Introduction to Group Policy Manager

In this guide we'll cover:

Click on ‘Admin’ shown on the landing page at the top to the left of your profile icon.
Click on 'Compliance Management' in the left hand navigation.
Select 'Policy Manager'.
To create as a School Group Manager ensure you have selected 'Group Admin'.

There are three types of policy you can construct:

1. Statutory Policy

Statutory policies have been pre-populated in your policy list based on your school type.
Statutory policies include a template that can be customised according to your organisation. These templates automatically update in line with changes to law and regulations.
You can choose to edit these up-to-date templates provided or upload your school's existing template.

2. Good Practice Policy

A good practice document is anything that is not DFE Statutory.
You can choose a template from our library of up-to-date policies, or you can create your own custom policy using your school's existing template.

3. Mandatory Policy

You can mark a Good Practice Policy as Mandatory. This means that whilst the policy is not statutory, it is a requirement within your school group.

When creating a policy you will be asked to fill in some details including:

Choose File – This is where you select the policy which you wish to upload. If you have used a template to create the policy, this will be the saved version.

Document name - This will be auto populated with the name of policy if you have you selected one from the Policy List page but can be customised.
Review date - This is the date that the policy will need to be reviewed. For example, a review date could be a month, 6 months, or any date in the future.
Reader CPD Hours / Minutes – How long you expect this Policy to take to read. This will contribute to the total CPD time of the approvers / readers.
Who will be responsible for the document – The creator of the policy will automatically be selected as the responsible person but this can be changed. You can select up to 3 individuals. Only School Group Managers can be responsible for Group Level policies.
Requires a Reading Team - If you wish to include a reading team, tick the 'Requires reading' option. Whilst you can select 'Requires reading' at Group Level, readers cannot be assigned at this stage. The policy will arrive in the policy list of each school with the status to be resolved by School Managers.
Assigning an Approval Team - These are users who will be assigned to approve or decline the document. Your approval team tends to be your governors and/or SLT – the people who would check your policy over and suggest any amendments before it gets sent to the reading team. The selected users will have a task created into their “Task List” via there To Do page and will be emailed to confirm a document has been created.

Group Policy Manager allows you to construct policies for your schools, manage who is responsible for them, decide which schools(s) you wish to distribute the policy to, and assign individuals to approve the policy.