Self employed supervisions

[paulfitz85]

Dear Legal Beagle,

I am an Independent Advocate working with children and young people who are in care. This is for a Local Authority and the referrals come from an advocacy manager from the council who is employed by them. I am completely self employed within this role and self declare my own tax etc. For this I am paid £25 an hour when I attend meetings or visit a young person.

The manager often asks me to do supervisions on the phone each month and this can be anywhere between 30 minutes -60 minutes to discuss cases. When I have put this time on my timesheet this month, she has rejected it, saying that they do not pay for supervisions. I have taken exception to this as it is my time, and it took 30 minutes, in the past taking upto an hour and I never claimed until now.

What are my rights please as a self employed employee? Surely I have the right to invoice for my time at the rate I usually get paid for meetings?

Many thanks

Paul

[PallasAthena]

Do you have a contract with the council setting out in detail what you will be paid for?

I assume that "The manager often asks me to do supervisions on the phone..." means that the manager wants to discuss with you the young people you have had meetings/visits with. Is that correct? And the request for these calls always come from the manager so you incur the time at the manager's request?

Sorry to say this, but you have probably made life more difficult for yourself by doing these phone calls in the past and not invoicing for the time.

[paulfitz85]

Well in the past it was five or ten minute discussions and I did not mind, now I have more of a caseload it is going into the realms of 30-60 minutes depending on complexity.

Yes I have a contract which I am willing to send a copy in to you so you can review it. It is the fact she is so adamant I will not be paid for my time when in fact she just presumes I will give my time for free. In what other industry other than voluntary would this happen?

Yea to your question, she is ringing for updates on the children I am working with as their advocate, and she can advise whether one can close or not prior to giving me a new referral. What are your initial thoughts, should I be able to put on my timesheet for this time for supervision?

Thanks for your advice so far