Policy Library

A free, open & collaborative collection of policies & processes.

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Policy

Reparative Rest Leave

HierarchyArts OrganisationCharitySocial Enterprise

Our rest policy acknowledges that due to structural inequalities in the cultural sector, not everyone experiences work in the same way. It offers up to three additional days of paid rest per year for staff members who experience inequality.

Policy

Safeguarding policy & procedure

Self-managedArts Organisation

A radical approach to safeguarding that questions the definition of “vulnerable” and instead places all people we work with at the heart of the policy holistically. We propose a shared opportunity to use non-punitive procedures, ask for consent, offer a matrix to attempt to diffuse conflict or avoid involving external…

Policy

New child leave policy

Activist GroupSelf-managedCo-op

We aim to ensure anyone who becomes responsible for a child has paid time off devoted to this huge new responsibility.

Policy

Induction checklist

Self-managedSocial Enterprise

An adaptable induction process focused on wellbeing and support, as well as practical, legal and technical tasks.

Policy

Safeguarding policy & procedure

Self-managedArts Organisation

A policy which aims to create environments that prevent safeguarding issues from arising, and outlines how to respond to incidents if they occur. It applies to: children, adults at risk of harm, staff members, board members, and others.

Policy

Workshop & consultancy criteria / costings policy

Self-managedSocial Enterprise

This policy aims to clarify what types of bespoke work we will do (workshops or consultancy); how it will be decided (based on capacity and equity questions); and what we will charge for the work (sliding scales based on org income).

Policy

Direct action leave

HierarchyArts OrganisationCharity

In recognition of the gravity of the climate emergency, the PTC will donate up to 6 days leave per year (pro rated depending on your working hours) to every employee to spend on direct action – e.g. attending or preparing for demonstrations or other related voluntary activity.

Policy

Exit checklist

Self-managedSocial Enterprise

A handy adaptable exit process including items around support & organisational learning as well as practical, legal and technical concerns.

Policy

Protest leave

HierarchyCharity

A policy that allows employees to take “protest leave” to participate in demonstrations or civil action related to major political issues, without it counting against their holiday or sick leave, as long as it doesn’t interfere with time-critical projects and is approved by their manager.

Policy

Socially just waging system

Self-managedCo-op

A wage system based on Platform’s policy, with important additions to pay adjustments for dependents (including children) and housing.

Policy

New parent policies

Activist GroupSelf-managedCo-op

A policy challenging the ways in which discrimination against parents and carers is still the norm in most workplaces. Includes: maternity leave and pay; paternity / second parent leave & pay; shared parental leave & pay; and adoption leave & pay.

Policy

Employee health and wellbeing policy

HierarchyArts OrganisationCharity

A values based policy aimed at supporting staff health and wellbeing based on years of adapting and learning to shape our practice which we have now formalised into a policy.

Policy

Core team policy

HierarchySocial Enterprise

This policy aims to clarify who is involved in day-to-day decision making and the structures that support the team to be involved, as well as for others to get more involved.

Policy

Peer reflection & supervision

Activist GroupSelf-managedCo-op

A support and accountability system for a small non-hierarchical organisation, designed to avoid the pitfalls of annual reviews and strengthen a disability justice approach.

Policy

Staff travel

Activist GroupSelf-managedCo-op

This policy has guidance on: travelling to a work meeting/workshop, travelling to an external training (for staff development) and commuting.

Policy

Internal hiring/promotion

HierarchyCharity

A policy that provides two ways into a role for employees, acknowledging that not all hierarchical work relationships are equitable. It also involves staff members in the process and allows current workers to have a first go at a role.

Policy

Travel policy

Activist GroupSelf-managed

A framework for traveling for a collective covering 1) which expenses are reimbursed, for who, and how; and 2) how to count working days when traveling. It provides guidelines and suggestions regarding how to think about travelling in an activist context.

Policy

‘Who do we accept money from’ policy

Activist GroupSelf-managed

This policy is our framework when deciding to accept funding from a certain source. It lays out who we want and do not want as funders, and the due diligence process for new funders.

Policy

Flat structure overview

Self-managedCharity

The structure of a flat management system, including core groups (for internal work), delivery roles (for programme work), meeting cycles and related support systems.

Policy

Team-wide mentoring

Self-managedCharity

A policy that establishes monthly sessions for team members with external mentors. The sessions aim to provide support, facilitate realistic workplanning, and offer an external perspective on team dynamics. Annual appraisals and anti-oppression meetings are also conducted by mentors. Confidentiality is maintained with three clear exceptions.

Policy

Dress code

HierarchySelf-managedCharityCo-op

A policy outlining that we do not have a dress code and employees decide how they dress. They are invited to dress in ways that make them feel comfortable and authentic.

Policy

How we make decisions

Self-managedCo-op

In Autonomic, we make decisions collectively, while also attempting to empower autonomous action by individual workers. We designed our decision making process using decision making tools we had experienced through participation in various horizontal organisations. We hope this tool is useful to others in the struggle for a better world.

Policy

Living our values

Self-managedCharity

This document sets out our values, as well as what each of these means for behaviour and practice, with examples of the habits team members can adopt which would mean they are living the values.

Policy

Financial health, contingency & reserves

Self-managedCharity

A policy that defines a financially-healthy organisation and outlines actions to undertake if that status isn’t met at different points in time. It also includes a simple plan to increase financial reserves.

Policy

Sick leave agreement

Activist GroupSelf-managed

This is a sick leave policy for a small collective with limited funds. On average, for each 10 days of work, you have the right to one paid sick day. However, we have decided to pool our sick days. Pooling addresses the fact that we do not all have the…

Policy

Flat structure mutual support and feedback

Self-managedCharity

In our flat structure, we have created a “Buddy system” where each team member acts as a buddy to another. This aims to ensure that we don’t lose the good bits of management, and that we all feel supported and able to hold ourselves accountable. The buddy system is closely…

Policy

Unlimited Paid Time Off policy

HierarchySocial Enterprise

An unlimited PTO policy that seeks to pre-emptively address the more common issues with such policies, including some evidence that staff are less likely to take time off in an unlimited PTO scheme.

