Questions about core policies, complaints procedures, safeguarding, ethics, confidentiality and data protection.
What core policies should every CSO in T&T have in place?
We're trying to do a policy audit and figure out what we have, what we're missing, and what we actually need. Right now we have our constitution and a basic financial policy and that's about it. I've seen lists of all the policies an organisation should have and it's completely overwhelming. For a small organisation […]
How do we set up a complaints and grievance procedure for our beneficiaries?
We've never had a formal complaints process. If someone has an issue they usually just tell whoever they know in the organisation and it gets handled informally. That's mostly worked but we recently had a situation where a beneficiary felt their complaint wasn't taken seriously and it escalated unnecessarily. We want to put something formal […]
Why is having a complaints process important for a CSO?
Honestly I've always thought of complaints processes as something you put in place when things go wrong, and since we haven't had any serious incidents I've never prioritised it. But a donor recently included it in their due diligence checklist and it made me wonder if I've been thinking about this the wrong way. Can […]
What safeguarding obligations do CSOs working with children have in T&T?
We run after-school programmes for children aged 8 to 16. We've never had an incident but I'm increasingly aware we don't have any formal safeguarding policy in place. We do some basic common sense things — no staff alone with a child, that kind of thing — but nothing is written down. I've been told […]