Policies help the organisation work consistently, in particular around areas that require legal compliance or that have significant risk. The policies you need will to some extent depend on the organisation’s activities. Policies are a decision that the committee/trustees/directors make and are responsible for, see our making decisions guide.

If the committee or trustees or directors are discussing an issue frequently and need to be able to delegate their decision to staff or volunteers, you may find it useful to have a policy for that issue for example, a social media policy.

Other issues might become part of an existing document; for example, a password policy could be part of the data protection policy. You might also find that some funders require additional policies (stated in their application guidance notes).

Because every organisation is different, we can’t give you a comprehensive list, but you don’t need to start from scratch. These are essential policies for every group with links to templates you can adapt:

• If you employ people, you’ll need employment policies. Use the ACAS templates for employers as a starting point.
• Safeguarding policy. Use the Safeguarding Board’s policies to help you start. There are separate policy resources for Safeguarding Adults and Safeguarding Children.
• Health and safety. Use the Health and Safety Executive’s policy guidance with their risk assessment templates.
• Data protection (GDPR). Use the Information Commissioner’s guidance.
• Financial policies and procedures guidance from the Charity Commission including financial controls and writing a reserves policy.
• Equality, diversity and inclusion policy template from ACAS.
• A complaints policy or procedure is always useful and often required by commissioners.

NCVO is a national charity for charities. They have published templates and example policies.

Use your policies!

Remember, policies don’t work if they’re just in a folder. Think about how to make them easy to find and use:

• Explain policies to committees, trustees or directors and volunteers and staff during their induction.
• Store policies in one place that everyone can access, for example on your website.
• Always have a copy of policies to hand at trustee meetings, supervision and staff meetings.
• Refer to policies when making decisions.
• Consider a regular programme of training to remind everyone of important policies and what they need to do.

Other legal obligations

Do you need a licence? Some activities may require an additional licence or permit, you can find out using the Gov.uk license finder.

Unfortunately no.

Please use templates / advice from the government regulators or reputable organisations listed above.

Never use generative AI summaries or search results for legal queries because they may not be accurate. Generative AI does not consult facts before generating a result.

Generative AI uses maths to guess the next most likely word. This means that there have been legal cases where generative AI guessed wrong. These mistakes have been called “hallucinations”. The underlying technology means it is unreliable and using it for queries about laws in particular is irresponsible.

How Community Action can help

Need to talk through your options? If the community organisation is in Bradford district UK (including Shipley, Ilkley, Bingley and Keighley), Community Action can help.

Make an appointment to talk to one of our development officers. For organisations with an annual income under £100,000 advice and getting started training courses are free of charge.

Working for a private business or a sole trader? Sorry, Community Action doesn’t provide advice to those groups.