Policy

Socially just pay policy

Self-managedCharity

This policy aims to provide fair and financially secure wages for all workers. It is based on a flat rate plus uplifts, including: length of service, support for dependents, experience of marginalisation, and city weighting. It also contains an emergency waging system and fund, as well as a process for…

Policy

Performance management process

Activist GroupSelf-managedCo-op

A performance management process for a small self-managed co-op that allows for democratic overturn of panel decisions if over half of the co-op members object.

Policy

Decision-making policy & process

Self-managedSocial Enterprise

This policy includes: how decisions are made in a small team, the principles that underpin them, which decisions can be made by whom, and what steps will be taken to support more equitable involvement in decisions. It is based on consensus and mandate decision-making mechanisms.

Policy

Family friendly umbrella policy

Activist GroupSelf-managedArts OrganisationCo-op

Maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave are areas that are covered by legislation. This policy offers terms that are additional to the statutory allowance and tries to make the language more gender neutral.

Policy

Safeguarding policy

Self-managedCharity

A safeguarding policy for a small charity that works with adults, based on values of liberation, equity and anti-oppression and informed by Maslaha’s Radical Safeguarding workbook.

Policy

Peer-to-peer feedback & reflection process

HierarchyCharity

This process provides a space for reflection and feedback: how is everyone doing, and how are we doing as a collective? It includes written self reflection and written feedback from others and an hour-long feedback meeting.

Policy

Equitable recruitment policy

Self-managedArts Organisation

This policy lines out how we want to build equity into our recruitment processes as we realise that making recruitment a more equitable working method will allow more people from racialised backgrounds and people with disabilities to work in our organisation.

Policy

Peer review policy & procedure

Self-managedCommunity GroupCo-op

The purpose of this peer review policy and procedure is to support all employees of the Project to achieve and maintain their maximum (reasonable) contribution to their role at the Project. It is an opportunity for all employee members to have some time to reflect on their role, to think…

Policy

Rules for how we work together

Activist GroupSelf-managedCharityMembershipSocial Enterprise

A membership, decision making, group structure, core values and code of conduct policy for a user-led member-ship organisation with roughly 100 members, from a wide range of backgrounds.

Policy

Maintenance meeting agenda

Activist GroupSelf-managedCo-op

A template agenda for a regular group meeting which aims to offer: a deeper check-in on the experience of being in the group / space to raise issues and “have awkward chats”/ space to reflect together on our work, and our direction. This template is structured to help manage tensions…

Policy

Privacy and cookie policy

HierarchySocial Enterprise

A comprehensive digital rights-based website privacy policy with detailed information about what and how site users details will be used, including by partners. Includes: user rights, text on organisational refusal to share personal data with authorities and how to have your data deleted.

Policy

Family leave

HierarchySocial Enterprise

A gender-neutral and trans-inclusive policy for new parents—of all kinds—taking time off work.

Policy

Carer’s leave

Activist GroupSelf-managedArts OrganisationCo-op

A policy for the situations in which a member of staff can take leave to support the care of another, with broad and detailed definitions of what constitutes care and who the policy can apply to. Also includes legal framework.

Policy

Accountability agreement

Self-managedArts OrganisationCommunity Group

The accountability agreement is a code of behaviour that all club members agree to adhere to and embrace on joining the club… we outline suggested consequences for members who have caused harm, based on current working practices. You can use these as guidance in how to engage with a person…

Policy

Long COVID/chronic illness

HierarchyCharity

A policy to address the medium-to-long term impacts of Long COVID (and other types of chronic illness and disability) and outlines organisational processes for supporting staff affected, in a way which is aligned with disability justice and the needs of a small staff team to continue to work in a…

Policy

Culture of care & accountability

Self-managedSocial EnterpriseUnion

We have high expectations of how we behave towards one another, and we hold each other accountable to those expectations. This policy has two sides: the culture of care that we are proactively building, and the culture of accountability that is reactively implemented. Includes: definitions of accountability and care, 3-step…

Policy

Keeping young people safe from abuse

Self-managedCommunity GroupCo-op

This is a youth work cooperative safeguarding policy, accessible for a range of members, which avoids resorting to calling state authorities, unless the group’s safeguarding contacts are not available. Designed by an organisation with a mix of paid and voluntary youth workers, some of whom are adults and some are…

Policy

Team dynamics & tension shifting meeting

Activist GroupHierarchyArts Organisation

A meeting template and policy description for a small workers’ cooperative to improve communication, surface and address tensions or conflicts that exist amongst the group. It’s about making space for the kinds of conversations around group needs and dynamics that are easily side-lined.

Policy

Worker rights and wellbeing

A consolidation of policies to support workers’ rights and wellbeing, for a large membership-led activist organisation/union. It includes: Sickness policy, Parental Leave, Carers and compassionate leave, Time off in lieu and overwork, Additional leave, Trade union recognition, Staff access to counselling or other support, Annual leave, Pension contribution, Staff absence…

Policy

Safer spaces

An outline of how we request staff, clients and visitors to behave in our space. The purpose is to support everyone to feel comfortable and respected, especially those from marginalised communities who regularly face prejudice in broader society.

Policy

Decision-making

MembershipCommunity Group

A decision making policy for a migrant-led voluntary group with over 100 active members. Includes: principles, outline of consensus process, which decisions can be made by which groups or individuals, what to about decisions where it is unclear who should make them, and a decision record keeping template.

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