Adopting LA policies as School policies

[MkII]

No they don't need to be signed @ozydave.

 

Policies are not current until they are ratified by the governors and the note of that taking place will be in the minutes of governor meetings which are also in the public domain.

 

It is good practice, however, for the policy to have ratification and review dates on the policy to save time.

 

All my governor Academy and MAT policies have a box like this on the bottom stating the ownership of the policy, ratification responsibility and the review cycle (this one is from the Health & Safety Policy)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]46537[/ATTACH]

 

So we were thinking... we could use the LAs policies and refer staff to those at login, together with any local amendments, of which there are currently none. Our chair of Governors has ok'd that (she was in on the meeting) so does that look right/ is there any more we should be doing?

 

Thanks

Edited December 4, 2017 by MkII

[elsiegee40]

So we were thinking... we could use the LAs policies and refer staff to those at login, together with any local amendments, of which there are currently none. Our chair of Governors has ok'd that (she was in on the meeting) so does that look right/ is there any more we should be doing?

 

Thanks

 

As a MAT we have policies at Trust level and policies at academy level. We can refer people to the Trust policy from the academy as the Trust policy applies in it's entirety to the academy with no variation. However, with the statutory policies then heaven help you if they are not on your academy's website. Having to go the Trust website to find them is too many clicks for the inspector and they kicked up a stink about it at one of our academies earlier this year (We sorted it out pronto). Every single policy is ratified by the appropriate level of governance in our structure having been created/reviewed by the appropriate level of management within the MAT.

 

If you are an LA school then I suppose the same could technically apply to LA policies. You could adopt them unchanged. However, the policies MUST be ratified and approved on a cycle by the governors just as for those created in house. How else do the governors know if the policies are still applicable to your establishment?

 

However, if the LA policy is simply a model policy then it MUST be transcribed as a school policy before being ratified. You cannot use a template policy as a live policy.

 

The amount of work that needs to be done by the governors does not change regardless of who created the policies. Simply trying to use an LA policy without rebadging and ensuring it reflects your school's procedures and setup smacks of lazy management. If I were chair, I would be insisting that SLT did the job they were supposed to do and created, amended and reviewed policies properly before ratification by my GB.

Edited December 4, 2017 by elsiegee40

[jmak]

So we were thinking... we could use the LAs policies and refer staff to those at login, together with any local amendments, of which there are currently none. Our chair of Governors has ok'd that (she was in on the meeting) so does that look right/ is there any more we should be doing?

 

Thanks

In theory if it's minuted and those minutes are signed by the person who chaired the meeting, your audit trail is complete. However there have been very few LA template policies which we found were suitable without amendment, which would make me question how thoroughly they were reviewed. Not that the policies were poor quality, just that generally there was quite a lot that wasn't relevant in our setting, or additions to be made to make it relevant, or names/roles/contact details to be added. YMMV

 

If I was checking and all of the policies were ratified on the same date and they were all template policies of be pretty suspicious.

 

Equally, if you have massive gaps in your list of policies and you need a quick win, it's not a bad starting point...

[elsiegee40]

So we were thinking... we could use the LAs policies and refer staff to those at login, together with any local amendments, of which there are currently none. Our chair of Governors has ok'd that (she was in on the meeting) so does that look right/ is there any more we should be doing?

 

Thanks

 

And another point @MkII

 

Your chair has no authority to make independent decisions.

 

Your chair can only take chair’s action in an emergency and even then the decision must be subsequently presented to, and agreed by, the whole Governing Board.

 

If your Chair is making decisions like this then it hints at weak Governance as well as weak Leadership.

[MkII]

Thank you very much for those comments. I've learned a lot already. These aren't template policies they're the actual policies all LA staff are bound by.

 

The chair of governors happens to be teamed up with the digital lead, is my best understanding. I met with them and we took a brief look at the policies to check if they were applicable. I think the chair did say, now you mention it, that we would need governors approval, should we use these as is or any modifications.

 

My concern was the workload that coming up with fresh policies would entail. We had no other expertise to draw upon, and that the LA had already invested time and effort into policies applied to our network that should apply to us as a local school. How are you able to draft policies that have a chance of standing up legally otherwise? As a small school with limited resources this is beyond our means.

Edited December 4, 2017 by MkII

[elsiegee40]

Policies are generally common sense. They must reflect actual practise at the school otherwise they're worthless.

