The Policy Place online policies – questions and answers

The Policy Place provides online policies to social, health, education and other human services. Here are five frequently asked questions we receive from members when just starting out on the system. 

New members should also take a look at videos and guidance posted here.

Q1. How do I change the Client/Service User statement?

The Service or Policy User statement is a sentence about the client’s or policy user’s experience of the policy. It’s at the top of the page.

To change the statement, go to policy management on your Dashboard. Then to policies. Find the policy you want from the list under core policies.

Go to Details tab of the policy. You will find the Service/Policy user statement in the policy statement 1.

Insert the statement you want. This will replace the existing statement.

If you want to delete the Service/Policy user statement without a replacement statement just write in blank.

See here for videos and resources about your online system and customising your policies and procedures.

Q2. How do I change the Whakatauki?

Many of the policy pages have a whakatauki at the top – wisdom of an elder/ those gone before us relevant to the policy.

To change the whakatauki go to policy management on your Dashboard. Then to policies. Find the policy you want from the list under core policies.

Go to Details tab of the policy. You will find the whakatauki in the policy statement 2 and sometimes, an explanation or translation for it in statement 3.

Insert the whakatauki you want to replace the existing one. If you want to translate or provide some context or explanation for what you insert enter text as statement 3.

If you want to delete statements 2 and/or 3 without inserting a replacement just write in blank.

See here for videos and resources about your online system and customising your policies and procedures.

Q3 How do I change branding/logo?

Go to platform settings on your Dashboard.

Go to the bottom of the page to branding. There, you will see the colours and images we have used for your policies.

You can alter these by clicking on what you want to change.

Q4. How do we enable Auditor access?

Most human service agencies have to be accredited and audited against regulations and/or standards including those set by the law. Health and Disability agencies must comply with the NZS: 8134 Ngā Paerewa. Private Training Organisations must comply with NZQA Regulations, Social Services must comply with the Social Sector Accreditation Standards and Community Housing Providers with the  Public and Community Housing Management (Community Housing Provider) Regulations 2014.

Online access

An Auditor can access your policies for auditing purposes if you set them up as a temporary Team Member User on your policy site.

Set up their access by manual creation of a password. Once the audit/assessment is finished, you can delete them from the system.

Document access

If an auditor or Assessor wants to audit documents rather than online, no problem.

The role of Administrator of your policy site can download/print out individual pages by clicking on the Word icon at the upper right-hand corner on each policy page. If you want all pages printed, click on Download all pages at the bottom of the lefthand menu.

If they want to see what’s been reviewed and updated, updates are recorded on the Review and Updates page. For the relevant updates click on the Word documents.

More information?

See here for videos and resources about your online system and customising your policies and procedures.

Q5 Can we customise our policies more?

Yes, there are a range of ways to customise your policies more. You can edit text, add paragraphs and pages to your existing set of policies.

The options are outlined on the Online Policies page.

For more discussion about the pros and cons of customisation see here.