Your policies and procedures
OK, so hands up, who has policies or procedures that they’ve written or had written, read once and they’ve never looked at them again?
Although it’s probably not an unusual situation to be honest, having a good information governance framework would have steps for reviews of these at least.
Is it a good time to review?
As many companies and organisations are preparing for year end (well it is soon the end of the tax year in the UK), once the financial reporting has been completed it’s a good time to think about what else needs to be reviewed in readiness for the next year. This is where the policies and procedures task comes in.
Ask yourself some questions
Set aside some time to read the policies and procedures that you have.
Ask yourself some questions:
• Have there been any changes to the legislation that your organisation works within. And yes this includes GDPR/Data Protection/FOI?
• Are you now collecting additional or different information than you stated last year (or when the polices and procedures were written)?
• Do you still undertake the same tasks – have you introduced new services or dropped some?
• Have there been any changes in organisational structure that might have an impact on these documents?
• Are your procedures being followed and are they up to date?
• Who is going to approve these policies and procedures?
• Do you have enough knowledge of key legislation or do you need support?
Some tips for going forward are:
• Think about who can support this review process.
• Can those working with the procedures input to any updates? They’re probably best placed to tell you what works and what doesn’t. It’s a case of “do with the team, not to the team”.
• Put a review date or version control section on all documents.
• Store these where colleagues, staff, volunteers and trustees etc can find them easily… and tell them how to find them.
Next steps?
If you’re not sure what to do next, DTIG is more than happy to help with reviews and recommendations. We can draft new policies or procedures with you or for you.
Get in touch if you would like some advice and even just a chat.
