Policy Library

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

If you know what you’re looking for, search or filter to find policies. If you’re not sure, you can explore policy themes or just browse. You can also share a policy.

1 – 60 of 85 resources from 40 groups

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Guide
Sickness

How to write a compassionate, supportive, solidarity-based sickness policy

What happens if someone goes on long-term sickness absence or is frequently absent? This guide shares practical suggestions to help you develop a compassionate and supportive sickness policy guided by disability justice thinking.

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

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.

Policy

Socially just waging system

A waging system that aims to be socially just, in recognising different needs and backgrounds, and fair to all of its workers. It aims to provide for maximum financial security, and also reflect the organisation’s ethics and principles. It’s trying to address the fact that pay tends to ignore people’s pre-existing circumstances and treats people’s time as worthy of different amounts.

Policy

Carer’s, compassionate bereavement and parental leave

A policy that aims to address the lack of support for staff who have caring responsibilities, and the lack of recognition of the different dimensions of what that support might look like. The policy lays out guidelines that aim to help relieve some of this stress and enable both employer and employee to be clear about where they stand regarding support and time off work.

Policy

Induction policy for new staff

An induction policy to provide a framework for identifying and sorting out any initial difficulties which can occur in the early stages of starting a job. The aim is to provide a supporting structure for the new employee and alleviate some of the initial pressures that can arise when starting a new post. For existing members, it also helps clarify how to support new members effectively.

Policy

Sickness and incapacity policy and procedures

A sickness policy to support workers who experience illness, designed to find solutions that suit all, and for financial worries not to be an added burden to staff off sick. The policy outlines how the organisation will deal with prolonged absence, repeated short-term absences and/or poor or partial performance of duties due to illness, injury or other medical condition, and aims to ensure they feel supported and fairly treated throughout.

Policy

Staff review procedure

A staff review process aiming to: 1) review progress and priorities, 2) explore and resolve any problems in these areas, 3) discuss the employee’s potential and future training needs, 4) set targets for future work and training if relevant. Staff take it in turns to review each other.

Policy

Recruitment procedure

A recruitment process for paid staff (permanent or temporary), aiming to overcome the problem of processes that are more likely to recruit people from privileged backgrounds.

Policy

Redundancy procedure

A redundancy policy for a collectively-run organisation, which aims to avoid situations of coop member redundancy and offers structures to support staff who may be made redundant, as well as offering alternative employment within the organisation, where possible.

Policy

Staff undertaking training courses or volunteering roles

A policy aiming to support employees undertaking short courses and those of a longer duration such as certificates, diplomas or MAs that require intensive study. The policy also recognises that small organisation often have has limited resources. The policy also covers sabbaticals and extended voluntary work.

Policy

Shared parental leave

A policy that aims to improve on the amount of time off and pay linked to statutory parental leave, which can be shared equally between parents.

Policy

Staff support & performance improvement procedure

A policy to support staff who are struggling to meet the aims of their role, rather than treating under-performance as a disciplinary issue, like behavioural or ethical concerns. Acknowledging the ableism that is often implicit in disciplinary policies and offering comprehensive collective support for staff, with a recognition that disability, illness and other wider life circumstances may affect someone’s ability to do their job.

Policy

Co-op member / volunteer agreements

A plain-English policy to clarify the different roles held by volunteers and paid members within a youth work cooperative. Includes simple outline template agreements for volunteers and for cooperative members.

Policy

Paid work for co-operative members

A plain-English pay policy for a small youth work cooperative, in which pay is variable, depending on current organisational income levels. Aims to offer the flexibility of freelance work, while offering additional forms of support (like sick pay).

Policy

Equality and diversity

A plain-English youth work cooperative equality and diversity policy, which makes explicit the range of types of oppression that can play out amongst young people and the cooperative, as well as the ways in which those experiences are often reflections of wider social power dynamics. Outlines the responsibilities of both the organisation and of individual youth workers.

Policy

Member volunteer induction process

A simple 1-page process guide to support a newer member to get involved in a particular working group within the organisation. It aims to provide clarity for members looking to get involved in a new part of the cooperative.

Policy

Conflict system

Clear non-punitive steps for a small cooperative to take when a conflict has been raised between members. Includes steps that range from informal conversations to deciding to close the cooperative.

Policy

Pay review process

A detailed process and template guide for a mid-sized collectively-managed organisation, to review its current pay policy. It includes steps for identifying the scope of the review and the types of questions it will and won’t ask (including several specific ones which came up in this organisation), as well as projected timelines for gathering information and developing proposals, collectively and democratically.

Policy

Staff absence planning

A policy for a mid-sized organisation to identify individual and collective responsibilities for staff taking time off, in a way that both enables staff to take time away, and for it to avoid negatively impacting on staff who are still working. Includes link to a template for work handover planning.

Guide
Power

Living systems for thriving groups: supporting you to organise collaboratively

Navigate is a team of experienced facilitators and trainers. This resource is an online course they’ve developed to help groups thrive by creating and maintaining living social systems that work for them and fit their values.

Policy

Parent and carer staff support

A comprehensive collection of policies designed to support staff with parental or caring responsibilities, including wider political framing for the importance of this set of policies.

Policy

Parental leave

This policy sets out employees’ entitlement to leave to care for children during the period until the child reaches 18 years old.

Guide
Safeguarding

Radical safeguarding: a social justice workbook for safeguarding practitioners 

A guide designed for practitioners working with children and young people, particularly in school contexts, who might be wondering how to start doing things differently when it comes to safeguarding.

Policy

Non-punitive disciplinary procedure

This is a non-punitive version of a disciplinary procedure, designed to encourage dialogue through structured opportunities to discuss and learn from mistakes. It has been written to follow the guidelines set out in the Acas Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures, without the punishment-based approach of issuing warnings.

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