Contractors look set to benefit from a new trade association that will help to represent their interests and those of contracting service providers. Headed by chief executive Crawford Temple, PRISM was launched in May 2015.
Speaking exclusively to ContractorCalculator, Temple, who is also managing director and chief operating officer of Professional Passport, described PRISM as a not-for-profit trade association that has been set up to represent the interests of service providers and contractors, and to ensure that the rules affecting them are proportionate.
“As it stands, the rules are made up from perceptions about the contracting market and are not always based on fact. This has led to a lack of understanding; people need to realise that contractor service providers are needed for a variety of reasons and this is not tax avoidance,” said Temple.
PRISM is not competing with other trade groups
Responding to the challenge put forward that the industry already has the Freelancer & Contractor Services Association to represent its interests, Temple maintains that PRISM has a gap to fill:
“The press is full of stories that misrepresent the sector and there is now a need to gain control over the information that has been put out there. They have not achieved this. Even MPs have said that we need a trade body, as they didn’t realise that one was already in existence.
“PRISM has been created as a framework to do what they have not managed to. Whereas they have only 11 members despite operating for seven years, and exists to provide a commercial compliance stamp, PRISM is a trade association that will represent the interests of the entire sector.”
There is no formal relationship between PRISM and the other group, but Temple is not against collaboration if that is what the industry requires. He is clear that PRISM will not offer its own compliance standard and will instead provide transparency on all of the standards already in existence.
“We will accomplish this by liaising with other relevant trade associations, including the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE), along with HM Treasury, HRMC and other appropriate government organisations,” adds Temple.
Having described PRISM as a framework, Temple admits that its objectives have yet to be finalised: “An executive committee elected annually will set out PRISM’s goals, determine the representations it makes, and obtain any necessary funding. At this stage, I can’t speculate about what the committee will focus on, as it won’t be constituted until July, but all existing information can be found on our website.”
Helping service providers to navigate the legal minefield
One thing that Temple is certain of is that PRISM’s role won’t be limited to managing negative publicity. He is keen on a proactive approach that demonstrates the good work that service providers and contractors do.
“The industry has been talking about setting up this kind of trade body for a long time to respond to the lack of a proactive approach. As a not-for-profit member organisation, PRISM has no commercial conflicts and exists solely to promote the sector and lobby for its advantage.”
Temple explains that the reputational issues facing the contracting sector are often caused by having to deal with relentless legislative changes. This was a problem for the construction industry in particular, he claims, when the new travel and subsistence rules that came in last year hit them hard.
“These rules are based on a perception that contractors and service providers are operating outside the law, rather than on hard evidence. The sector needs to respond to this now before the new travel and subsistence rules are introduced in July, and ahead of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) review on employment status in the autumn.”
Contractors need transparency, too
Compliance is something that both service providers and recruiters have to contend with, but what about the contingent workers themselves who are also trying to navigate through the legal minefield?
“At the end of the day, service providers exist to support contractors and we can do this far more effectively by campaigning for transparency across all the markets in which contractors work. PRISM is ideally placed, as it offers no services itself and is therefore completely impartial,” explains Temple.
“We are creating this from the outside in, so there are no readymade answers. Everyone will have an equal voice.”
And is there any conflict of interest between this new venture and his existing role at Professional Passport?
Temple is emphatic that there is not, concluding: “Once up and running, PRISM will be run by the executive committee. In the first instance, service providers approached me to help them find a CEO for PRISM, and I was then offered the role in the absence of another suitable candidate. They were satisfied at that stage that there was no incompatibility with my own work.”