety Policy for use by Making Music members. It is based on the template provided by the Health and Safety Executive and is designed to be a starting point for your policy:

Group Policies: Overview

Policies aren’t necessarily the most exciting thing to think about when you’re running a music group. But they are important and will help you run your group more efficiently and effectively. We have provided a list of the most common polices you might consider having, together with links to further resources and some template documents. But first, a quick word on why you should have polices in place.

A policy sets out your commitment to a particular area. This can:

Safeguarding Policy template

We have developed a template Safeguarding policy for use by our member groups, consisting of the policy itself and some guidance notes to help you adapt it appropriately.

It is designed to be a starting point for you policy and can be adapted to suit your group’s circumstances. As well as the accompanying notes, we recommend you read our general Safeguarding guidance

Conflict of Interest Policy template

This is a template Conflict of Interest Policy for use by Making Music members. It includes a Conflict of Interest declaration form and a Conflict of interest register. It is designed to be a starting point for your policy and can be adapted to suit your group’s circumstances.

The template comes with brief notes and some examples and you should also read our general Conflict of Interest guidance before using the policy. 

Conflicts of Interest

Potential conflicts of interests or loyalty are something that any organisation should be aware of and take steps to manage. If your music group is a charity, the regulator would expect that the trustees have spent some time thinking about how to manage conflicts of interest. However, even if your group is not a charity, we recommend you think about having a simple conflict of interest policy.

Orchestra Tax Relief (OTR), part 1: Is it for you?

This introduction is the first of three documents on Orchestra Tax Relief (OTR). It gives you an overview of what it is and how it works, and an overall idea if this is something your group would like to look into.

To help you decide we also have two additional documents –

Orchestra Tax Relief (OTR), part 2: Getting set up

This introduction is the second of three documents on Orchestra Tax Relief (OTR). It gives you an overview of how to set up and run a production company to claim OTR.