Council Meeting 13 August 2020

Review of Council Policies

1. The Council has a suite of policies which it reviews annually. The mechanism
for review is that the policies are referred to the Strategy, Policy and Finance
Committee which makes recommendations to the Council. During the
lockdown the Committee has been unable to meet and some review dates
have passed. Others are due for review imminently. Whilst the policies have
been reviewed regularly, those reviews have been somewhat piecemeal and
the subject has not been considered as a whole hitherto. The current situation
provides the opportunity to consider the entire suite of policies, to review them
all in a planned manner and to add new policies where legislation so requires
or where gaps are identified. By introducing a more co-ordinated programme
of reviews it will be easier to programme the annual reviews at fixed times in
the Council’s calendar.
2. The current policies which have been approved by the Council are as follows:
1. Standing Orders
2. Financial Regulations
3. Code of Conduct
4. Complaints Procedure/Policy
5. Health and Safety Policy
6. Document Retention Policy
7. Email Policy
8. Press and Media/Social Media Policy
9. Grant Approval Policy
10. FOI Publication Scheme
11. GDPR Privacy Policy
12. Neighbourhood Plan Steering Committee Residents Privacy Policy.

3. Additionally, Regulations require the publication of a:
13. Website Accessibility Statement
and SALC recommends that we include in our policy range:
14. Disciplinary and Grievance Policy.
4. The vast majority of the above-mentioned policies are fit for purpose and are
suitable for a light touch review and approval for a further year. New ones and
particularly the substantial update to Standing Orders will require more
detailed consideration. It is hoped that the Strategy, Policy and Finance
Committee will be able to meet before much longer and be able to conduct
reviews and make recommendations to Council. However the Council needs
to approve the policies during the autumn months whether or not the
Committee is able to meet and if it cannot then the Chairman of the
Committee and the Clerk should undertake reviews of existing policies and
make recommendations to the Council. New or substantially amended
policies should be reviewed thoroughly by the Council itself. It is proposed

that the policies be broken down into three groups and that over the next
three months one group is submitted for approval at each Council meeting.
Thereafter annual reviews of the policies can be conducted during the autumn
cycles of meetings.
5. It is RECOMMENDED that during the autumn months all Council policies be
reviewed and submitted to Council for approval for one year and thereafter
annual reviews be programmed in the same timescale.

Graham White
Parish Clerk
6 August 2020