3 Ways To Lighten The “Policy Review” Load

Policies. They are an essential part of the education and care sector. We all know that they are essential. We know that they help us to maintain compliance and ensure an ethical, responsible approach to our work with children and families. What we also know is that developing, reviewing and implementing policies is time-consuming - extremely time-consuming! 

We recently spoke with a former nominated supervisor who estimated that they spent, on average, one whole day each week on policy development, review, and implementation. That’s a whole bunch of time that could be spent connecting with children, mentoring educators, developing new ideas and opportunities for the service, and on any number of other things that make the most of that person’s skills and passion for pedagogy. 

So, how do we lighten the load?

We’ve put together a few simple ideas to give you back some of your time! 

1. Delegate or Share The Load

Within your time, you no doubt have a bunch of educators who are passionate about various aspects of what they do. Can you make the most of this? For example, if you have someone who is really informed when it comes to health and nutrition - why not make the most of that and give them some time to work on the policy. This may mean that you replace them in the room for a little while - a great opportunity for modelling practice and connecting with children - or depending on staffing levels and ratios, you may be able to free them up to work alongside you. 

Of course, you aren’t just going to throw someone in the deep end if they’ve never reviewed or developed a policy before. Be sure to set clear expectations and offer support in the process. But ultimately, when you share the load, you not only benefit from a lighter load yourself, but you gain new perspectives and ways of thinking, plus your team gains new skills and builds their confidence. 

2. Develop a System

If this is a task that you do over and over again, you need a system that supports you to streamline the process and ensure that you cover everything. What that system looks like and feels like will depend on your own learning style and preferences. You might set up a folder, with a calendar and a checklist. You might have step-by-step instructions to follow each time. You might use an online project management tool (free examples include Asana and Trello) to track and plan. Whatever you do, find a way to simplify the process. 

We’ve developed a guide “Perfecting Your Policies” which contains a checklist to help you ensure that you’ve covered everything each time you review a policy - it’s a simple step, but could save you plenty of time. 

‍

3. Use Your Network

We early childhood people tend to be a pretty connected bunch. We form networks locally and online to support one another and share ideas, but often when it comes down to the nuts and bolts or “business” side of things, we can be afraid to share (or afraid to ask). Why? Why are we happy to share ideas for how to set up a dramatic play space, but not how to develop a policy? Perhaps we should be looking more to our networks of other centre leaders, and sharing what we are doing, rather than always reinventing the wheel. If you know that a colleague in another service has recently written a policy on water safety and you’re about to do yours, what harm is there in asking “hey, can I have a look at what you included in your policy?” This isn’t about “lifting” the content from a service policy and dropping it straight into your own - each service is different. But it can be helpful in getting the core information right. 

So, there they are. Three pretty simple ways you can lighten your load. If you want to go a step or two further though (and why wouldn’t you) Sprout can help. 

Our app supports services in all things policy. You can find out more about it and book an obligation free demo, HERE.

‍