Policies and Procedures – What Might We Need?
(Developed by Simon Croft)
There are many policies and procedures that organisations can have.
Some are required by law, some are commonly required by funders and others are
chosen by the organisations themselves to help make sure that they fulfil their duties
and that the organisation runs consistently, fairly and smoothly.
A very small voluntary organisation will often start with no more than two or three
basic policies. However, most organisations need to adopt more policies as they
expand and develop the work that they do, change how they do their work, and
increase the scope of their good practice.
Policies and Procedures – What’s the Difference?
Policies say what an organisation wishes to happen, for example “We want everyone
to have equal access to our services”. Procedures say how an organisation has
decided to make it happen, for example “We will provide our information in different
languages”. All policies need procedures to make them happen in practice.
Review and Update
It is important to keep your policies and procedures under review. Your needs as an
organisation might change, or the law might change, either of which might mean you
need to adopt new policies or to update existing ones.
In particular, if you begin to employ staff, there will be several policies required by law,
and several others it is wise to have.
Training and Induction
Policies and procedures are only effective if people know about them and know how
to follow them. This means:
 Training people when a new policy is put in place
 Updating people when an existing policy is changed
 Making sure policies and procedures form part of the induction for all new
people, whether trustees, volunteers or staff
What Policies Might We Need?
The policies and procedures you need are mainly determined by what your
organisation does and how it works.
This document lists the more common policies organisations use. The list doesn’t
cover every policy an organisation might need, but it does list most of the policies
small organisations typically have in place.
Although it is important to tailor each policy to your own organisation’s particular
needs, there are models for many policies available online which you can use as a
starting point. A selection of places to find models, examples and more information is
given at the end of the list
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If you are unsure what you need, or are struggling to find a model or sample, then
seek outside advice (see ‘General Resources’ for sources of help).List of
Commonly Required Policies for Small Organisations
All organisations:
 Equality and Diversity
 Financial Controls
Many organisations:
 Volunteer policy
 Health and Safety
 Confidentiality
 Data Protection
 Conflict of Interest
 User involvement
 Reserves
 Environmental
 IT
 Complaints
Organisations working with Children:
 Safeguarding of Children
Organisations working with Vulnerable Adults:
 Safeguarding of Vulnerable Adults
Organisations with Employees:
If you employ staff you will need a number of policies, some of which are specifically
required by law and you should take advice to make sure you develop and adopt
everything you need. Employment related policies include:
 Grievance
 Disciplinary
 Health and Safety
 Capability
 Sickness and absence
 TOIL (Time Off In Lieu)
 Parental leave – maternity / paternity
 Compassionate leave
 Bad weather
 Whistleblowing
 Redundancy
Where to Find Example or Model Policies
IMPORTANT
Organisations are all different – what is suitable for one may not be suitable for another. It is therefore
important that you think through carefully what you actually need to put in place in your particular
organisation and how it will work in practice.
With all model policy and procedure documents, they should only be used as a starting point to develop
a tailored version.
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It is the responsibility of each individual organisation to ensure any policies and procedures adopted are
both appropriate for its particular needs and compliant with all relevant prevailing legal requirements.
Equality and Diversity
Organisations without staff are welcome to download the Equality and Diversity policy
development document (including a model policy) on this web site.
Organisations with staff will find Equality and Diversity policy models at the sites
offering general employment policies, listed below.
Financial
Community Accountancy Self Help has a wide range of financial management
resources including a Financial Controls policy model and a Reserves policy model as
part of its CASHFACTS resource bank:
www.cash-online.org.uk/
Health and Safety
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) provides a basic guide for small organisations
called “Introduction to Health and Safety”, which includes a health and safety policy.
It’s available from the ‘Getting Started’ section of the website:
www.hse.gov.uk/business/getting-started.htm
People – Volunteers and Staff
Volunteering England has many resources relating to the management of volunteers
in their ‘Good Practice Bank’ including model policies:
www.volunteering.org.uk/goodpractice
Personnel Employment Advice and Conciliation Service (PEACe) provide support on
Voluntary Sector employment matters. Their resources, including model policies, are
available from:
www.lvsc.org.uk/peace
As well as the PEACe and Volunteering England resources, samples of many different
employment and volunteer related policies are available from NCVO’s HR Bank:
www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/hrbank-policies
Child Protection and Safeguarding
The Safe Network provides a wide range of Child Protection and Safeguarding
information, including policy development help and a model policy in the ‘Resources’
section of its website.
Home page: www.safenetwork.org.uk/
NSPCC ‘Safe Communities’ toolkit (funded for Wales in hard copy but available to all
via download), is available from their ‘Inform’ site.
Home page: www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform
Other Policies
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Your local infrastructure organisation or national umbrella body (if you have one) is
likely to be able to provide or signpost to other models or examples.
See ‘General Resources’ for information about infrastructure organisations.
All links operational as at April 2012
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