 

Those covering employment issues should be looked over by your school's legal advisers - our insurers offer a checking service as part of their package.

 

Those for more general practice like marking, behaviour, etc can only apply to your school.

 

If your staff are employed directly by the LA then the LA's staff disciplinary policy, etc may apply unchanged and simply need to be adopted by the GB, but your school needs to be 100% certain that things like disciplinary procedures, reporting lines and appeal procedures reflect what staff in the school would do, not what staff in the LA, that work for the LA rather than a school, would do.

 

Policies are a necessary evil there to protect all stakeholders and the only people who can be certain that they apply is your school's operational leadership taking advice from external professionals where necessary.

 

I'm just going to split this into its own thread

[elsiegee40]

This discussion split from original thread on whether policies must be physically signed

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/school-ict-policies/191098-do-staff-policies-need-signed.html

[MkII]

Forgive me I'm just taking about IT policies here. Staff are employed by the school, but our employment regulations are set by the LA. There are central teams responsible for that. There's still a schools HR section. I thought that was common across the UK. It was certainly the case back in England in my first jobs.

 

Likewise insurance is handled centrally. I know that because in a discussion about GDPR a county schools team rep talked about covering liability for head teachers. Surely what you're talking about elsiegee40 is a new thing. I don't think I like it as it seems like a more expensive and inefficient way of doing things.

[elsiegee40]

None of this is new.

 

If you are an LA school then your staff are employed by the LA and their policies apply to employment issues.

 

In most LA schools: The LA doesn’t run your IT. The LA isn’t responsible for Safeguarding/eSafety at your school. The LA isn’t responsible for your Data Protection implementation; the buck will firmly stop with your headteacher and governors. The LA isn’t the one handing out laptops for students/staff to take home. The LA isn’t responsible for for your school’s use of cctv.

 

If their policies are a perfect fit then great, but a generic policy is unlikely to cover what your school does exactly.

[jmak]

∆∆ This

 

As mentioned, teaching and learning policies will almost certainly be specific to your school. As you say, there is more likely to be alignment between organisations with professional standard policies like IT.

 

You're also correct that writing all of your own policies can become a huge overhead. However, I'd suggest you'd be likely to get a better fit by looking at other schools.

 

The other thing we've found about LA policies is that they're not always suitable for much smaller settings. For example the health and safety policy refers to lots of situations that aren't relevant to a small school, specify safety systems that we don't need/can't afford and review committees that we wouldn't have the resource to staff. If your policy says it, you have to do it and audit that it's done or you have a failure of governance which your leaders can be held to account for.

 

Without knowing your school and seeing the policy, I can't say it's not suitable, but IME unlikely.

[MkII]

None of this is new.

 

If you are an LA school then your staff are employed by the LA and their policies apply to employment issues.

 

In most LA schools: The LA doesn’t run your IT. The LA isn’t responsible for Safeguarding/eSafety at your school. The LA isn’t responsible for your Data Protection implementation; the buck will firmly stop with your headteacher and governors. The LA isn’t the one handing out laptops for students/staff to take home. The LA isn’t responsible for for your school’s use of cctv.

 

If their policies are a perfect fit then great, but a generic policy is unlikely to cover what your school does exactly.

 

Great points.

 

Our LA provide internet access and we're pretty much implicitly bound to use it. They also control Smoothwall filtering centrally. They provide WiFi access - we dish out certificates to connect. Data protection/ GDPR and our responsibility... granted. Our LA don't have a CCTV policy lol. We do. (Although they advised us on the need for a policy and training). Staff laptops.. hmm I don't think we even cover that - see this is the issue... who goes over these with a fine tooth comb? It might be our responsibility but we don't have the funds/ time/ people to do it.

[elsiegee40]

It might be our responsibility but we don't have the funds/ time/ people to do it.

That’s not an excuse that will stand up with an employment tribunal, the ICO, your insurers, Ofsted, etc

 

Risk assessment by SLT required

Edited December 5, 2017 by elsiegee40

[MkII]

That’s not an excuse that will stand up with an employment tribunal, the ICO, your insurers, etc

 

It's not something we can physically do anything about either. That goes back to the government and their ability to fund us.

 

Risk assessment: yep

Edited December 5, 2017 by MkII
Risk assessment cross post