This guide has been created to explain the key elements of the New Policy Format to PolicyConnect administrators. If you are not a PolicyConnect administrator please instead visit this guide which provides a broader overview of the New Policy Format for general users.
Please note that at this time, the New Policy Format will be applied to our Education customers only. The timeline for other industries has not yet been determined.
The New Policy Format has been designed to:
- reflect best practice policy management, including:
- how regulators, government departments and universities format policy content
- international best practice policy management as researched by the Open Compliance and Ethics Group (OCEG)
- implement key regulator/accreditor feedback and requirements
- incorporate over two years of customer feedback
- increase the consistency of policy content across Policy Modules
- increase options to contextualise and structure Ideagen CompliSpace content pages.
Key Elements of the Policy Format
Context Key Placeholders
As there are now many more Context Keys and Variable Questions that your school/organisation can use to contextualise the policy content within a relevant Module, we have classified Context Keys and Variable Questions as either “Required” or “Optional”.
This directs the user’s attention to complete what is Required first, and then provides additional, Optional contextualisation relating to formatting and structural changes to content page(s) within the impacted Module, as needed.
We have, where appropriate, used placeholder text for new Context Keys relating to headings and some of the content captured under these. For example, under the Purpose heading, where appropriate, we have written a meaningful placeholder for the new Context Key for a particular policy, rather than “Insert Purpose”. This placeholder text allows your policy to appear more complete to users as soon as you accept the Update to the Module.
As part of the New Policy Format Update, a new Context Key for Policy Control/Administration Information will be added to each policy page. The inclusion of this Context Key reflects best practice policy management and regulator expectations across the country to have policy control information. Depending on which Module this Context Key appears in, it may be listed as “Required” or “Optional” to complete.
If you choose to include the Policy Administration heading, or if it is required for the policy (or policies) you’re referring to, then you should complete the related Context Key at the bottom of the page to include relevant information such as Policy Owner, Last Review Date, Next Review Date, etc.
When the New Policy Format is released to a particular Policy Module, customers that subscribe to that Module will receive an email communication with further details and actions to take. This communication will include us confirming whether the Policy Control/Administration Information Context Key is “Required” or “Optional” for policies within the Module.
“Not-Applicable” Headings
Sometimes there will be no Ideagen CompliSpace content under a heading within a policy, e.g. you might find that under the “Related Documents” heading in a particular policy there is only a line that says, “This subsection does not apply”.
In these situations, you can use an Optional Variable Question to:
- remove the heading and the line of content entirely from the policy page
- include the heading and add the school/organisation's own content
- include the heading and include an Ideagen CompliSpace template statement that “This subsection does not apply”.
These Variable Questions are outlined in the Contextualisation Guide within the Module itself.
Adding and Replacing Content
In some cases, the school/organisation may be given the option of using an Optional Variable and Optional Context Key to supplement Ideagen CompliSpace content with their own content.
In other cases, the school/organisation may be given the option of using an Optional Variable and Optional Context Key to replace Ideagen CompliSpace content with their own content.
In-Text Reference Linking
In-text references to other Ideagen CompliSpace policies and procedures are no longer hyperlinked unless deemed necessary for ensuring the compliance of the content.
Instead, they are linked under the Related Policies heading of the policy and procedure. Under this heading, the school/organisation can replace the Ideagen CompliSpace template list of related policies with their own content. This ensures that schools/organisations do not have broken links throughout their content where they may have turned an Ideagen CompliSpace policy off or replaced it with their own policy.
Refer to the “Related Policies Subsection” heading below for further details.
Related Policies Subsection
Under the Related Policies and Procedures heading, Ideagen CompliSpace policies and procedures will display in the policy by default. However, on each page, there is a Variable Question around this list that enables your school/organisation to replace the bullet point list of Ideagen CompliSpace policies and procedures with your own.
This may be useful for schools/organisations who:
- want to add their own additional related policies and procedures
- have replaced Ideagen CompliSpace policies and procedures with their own equivalent content
- have turned off the visibility of the Ideagen CompliSpace policies and procedures being referenced.
New Policy Format Additional Resources
For further details about the New Policy Format Update, you can refer to the following resources:
- New Policy Format Update on PolicyConnect
- New Policy Format FAQs
- New Policy Format on Policy Connect: Aligning with Best Practice Policy Management webinar recording (held in November 2022).
- New Policy Format Update Roadmap
- How to Edit Variables in the New Policy Format
- How to Edit Context Keys in the New Policy Format
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