Restoke puts the people of Stoke-on-Trent at the heart of creative adventures. We make performances, plan events, and run workshops alongside people who may not usually meet; forming new bonds of friendship, understanding and solidarity in the city.
Founded in 2009, Restoke operated as a project-funded organisation for many years developing policies as and when we needed them. There was no joined-up thinking about policies, and as our time between projects was unpaid, writing a full set of policies wasn’t really feasible for us. Then, just before the pandemic, something changed for Restoke. In February 2020, we received core funding for the first time– from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and National Lottery Reaching Communities fund. And in 2023, we became an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation. This sustained, regular funding changed how we were able to operate as an organisation. It afforded us many opportunities to grow and develop, including having the time and money to completely overhaul our policies.
Building a connected set of policies
Core funders often require organisations to have certain policies in place. Initially, we tried to ‘fill the gaps’ in our policies set by just writing the ones we were missing, but we ended up with policies which were repetitive, confusing (and sometimes conflicting) and disjointed. They didn’t reflect Restoke’s values or practice. We started to become aware of how deeply interconnected policies are; governance links to finance, which links to working practices and so on. We realised we needed a way to connect our policies. So we flipped our thinking on its head and decided to create one large document which would hold, or link to, all of our policies, allowing people to easily navigate through them. This became the document we now call Restoke’s Policy Handbook.
We also, crucially, realised that we needed to build our policy set from a different starting point; not by adding missing policies but by clarifying the values that would underpin all of our policies. We already had three key documents that were guiding our work; Holding Lightly, our co-creation methodology, Roots & Reach, our five year business plan, and Restoke Values. To this we added Restoke Behaviours, our version of a Code of Conduct, and together these four documents became the guiding documents from which all of our other policies were written.
Setting some parameters
We also set some parameters for our policies. We wanted our policies to be:
- Robust but also concise | We wanted (and needed) people to read them fully
- Visually beautiful | We wanted people to want to read them and know that we view policies as an act of care towards those we work and engage with
- User-friendly | So many policies we read left us asking ‘yes, but what do I need to do?’, we wanted people to be able to find key information and understand how to put these policies into practice
We also wanted our policies to be openly available to everyone. It felt important to us that everyone at Restoke, staff, freelancers, and participants should have access to the same information.
Supporting us to do this work
Building this inter-connected set of policies was a considerable piece of work. As Executive Producer at Restoke, I spent approximately two weeks away from my inbox and the Restoke office to gather and review our existing policies, research and draft new policies and work out how to present them in a cohesive and understandable way. This would not have been possible without core funding. Although our policies were not written collaboratively with participants or community members, as other organisations have done, they were informed by our practice and reviewed by our Board of Directors which includes former participants in Restoke’s work, Stoke-on-Trent residents and people with diverse lived experiences. Restoke’s commitment to incorporating ‘breathing space’ into our year (periods when we’re not delivering as much activity but instead turning our focus inwards to reflect and revive ourselves) was also crucial in giving us the time to complete this organisational project.
The policies in practice
Restoke’s Policy Handbook is now published on our website. We’re using it in the Restoke office and referring to it in the delivery of our programmes and projects. The structure and formatting of the handbook, beautifully brought to life by designer Nicola Winstanley, has been crucial to its success and usability in practice. Contextual information about Restoke and how to use the policies is provided once at the beginning of the handbook, rather than at the start of each policy, helping to keep them concise. Joyful yellow circles or ‘buttons’ link the reader to related policies or forms so the handbook’s page count doesn’t feel overwhelming. Jenny Harper’s stunning photographs remind us that these policies link to real practice, real people and are there to guide and protect all of us.
Reflecting on this work
Becoming a core-funded organisation presented us with the challenge of writing lots of new policies at once. What initially felt like an overwhelming task, ended up providing us with a valuable opportunity to reflect on and refine our values and how we operate as an organisation. Our policies now work together as a connected set of documents which guide all of us at Restoke, helping us to feel a clearer sense of what we stand for and, importantly, what that looks like in practice. We view the handbook as a live document and will be reviewing it annually. We accept that it’s not perfect, we know that some of it’s not particularly radical, but it’s a set of policies that are visible, usable and which we believe represents Restoke’s values.
Website: http://www.restoke.org.uk
Instagram: @restoke_
Facebook: @restoke
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