Garden Policies
Introduction
Listed below are all of the garden policies. These have been reviewed January 2024 for current legislation and consistent wording, with the main changes noted below. The Constitution no longer has appendices so references to these are now removed.
Code of Conduct (New)
The original policy was based on the model provided by the National Council of Voluntary Organisations and endorsed by the Charity Commission. A few elements have been omitted to reflect the organisation at the Garden but conflict of interest is a generic concept with less scope for variation.
Minor changes have been made in the revision for clarification. Most are intended to align with the requirements in the Constitution and actual practice at the Garden.
A previously omitted paragraph headed ‘Managing Contracts’ now seems relevant given the Garden’s intention to contract out some site maintenance work in future.
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
Updated to reflect latest wording on the Equalities Act 2010 and the legal framework within which the policy sits
The separate point about offensive language and comments is deleted in the revision because the principle is included under respecting people’s feelings. Offence is subjective and what one person finds offensive another does not.
Financial Policies
The previous revision focused on risk assessment for all activities at the Garden. This is required for the public liability insurance which is in turn a condition of the lease with the Council.
- However individual assessments miss overarching issues like accident and emergency procedures.
- Although the policy covered tools, equipment and infrastructure there was no mention of hazardous materials like chemical substances which also need to be controlled.
- The first aid box is for use only by persons with current training certificates and not otherwise available. A record of accidents requiring first aid at events, workshops and work sessions would be useful to identify hazards for mitigation in future.
- Food safety and hygiene are important issues for consideration in relation to public events.
The latest revision aims to address these issues.
A previous revision removed the processes for non renewal of membership or forfeiture of plots and appeal against such decisions. These are considered to be important provisions for fair / equal treatment of members and have been reinstated with minor drafting amendments.
Previously agreed changes to the reduction of subscriptions in the last 3 months of the membership year are included in the revision.
The privacy notice remains the same with minor factual changes. The Garden does not directly process personal data except to maintain a list of members’ names and contact details. Third parties like Google and MailChimp which process the data have their own policies in accordance with applicable data protection legislation. PayPal is also used for membership applications and workshop bookings. NB. SumUp does not report any personal details from card reader payments.
Safeguarding children and vulnerable adults (New – Added October 2024)
Safeguarding Children Safeguarding policy -Children 2024
Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Safeguarding policy- Adults 2024
This revision removes a lot of generic verbiage. The following sections are omitted: training and development; support, supervision and recognition; confidentiality. However managing expectations for mutual benefit and settling differences are important issues to address. These are reinstated with minor drafting amendments in the latest revision