Policy Doctor- Our school policy renewal and update service

Policy Doctor

Imagine the scene (as we’re sure this doesn't happen at your governing body meetings…). Papers for your governors meeting are dutifully circulated seven days in advance. Collective hearts sink when the agenda shows that 30 minutes of the meeting is dedicated for ‘Policy Discussion and Approval’, followed by a list of six policies. Everyone knows that it will take at least three times as long to do justice to the policies being tabled – on top of the usual items relating to scrutinising the work of the school and holding leaders to account.

Surely there’s a better way?

Call for the Doctor.

The Origins

Policy Doctor was born out of frustration and a desire to do better. Staff meetings at PAG are often interrupted by shared experiences of interminable and less than effective governing body/trust meetings. The root of these frustrations is the same each time – wasted time and effort that could be expended more fruitfully on focusing on teaching and learning. Key amongst these drains on time is work surrounding policy development, scrutiny and approval. Since 2015, PAG has delivered consultancy and policy work as distinct deliverables and as a part of wider schemes, including producing compliant, new sets of school policies with consideration for the needs of individual schools.

Why will Policy Doctor benefit you?

Policy Doctor will take responsibility for the entire suite of polices for your organisation. In discussion with you and with your agreement, Policy Doctor will structure your approach to policy work. It will ensure that time spent in scrutiny and discussion is efficient, productive and based on materials, in which leaders and governors can have total confidence from a legal and compliance perspective. All policies will be tailored to your context and delivered to an agreed three-year programme. All policies will be formatted to an agreed standard.

What will Policy Doctor deliver?

Policy Doctor has been designed to integrate with any current systems and processes. It will deliver policies in a standardised manner and via an agreed set of checks and balances. Policies produced via Policy Doctor are:

Compliant
Policy Doctor will ensure compliance with the latest legislation and guidance from the DfE
Integrated
Policy Doctor will group policies into ‘families’ where they will be colour-coded to signify their belonging
Contextual
Policy Doctor will account for the specific context of each organisation
Efficient
Policy Doctor will highlight any and all changes to be presented for consideration and the reasons for them, be they stylistic, legislative or guidance based
Timely
Policy Doctor will ensure that every minute spent on scrutiny adds value to the end product, the organisation and those in its care
Proactive
External factors affecting policy will be fed into the policy plan, managing compliance and workload for those who input, scrutinise and approve policies
Uniform
Policy Doctor will ensure that each policy is synonymous in tone, branding, language, quality and format
Measurable
Policy Doctor will build in a review mechanism where front line users of the policy will be given an opportunity to comment on the policy in operation.
Modern
Policy Doctor integrates with collaboration tools for real time editing/comments, governance platforms such as Trust Governor and has integrated electronic sign off via Docusign.

Policy Doctor in practice

The optimal commission for Policy Doctor spans a three-year cycle during which every policy the organisation operates is systematically reviewed, improved and updated (up to 100 policies). At the end of the three-year cycle, the organisation will have a full suite of consistent, compliant policies. We therefore offer both one-year (up to 30 policies) and three-year subscriptions.

Putting policy work at the top of the agenda.

Try it out

We would be delighted to receive one of your school’s policies, which our team will review and provide specific suggestions, under no obligation. If this is of interest, please use the upload tool to upload your chosen policy and one of our consultants will be in touch with an updated version.