There are three main reasons why small organisation need policies:

1. Policies ensure consistency – at a basic level policies are how we have agreed to do things. This prevents people from stepping on each other’s toes, confusion about who does what and how, and helps people know what they can expect and what is expected of them.

2. Clear, easy-to-follow, and relevant policies give volunteers, staff and beneficiaries confidence. They make your organisation feel well-run, fair and safe.

3. Funders, other community organisations and sports associations will want evidence that your organisation is well-run, legal and safe before they register your organisation or support you with money or access to their facilities.

No policy is worth the paper it’s written on if nobody knows what it says or if it’s been written for a different organisation. For policies to be effective your people need to:

1. Know what the policy says
2. Understand what that means for them
3. Agree that the policy is right

The best way to ensure this is to include people in writing those policies. That is why Grassroots Support provides good practice templates and training materials that help you and your people understand what is needed and fill in the blanks so policies fit you perfectly.

Impact assessments are a deliberate and systematic effort to understand how a policy will work in practice, particularly to note whether it will have unintended outcomes (positive or negative) or different effects on different groups of people. Typically impact assessments include:

Equality Impact Assessments – does this policy make it harder for some people to participate (older people, younger people, disabled people, men or women, people from different religions, people on lower incomes etc.)?

Other impact assessments could consider whether the policy contributes to or undermines your community’s environment, or the health or economic impact of the policy or project.

Knowing about the unintended consequences allows you to consider if and how you can make your service more accessible. Sometimes no change will be needed, for example, the women’s football team is for women. The exclusion of men isn’t unintended. But, if practice finishes just after the last bus, you may be excluding people who don’t have transport. That might have been easily fixed, if only somebody had noticed. Who knows, the best player you never had might need to catch that bus!

Impact assessments may make you more attractive to funders too – irrespective of the outcome, they demonstrate good practice. They might illustrate the need for the new initiative that you want them to pay for, and over time they will show your positive impact on your community.

Impact assessments should be proportionate, relevant, easy to do, and useful.

Each toolkit contains:

Policy Template, plus

Impact Assessment Template

Each of the toolkits contains at least one policy and at least one impact assessment template. Occasionally there will be more than one template. For example, I have bundled Confidentiality and Privacy (GDPR) as a single toolkit.

Online Video Course

An online video course that will run you through the purpose and need for this policy and the legislative context (if applicable). Unique to each toolkit.

An online video course designed to help you engage with your colleagues, staff, volunteers, members or service users. This course is shared across all of the policy toolkits.

Audio-only versions of both courses, so you can listen on the move if that suits you better.

Handbook (Pdf and Audiobook)

The course book makes a handy guide to reinforce the course. More importantly, it will guide you through your engagement with colleagues, staff, volunteers, members or service users. For example, it includes example activities that you might use.

Presentation Slides

Two sets of presentation slides. The first accompanies the video course. The second is designed for use in your engagement activities.

Yes, of course.

Take a look at the Advice section at the top of the page. Whether you are setting up a new charity, a community group or a sports club, there are numerous articles designed to take you from idea to launch.

Yes, of course. If you upgrade to an Annual Membership within 2 months of buying an individual toolkit, I will refund the cost of the individual package.