Volunteer Information

 On this page you will find various bits and pieces of informtion about volunteers and volunteering.  This includes resources, reports and information. 

 

Volunteer Management Portal

This is a new resource from Volunteering England. If you work with volunteers it will help you locate a wide variety of support and development opportunities as well as training providers and consultants. Visit the website to try it out:
www.volunteering.org.uk/vmportal

Volunteers need better management

The Volunteer Rights Inquiry, which was set up by Volunteering England, has published an interim report which shows that volunteers need better management and leadership from the organisations they help. The report is about the growing importance of volunteers and their interaction with paid staff. It is about augmenting and enhancing existing practices to protect the volunteer experience and ensuring it remains positive and mutually productive. The report claims that greater protection is needed for people who donate their time, after it found some volunteers were mistreated or badly managed and that they had no rights in dealing with their organisations when problems arise. You can download the report at:
http://www.volunteering.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/742EBA26-A6CB-4531-BBBB-7C2A35CCE5D5/0/VE_volunteering_inquiry_FIN_web.pdf

Volunteers and under-represented groups

The Commission for the Compact has published a report The Costs, Barriers and Benefits of Involving Volunteers from Under-Represented Groups. The report argues that organisations should improve their monitoring of the numbers of volunteers from under-represented groups such as disabled people, refugees and asylum-seekers, and single parents and highlights the benefits of involving these volunteers. This research is important in setting out, not only some benchmarks of the real costs of volunteering to organisations which involve disadvantaged groups, but also the massive benefits which accrue to organisations in bringing a range of people on board. The phenomenon of the "diversity dividend" is recognised across the private sector, as banks, law firms and other major private sector employers try to widen the variety of people in their workforce - why shouldn't that be true of the voluntary sector? If you would like to read the report you can download it at:
http://www.thecompact.org.uk/files/141211/FileName/CompactVURGReport2010Final.pdf

 The Voluntary Sector Skills Landscape

Skills - Third Sector has published this report on how recent policy announcements and spending priorities affect the voluntary sector. The report contains information about the recent policy announcements and spending priorities that affect skills in the voluntary sector. To download go to:
www.skillsthirdsector.org.uk/documents/voluntary_sector_skills_landscape.pdf