Skill Series: How to Create a Policy
- Understanding what a policy document is
- Understanding environmental policies
- Understanding policy briefs
Policy documents take many different forms depending on their purpose, for example, there are company policies (which cover rules and procedures of a company), there are environmental policies (which cover an organisation’s steps to a more environmentally friendly operation) and policy briefs (which can be used by organisations to try to influence government/ international legislation). Therefore, the first thing you need to consider when writing a policy is its purpose and who it is for.
Much of the work involved with creating a policy involves preparation and planning so don’t just launch straight into writing the document as it will probably take you longer overall and definitely won’t be as good as it could have been! Before you start it is also important to recognise the difference between policy and strategy. A strategy is often a systematic plan of action whereas a policy document is more of a guiding principle; strategies can be used to implement your policy.
It is important that all the way through the process you keep the end goal in mind.
In this example, we will cover two key policy documents: environmental policies and policy briefs.
Environmental Policy
An Environmental policy provides a framework for action and for the setting of its environmental objectives and targets. This basically means that your policy should help to facilitate the creation of a more in-depth plan. In recent years, many organisations are creating environmental policies in order to ensure that their operations are more sustainable.
Key things to include:
An environmental policy could include:
- Time-related targets
- A method of measuring progress
- A framework for evaluating its implementation
This may all sound a bit daunting but it’s important to remember that an environmental policy does not need to be that long, it’s better to have a concise document that the organisation can use than a really long-winded document full of jargon!
- Before writing your policy, conduct thorough research. You need to consider the existing procedures, how these could be improved and future changes that will need to be considered.
- It can be good to build in some sort of flexibility within the policy in order to avoid any potential legal issues further down the line. For example, try to avoid using words like will and must.
- Write an initial draft and then look at it critically, consider if it will work for the organisation and its operations. Then make relevant adjustments.
- Try to avoid too much jargon. The policy should be as clear as possible and any member of the organisation should be able to understand it, even if they don’t have an environmental background.
- Define any key terms as you go. This is important for two reasons, firstly it ensures that everyone understands the true meaning of the policy, secondly, it is important to ensure that the organisation does not face legal challenges in the future over ambiguous terms.
- If you can communicate with people that work at the organisation, try to ensure that the policy will meet their needs.
Here are the environmental policies of some large companies. Consider the way they lay out their policy and what they include. Are any of the points they raise relevant to your organisation?
Google: Google Sustainability
Age UK: Age UK London | Environmental Policy
McDonald’s: McDonald’s Environment & Recycling
Travis Perkins: Environmental Policy
Useful Links:
How to create an environmental policy statement
Policy Brief
A policy brief is a short, to the point document that is written for non-specialists. It highlights the relevance and contribution of a specific piece of research to policy and acts as a platform to offer recommendations for change. Policy briefs are often produced to support an advocacy campaign.
A policy brief is a stand-alone document that is focused on a single topic. Again it does not need to be too long – it is often suggested that 2-4 pages (or around 1,500 words is a good length). As it is such a short paper, it is not normally enough on its own to convince an audience on the proposals put forward, but should lead to an interested audience that will pay more attention to your longer papers.
- What is the aim of your brief? – are you trying to change policy or raise awareness around a specific issue?
- Who is your audience? – Your audience could range from politicians, NGOs and journalists. It is important to consider the audience as it may affect what you include and how you write it.
- You will need to do some research before you begin to ensure that your brief has the maximum impact. The table below from Research to Action provides a good framework for this research.
Here is an overview of one structure of a policy brief, including things to focus on in each section. It is important to remember that there are many ways you can structure your policy brief. Look at some examples and decide which will work best for your brief.
- Try to keep the layout clean – remember that some people will only skim read this and therefore the use of diagrams and subtitles is really important.
- The policy brief is not just a summary of research – it is an advocacy tool for you to use to persuade your audience.
- It is important to make the brief simple and accessible but that does not mean you need to simplify your message – instead concentrate on not using too much jargon and laying your argument out clearly.
- Be creative in using the limited space – think about diagrams and bullet points as an effective way of presenting your message.
- Be concise and clear.
- Highlight the benefits of your recommendations – how will these recommendations positively affect the policy system, those directly affected and society more generally.
- Break up the text into short paragraphs and don’t be afraid to use boxes, subheadings and bullet points where appropriate.
- Remember this is a professional, not academic piece of writing, therefore, focus on the new insights you provide rather than the exact details on how you analysed your results.
- Think about branding – use the same font, colours etc that your organisation would normally use. This helps to make it look professional and clear which organisation it belongs to.
Presentation tips:
- Include the organisation’s name and logo on the opening page.
- Use a coloured header/footer on all pages or a special title page.
- Use page numbers.
- Font choices and size are important.
- Consider the use of columns rather than one whole chunk of text – this can make it much easier to skim read and may be more space-efficient.
- You could present striking facts etc through graphs, boxes or tables.
- It may be worth highlighting particular points by writing them on bold – don’t overuse this though as it can end up looking unprofessional and confused.
Check out some of these brief examples to increase your understanding of what policy briefs tend to look like…
Policy Brief – Norway’s Whole of Government Approach. Particularly consider the layout here – the use of subtitles help to make the brief very clear.
OECD Governance – Policy Coherence: Vital for global development. This is slightly longer than some recommendations but is a good example of a policy brief that is largely focused on showcasing research that has been done.
University of Warwick – Policy Briefs – Covid-19: Suspending Debt Service for Indebted Countries. This is a very punchy and short briefing that maximises space through images and a good layout.
Renewable Energy and Climate Change: Exploring the Policy Options for Africa – Renewable Energy and Climate Change: Exploring the Policy Options for Africa. This is well laid out with good use of columns, Could perhaps be improved through the use of images/graphs so that it is a little less text-heavy.
POLICY BRIEF UN SDG – Sustainable Energy Technology Innovation. This is laid out in a slightly different structure which is interesting to consider and uses a very clear infographic to make their policy aims clear.
Note that all of these sources suggest slightly different templates and therefore the one above is just a form of guidance – have a look at these and work out what works for you.
An essential guide to writing policy briefs
How To plan, write and communicate an effective Policy Brief Three Steps to Success
How to write a policy briefing