You should now be well on your way to implementing a structured policy review process within your practice. And you know it’s a whole-team effort and not solely your responsibility (an added bonus). If you decide to opt for the marathon approach, you’ll realise it enables you to review your policies much more thoroughly than if you were to choose the sprint option.

Your policies (or the Practice Index [PLUS] policies you’ve downloaded and implemented) are ‘guiding principles’, but nearly all policies will include links to other documentation too. These links may lead you to other policies, but more often than not, they will lead to legislation or NHS guidance documents.

So when the multidisciplinary teams are undertaking the policy review, what should they be doing? Look no further, I’ve made a simple checklist to help individuals review practice policies effectively.

Of course, change, as we all know, is ever-present and there may be occasions when you’ll need to amend your policies outside the 12-month review cycle. However, on the whole, this process will enable you to adopt a structured approach, which is less likely to give you a headache.

I’ll end with this quote: “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change” – Stephen Hawking.

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