Having effective policies and procedures are a foundation and hallmark of a safe, well run, sustainable organisation.
Policies and Procedures help keep your staff, service users and organisation safe. Your policies enable staff, volunteers and service users to understand your approach, values and attitude in specific areas and informs them how you would want them to act when handling specific situations. They show why, for example safeguarding, equality diversity and inclusion are important and how you want everyone to be treated and act. Procedures set out the actions people need to take in specific situations.
Without effective policies and procedures your organisation has no reliable or consistent way of responding to specific situations meaning staff and volunteers will be forced to invent what they think needs to be done. This can be highly stressful for staff and volunteers who have no guidance about what is expected of them and there can be serious consequences for individuals and organisations if the wrong approach is taken. Governance is a key priority for charities, and the VCFSE sector according to the Charity Commission. Support your organisation, staff, volunteers and service users by having effective policies and procedures in place to keep people safe and supported.
Here are a few to get you started. The Organisation HealthCheck Plus and the Quality Standard both contain a comprehensive range of example policies and procedures to support you are as complete the HealthCheck Plus and Quality Standard.
