Terms of Enagagement

Sunstone HR Limited will conduct its business in accordance with the professional standards laid down by the Code of Professional Conduct of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (‘CIPD’). As part of those standards, terms of engagement are issued and agreed prior to any work being undertaken.

This document has been prepared following discussions with you at the commencement of work and together with Schedule of Services, sets out the terms on which our services will be provided. Please read the information carefully and contact us if you have any concerns or require any clarification.

In this document, ‘we’ and ‘us’ and ‘our; relate to Sunstone HR Limited and ‘you’ and ‘your’ relate to you, the Client.

1 SCOPE
1.1 Our services will be provided by Rachel Saunders and we will agree with you in advance of any proposed change. The services to be provided, timescales and fees are listed in Schedule of Services.

2 RESPONSIBILITIES
Our responsibilities are to:
2.1 Observe current Employment Law and HR best practice
2.2 Retain and maintain records of work completed and make them available to you upon request.
2.3 Provide regular reports on the progress of any work being completed on your behalf.
2.4 Raise any issues or concerns that may be found during the Terms of Engagement.
2.5 Return any information owned by you within 10 working days upon termination of the engagement and once payment for work carried out by us has been made. This does not apply to our proprietary and copyrighted material.
2.6 Retain and maintain records in compliance with the Data Protection Act 2018.

Your responsibilities as the Client are to:
2.7 Provide updates on any relevant action you require us to undertake on your behalf.
2.8 Ensure that records of your business activities are correct, updated and maintained to meet the relevant requirements in the event of any issues with your Company.
2.9 Disclose all relevant information to enable us to complete the work within agreed timescales as set in the Schedule of Services
2.10 Keep us appraised as to any ongoing or new issues, as and when they occur if you expect them to have a bearing on any matters arising.

3 AUTHORITY TO GIVE INSTRUCTIONS
Unless we are acting for you personally, you should tell us at the outset who is authorised to give us instructions. Unless we are advised to the contrary, we will assume that we are authorised to accept instructions from any person whom we reasonably believe to have authority to give instructions to us. We will and can act on instructions given orally, or via electronic communication.

4 FEES
4.1 Our fees are fixed annually on a full year of work you require us to deliver and then paid monthly over a 12-month period. Schedule of Services lists the services we agree to supply within the scope of our agreement
4.2 Any additional work required which is not covered by these terms will be agreed with you and will result in an addendum to Schedule of Services being issued.
4.3 Payment of fees rendered by invoice are due within 30 days
4.4 Interest may be applied to any overdue accounts at a rate of 4%. Where payment has not been received, we reserve the right to withhold services, documents, and information, and have the right to cease to work on your account, and to terminate the engagement if payments are unduly delayed.
4.5 Any expenses incurred whilst working on your behalf will be charged and appropriate records will be kept and will be available for inspection. We will notify you in advance of any expenses due to be incurred. Such expenses may include the hire of meeting rooms, printing, courier charges, mileage but not telephone calls.

5 RETAINING & ACCESSING RECORDS
5.1 Any information produced or relating to the work we undertake for you will be returned to you (where required or requested) and should be kept for a period as necessary.
5.2 You agree that any work completed and work in progress for which payment is outstanding will be held by us until all fees relating to it have been paid.

6 CONFIDENTIALITY & CONFLICTS
6.1 We agree to maintain the confidentiality of your contact details and any information we gain about your company and/or individual employees during our work
6.2 We will not disclose any information relating to your business with any third party without prior written consent, unless required to do so by law or to comply with regulations.
6.3 You agree not to use, copy or allow use of the output of the work we do for you with a third party without our prior permission.
6.4 You agree to hold confidential all information about Sunstone HR Limited proposal(s), fee structures, fees, and personnel.
6.5 We will decline any third-party contract that would create a conflict of interest with the client’s previously agreed instruction.
6.6 We may communicate with you electronically and you accept the risks associated with such communications, except anything arising through our negligence or wilful default.

7 LEGISLATION & COMPLIANCE
7.1 We are obliged to ensure that when appointed by you, the Client, we must inform you of any necessary Employment Law or Legislation and how this affects you as a client. By agreeing to our Terms of Engagement you accept that we must inform you of your obligations under law as a Client, in respect of HR legislation and/or Employment Law or Health & Safety.
7.2 We will inform you of any changes to UK Employment Law as they occur or as we are made aware of these changes. We will undertake to carry this out via electronic communications.

8 LIABILITY
8.1 We provide information, advice and services in good faith based upon information available at the time. We do not warrant the accuracy of information provided. It is for the client to decide whether to accept our advice in making their own management decision.
8.2 We accept no liability for the consequences of its information, opinions, and advice whether direct or indirect.
8.3 Where any loss or damage occurs as the result of you providing misleading, incomplete, or false information no liability will be accepted.
8.4 The advice we give you is not to be used by a third party without written consent. We also accept no legal responsibility from a third party use of information provided by us.
8.5 We confirm that we have legal cover in place in the form of Professional Indemnity Insurance. We will provide you with the details of this should you require it.

9 JURISDICTION
Any disputes arising from our engagement by you will, shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law and the jurisdiction of the English courts.

10 TERMINATION
10.1 You or we may terminate our agreement by giving 90 days’ written notice. All documents and information provided by you will be returned to you within 10 working days of receipt of the notice if all outstanding fees have been paid.
10.2 This contract via these Terms of Engagement will be in force for a maximum of 12 months.

11 INTEGRAL PART OF CONTRACT
11.1 The client, in signing this document, accepts that these terms have been read, understood, and agreed
11.2 The client agrees that all the above terms form part of the contract between Sunstone HR Limited and the client, except where explicitly excluded or modified by the contract and shall take precedence over and shall not be varied by any other means.

SCHEDULE OF SERVICES

Retained Services
Project Services
Ad hoc Services