Policy Framework
The Governance and Secretariat Team has developed a Policy Framework which aims to provide guidance for all staff involved in policy development. The Framework includes guidance on the development, approval, publication and review of the University’s policies, strategies, regulations, institutional codes of practice and all other policy documents to help ensure that the University has relevant and up-to-date policies, strategies, regulations and codes of practice in place.
The following templates are available to help staff with developing policy documents:
Policy Development Checklist
The Policy Development Checklist aims to assist staff with the development of policies and other official documents. It sets out areas to be considered before a policy is submitted for approval including the reasons for the development of the policy and the consultation, approval and implementation processes.
The Policy Template sets out a proposed format for policy documents. This template can also be used for Codes of Practice, Guidelines, Procedures, etc.
Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) Policy Development Checklist
The Equality Impact Assessment Policy Checklist should be used when developing a new policy or reviewing a current one, to ensure that it is fair, transparent, legal and consistently applied. It is important to ensure that a proposed policy does not have a negative impact on anyone who may be affected by it. Under the Equality Act 2010, protected characteristics are categorised as age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief (including lack of belief), sex and sexual orientation.
It is therefore good practice to use the Equality Impact Assessment Policy Checklist to support this as it forms part of the University’s approach to EIA. The Checklist is to be used for the development of any policy, not just those that appear to have high relevance in relation to equality and diversity issues.
The equality impact assessment process will enable the University to predict or anticipate possible barriers faced by particular people with these protected characteristics. If the outcome of the policy or the way a service is delivered disadvantages certain groups of people, the University has a legal duty to mitigate, remove or reduce the negative impact. This may mean some modification to be policy or that the approach to the policy area needs to be reviewed.
This document shows example approval routes for different types of policies. All policies should be supported by the appropriate member of Executive before being submitted to Executive and Directorate for approval. Depending on their content, policies may also need to be approved by Academic Board and/or its Sub-Committees or the Board of Governors and/or its Sub-Committees. Authors should refer to the terms of reference of the University’s Boards and Committees to help with planning approval routes, these can be found at: http://www.mmu.ac.uk/sas/minutes/committee_handbook.php
If you have queries or comments about the Policy Framework please contact Kate Brown on 5985 or k.brown@mmu.ac.uk.
Adobe Acrobat Reader and Microsoft Word Viewer are required to view some files on this site.