What Policy Core is

Policy Core is where an organisation keeps its policies, says who has to read each one, and keeps a dated record of who has. It is made for care and support services, but nothing in it is specific to care: it works for any organisation that needs its staff to read, and show they have read, a set of documents.

New to this? The words are explained in the Glossary, and you can see what has changed recently in What is new.

What you can do with it #

• Read the policies you have been asked to read, and confirm you have read them.
• Write policies as numbered sections you can refer to, with pictures, lists and links.
• Keep forms and appendices with the policy they belong to, written in the system or uploaded as the files you already have.
• Say who has to read what: everyone, particular teams, particular job titles, or named people.
• See who has read it, send a reminder, and print a record.
• Keep policies reviewed, with review dates and a list of what is due.

Who does what #

Everyone who signs in has one of three roles. Your role decides which pages you can open. The full table is in Roles and permissions.

The ideas everything else is built on #

Policy

A document the organisation has decided its staff should follow. A policy has a title, an optional reference such as POL-012, and a review date.

Part

A numbered piece of a policy: a section (1), subsection (1.1), paragraph (1.1.1) or item (1.1.1.1). Parts are what let two people say "see 2.2.1" and mean the same words. See How numbered parts and permanent links work.

Version

A policy changes over time. Each published state of it is a version, labelled like 2.1. A published version never changes; a revision is a new version, and the old one is kept. See Changing a policy that is already published.

Appendix, form or template

A document that belongs with a policy. It is either written in the system or uploaded as a file, and it is checked every time the policy changes. See Adding appendices, forms and templates.

Audience

The people a policy applies to. Anyone in the audience is asked to read it. See How "who has to read it" is decided.

Confirmation

A person saying they have read and understood a version, recorded with the date. This is the evidence. See What a reading record shows, and what it does not.

The life of a policy #

1. Draft. A manager creates the policy, builds its sections, adds forms and appendices, and chooses who has to read it. Nobody else can see it yet. See Creating a policy.
2. Published. The manager publishes it. From that moment the people it applies to are asked to read it, and each confirms. See Publishing a policy.
3. Changed. When something needs to change, the manager starts a new version from a copy. The published one stays in force until the new one is published. See Changing a policy that is already published.
4. Reviewed. Each policy has a review date. At the date the manager reads it through and either changes it or marks it reviewed with no change. See Keeping policies reviewed.
5. Archived. When a policy is no longer used it is archived. Nobody is asked to read it, and every record is kept. See Archiving, restoring and deleting.

What Policy Core does not do #

Where your staff list comes from #

If your organisation uses Care Core, your staff, their job titles and their teams come from it automatically. A new member of staff is asked to read the right policies on their first day, and when someone leaves they lose access at the same moment Care Core records it. If you do not use Care Core, an administrator adds people by hand. See Connecting Care Core and Adding people, roles and leavers.

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