Opportunities and challenges for volunteering

Opportunities and challenges for volunteeringARVAC Annual lectureNick Ockenden29th May 2014

Volunteering in a changing world

What are we talking about?

• A commonly accepted working definition:[Volunteering is] ‘an activity that involves spending time, unpaid, doing something that aims to benefit the environment or individuals or groups other than (or in addition to) close relatives’(The Volunteering Compact Code of Good Practice, 2005)

• Three defining principles•Unpaid•Freely given•For the benefit of others or the environment

When is volunteering not volunteering?

• Volunteers cannot receive a salary• Some receive a regular allowance (‘voluntary workers’)• Some forms of reward may have financial value (but also good

practice)• Some volunteers allowed paid time off work to volunteer

• Volunteering needs to a free choice• ‘Mandated volunteering’ – parts of some education courses• Some cases of individuals being told to volunteer in order to comply

with job seekers or Work Programme agreements• Expectation to volunteer in some employer-supported volunteering

schemes

How much is taking place?

(Data from Citizenship Survey (2001 – 2010-11) and Community Life Survey (2012-13). Respondents for each period range from 6,915 - 9,664)

Highest rate 44%

Only varies by

5%

…unlike trends in voting

…or trends in ethical spending

(Ethical Consumerism Report 2011, Co-operative Bank)

Is volunteering an equal playing field?

33% of the population

What’s happening to volunteering infrastructure?

• Continued decline in the mean average income of Volunteer Centres

• £100,028 in 2011-12, a fall of over £34,000 from previous year

• 63% of Volunteer Centres experienced a cut in funding in 2011-12 compared to 2010-11

• 40% had a fall in funding of 25% or more

• Received an average of 1,086 volunteering enquiries

(IVR’s 2011-12 Annual Return of Volunteer Centres)

And volunteer management?

• Volunteer management often ‘added-on’ to existing jobs and seen as being under-valued

• Over one-third of volunteer managers are unpaid

• Organisations have difficulty in recruiting enough volunteers (55%)

• …and in recruiting volunteers with the right skills (57%)

• Challenges tend to be more pronounced amongst smaller organisations (‘below the radar’)

Formalisation of volunteering is good and bad• Volunteers seem to be happier about way their volunteering is

being organised• 2007 – 31% said volunteering could be much better organised

(Helping Out, 2007)• 1997 – 71% (National Survey of Volunteering, 1997)

• But…some changes for the worse • 27% feel there is too much bureaucracy (Helping Out, 2007)• Volunteering becoming more ‘work-like’• Recruiting volunteers with specific skills• Less space for volunteers with experiential learning• Do we risk losing the ‘spirit of volunteering’?

Volunteering and public services

• Long history of effective involvement…but changing• Continued cuts in funding• Calls for citizens to become more involved – localism, co-production,

partnership delivery• Involvement is a spectrum: supporting running services to

leading their delivery• Opportunities and challenges

• More democratic, accountable services or the state absolving responsibility?

• Bottom-up community empowerment or top-down agenda? • Volunteers as added-value or replacing paid jobs?• Increased responsibility or an unnecessary burden?

What does this all mean for volunteering?

• More will be asked of volunteers and volunteering• Is there a limit to what they can or should do?

• New policies, socio-economic developments, and programmes will test the boundaries of volunteering• How do we protect the underpinning principles of volunteering?

• The challenging economic climate will not go away• How do we put into practice the principle of ‘freely given but not cost

free’?

• Interest in increasing rates of volunteering will continue• How do we promote quality and access as well?