Procedure
Whether to offer honorarium payments
Community Group [1] supports this policy by signposting to it, advising on fairness and transparency, and having oversight of activities involving HRA Community members.
Process: activity lead refers to the Community payments policy to identify the type of activity and decide if payment is offered.
Activity lead confirms budget available.
Role for community group: Signpost to the policy
Process: activity lead uses the template and checklist to draft the activity description.
Activity lead shares a link with the Community Group to comment.
Role for community group: advice to help ensure fairness and transparency.
Process: Senior Engagement Officer saves the final activity description in the Community Group SharePoint folder, and notes the new activity on the agenda of the subsequent Community Group meeting.
Role for community group: Oversight.
[1]
Community Group is an internal meeting which brings together colleagues who work, engage or communicate with our Community. The group provide advice and assurance to the HRA with regard to any issues, developments, proposals or polices which may impact on Community members.
How much to offer
Staff should offer an amount for the activity, referring to the table above. We do not offer an hourly rate.
When deciding the time needed, staff should consider the fact that different people may spend different amounts of time preparing for the same activity. This may reflect their experience and working style. It may also be impacted by health, disability, neurodiversity, and other protected characteristics.
The honoraria offered for the activity will not be changed on an individual basis.
To support inclusion, transparency, and fairness, you should:
- include time spent on related preparation and follow up
- ensure the task is clear and the time estimated is enough
- encourage Community members to get in touch if they believe the task will take significantly longer than anticipated, to avoid misunderstanding about e.g. the level of detail needed
- request or review information on Community members’ access and support requirements and consider what reasonable adjustments or support may be needed
How to manage and process payments
- activity lead liaises with the payee and finance to confirm the payment method.
- on completion of an activity or task, the activity lead / payee submits a claim to finance
- payments are monitored by the budget manager, supported by the finance team
- Please refer to these learning materials: [include link].
Whether activities require identity checks and right to work checks
Identification checks
An identification check (ID) check allows an organisation to check someone is who they say they are and prevents identification fraud.
All REC and CAG activity requires ID checks (following NHS England guidance on volunteering).
At present, we do not ask public contributors to complete ID checks. We will reconsider this if there are changes in:
- the regulatory environment
- activity descriptions and the results of Check Employee Status for Tax form
Right to work checks
A right to work (RTW) check allows an organisation to check that the person has a legal right to work in the UK.
Right to Work checks are not currently mandatory but this will be reviewed in future in light of potential changes in Home Office guidance.
Managing risk
Risks and actions in relation to payments, ID and RTW checks are recorded on the Community Group risk register. This is monitored by the group on a quarterly basis with risks exceeding 12 reviewed and escalated to Executive Committee.
Reviewing and revising the policy
The policy will be reviewed every two years by the Director of Resources and Community Group referring to information from:
- Community survey results
- HRA user and stakeholder feedback register
- Community Group issue and risk register
Data protection impact assessment
Completed and approved by the Data Protection Officer in December 2025.