Policies and Procedures
Policies can be a very useful way of expressing the values and ideas of the people in your group. They do not have to be formal or difficult to understand – if a policy is simple and easy to read, your members can use it to help make decisions about how the group should do things.
This section includes advice for small community groups on writing policies. It also includes the Resource Centre’s own internal policies, which may be useful for larger organisations.
Click the Links tab at the top of this page for details of other local organisations who can help with information and advice on writing policies.
Covid-19 Risk Assessments
Guidelines for risk assessing your group’s activities or your community venue during the Covid-19 pandemic
Equality and diversity policies for small groups
Planning and writing an equality and diversity policy for small volunteer-run community groups.
Financial rules
Financial rules are your community group’s agreements about how it will look after its money. As well as helping your group to function better, financial rules show funders and other bodies that your group is looking after its money well.
Health and safety for community groups
An introduction to health and safety for community groups run by volunteers.
Managing funds for short-lived crisis-response groups
How to manage your money if your group has been set up quickly to respond to the Covid-19 crisis
Resource Centre policies and procedures
These are the Resource Centre’s own policies and procedures.
Risk assessment
Taking photos at community events
A guide for community groups about how to respect people’s privacy when taking photos at your events
Using the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
Information for community groups about criminal records checks for volunteers and employees.
Data protection for community groups
A plain-English summary of data protection responsibilities for small, volunteer-run community groups, including how to comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
These books are available at the Resource Centre, to borrow or to use in the Centre.
- A practical guide to company law for voluntary organisations
- Celebrating Diversity booklets: challenging sexism, ageism, homophobia, racism, disability discrimination
- Community Matters: Reference Manual for Community Organisations Advisers
- Data protection for voluntary organisations
- Developing appropriate strategies for reducing inequality in Brighton and Hove, 2007
- Easy, Free & Quick ICT Accessibility
- Equalities Act 2010: Voluntary and Community Sector guides
- Equalities Resource Pack for community groups in Brighton and Hove
- Equality Matters: A good practice guide
- Everyone's Business: Safeguarding for Trustees
- First Aid Reference Guide (St John Ambulance 2012)
- First steps - a guide to developing out of school clubs for community associations or similar groups
- Firstcheck: a step by step guide for organisations to safeguard children
- Getting greens registered
- Governance & Participation: Developing democratic governance - factsheets
- Guidance to assist organisers of small events
- Guide to health, safety and welfare at pop concerts and similar events
- Health and safety at outdoor community events (Part 1 & 2)
- Introductory pack on funding and finance: Guide to financial management
- Involving young people: guide to board development
- Just about managing? Effective management for voluntary organisations and community groups
- Making diversity happen: a practical guide for voluntary and community organisation with case studies and checklists
- Quality First: Quality assurance management for community organisations
- Ready Steady Go - starting up and running your out of school kids club
- Risk Toolkit: How to take care of risk in volunteering
- Safe Network: Are they Safe? Guide
- See it Right - making information accessible for people with sight problems
- Simply Governance: A comprehensive guide to understanding the systems & processes concerned with the running of a sustainable community enterprise
- Simply Legal: All you need to know about legal forms and organisational types for community enterprises
- SORP made simple
- Starting a crèche - a guide for community groups
- The good practice safety guide for small and sporting events taking place on the highway, roads and public places
- The Health and Safety Handbook for voluntary and community organisations
- Voluntary but not amateur: a guide to the law for voluntary organisations and community groups
- Voluntary matters: a guide to management and good practice in the voluntary sector (booklet)
- Voluntary matters: management and good practice in the voluntary sector
- Voluntary Sector Legal Handbook
- Volunteers and the law
- Welcome In: A Dementia-Friendly Guide for community groups and organisations
- You're not listening to me! Dealing with disputes: mediation and its benefits for voluntary organisations
The services listed below are not provided by the Resource Centre. These are websites and services we feel are particularly useful for small groups in Brighton & Hove, and which are not easy to find by searching the internet.
Most useful services for local groups
Services provided:
Finding volunteers, Help with developing policies and sample policies, Help with fundraising, Information about managing volunteers, Information on funding sources, Information on managing community and voluntary sector groups, Information on running a group, Networking and finding other community groups, One to one support with managing money, Providers of example equal opportunities policies, Statistics and data, Training for community groups, Training in book-keeping
Notes:
Community Works runs the following projects for the voluntary sector in Brighton & Hove:
- A network of elected representatives, who speak on behalf of the sector at council and strategic partnership meetings.
- Six-monthly conferences and other networks where community and voluntary groups can get together and share experiences, information and views
- Volunteer Centre services:
- You can advertise volunteer opportunities on the Community Works website.
- They have a good practice guide for community groups who work with volunteers. It includes sample forms and policies for groups to adapt.
- Regular forum for volunteer managers.
- Support for trustees and management committee members
- Business skills volunteering, which brokers relationships between voluntary groups and businesses
- A programme of training courses
- A mentoring scheme
- One-to-one consultancy
- A funding bid reading service
- A bank of sample policies and procedures, to help larger organisations develop their own policies.
- free half-hour one-to-one advice surgeries on any topic. These run on the last Tuesday of each month, between 2pm and 4.30pm. You need to book in advance - email info@bhcommunityworks.org.uk or call 01273 234023
They have an electronic voting system which is available to hire. This consists of hand-held pads which can be used by people in a meeting to vote. The results are then displayed instantly on a laptop. They also have a wooden ballot box, which groups can borrow.
- Advice about equality and diversity
- Fire Protection
- Getting outside help with running a sports group
- Help with developing a safeguarding policy
- Help with developing policies and sample policies
- Information about managing volunteers
- Information and training about safeguarding
- Information on being an employer
- Information on ethical procurement
- Information on insurance
- Information on running childrens groups
- Insurance suppliers
- Legal advice
- Quality Assurance System providers
- Risk Assessment (Financial and Organisational)
- Risk Assessment (Health and Safety / Fire)
- Support for black and minority ethnic groups
- Umbrella bodies for DBS checking
Notes:
Safety Net is a charity that provides training and support for community groups around safeguarding children.
They run safeguarding training for community groups.
They offer a DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) application service, and one-to-one support around DBS applications. You can book an appointment for support by emailing DBS@safety-net.org.uk
They can help organisations use the Simple Quality Protects tool to assess the quality of their work and services.