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Frequently Asked Questions
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Q. What is a Volunteer Centre?
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Q. How do I find my local Volunteer Centre?
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Q. Is it always right to involve volunteers?
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Q. How can I persuade my colleagues that our organisation would benefit from taking on
volunteers? They say they are too busy.
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Q. Is there any maximum hours a volunteer on Job Seekers Allowance can volunteer for?
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Q. Should we pay our volunteers expenses?
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Q. We seem to be losing volunteers faster than we recruit them. Where are we going wrong?
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Q. What kind of Police Checks can we get from the Criminal Records Bureau?
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Q. What is a Volunteer Centre?
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Volunteer Development Agencies provide support at a local level for individual volunteers and
volunteer involving organisations. They have six core functions:
| 1. | Brokerage
VDAs primary function is to match both individuals and groups interested in
volunteering with appropriate opportunities in the local community. VDAs hold
information on a comprehensive range of opportunities. They offer potential volunteers
support and advice matching their motivation to volunteer with appropriate volunteering
opportunities. |
| 2. | Marketing volunteering
VDAs stimulate and encourage local interest in volunteering and community activity.
This may include promoting and marketing volunteering through local, regional and
national events and campaigns .VDAs will manage and promote a national brand for
volunteering.
| | 3. | Good practice development
VDAs promote good practice in working with volunteers to all volunteer involving
organisations. They deliver training and accreditation for potential volunteers,
volunteers, volunteer managers and the volunteering infrastructure.
| | 4. | Develop volunteering opportunities
VDAs work in close partnership with statutory, voluntary and private sector agencies as
well as community groups and faith groups to develop local volunteering opportunities.
VDAs understand the potential offered by the local communities and work with them to
realise this potential. VDA will target specific groups which face barriers to volunteering.
VDA work creatively to develop imaginative, non-formal opportunities for potential
volunteers.
| | 5. | Policy response and campaigning
VDAs identify proposals or legislation that may impact on volunteering. It will lead
and/or participate in campaigns on issues that affect volunteers or volunteering. VDAs
campaign proactively for a more volunteer-literate and volunteer-friendly climate.
| | 6. | Strategic development of volunteering
As the local experts on volunteering VDAs inform strategic thinking and planning at a
regional and national level.
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Q. How do I find my local Volunteer Centre?
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If you are a not for profit agency in the borough of Greenwich, you should contact us (link)
If you are in another borough or area of the country you should visit
www.volunteering.org.uk to find out your nearest Volunteer Centre.
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Q. Is it always right to involve volunteers?
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Sometimes organisations, particularly charities, feel that because they operate within the
voluntary sector they should involve volunteers but this is not always appropriate. There are
many good reasons to involve volunteers, i.e. to extend the service offered, to involve the
local community, to add value to services; but there are also bad reasons i.e. to replace paid
staff, because it looks good, because you feel you should. Before you involve volunteers in
your organisation you need to sit down and work out why. Look at your reasons and try to
draft them into a statement that explains to your staff, user group and potential volunteers why
volunteers need to be involved in the organisation. If you cannot come up with a reasonable
argument then the chances are it isn't appropriate to involve volunteers. If you involve
volunteers when it is not appropriate then you will find that they are not fulfilled and do not
stick around very long, at worst you may find that they feel exploited, that staff feel they are an
extra burden and that your user group feels short changed.
Secondly you need to decide whether it is practical to involve volunteers in your organisation.
Lots of organisations decide to take on a volunteer to "help out" without planning what their
role will be or how they will be managed. What will they be doing, who will supervise them,
how will they be trained, where will they sit, is there money to reimburse their expenses? If you
cannot answer all of these questions then your organisation probably is not ready to involve
volunteers. It is good to be flexible and adapt to the skills and experience of people offering
time but you do need some idea of areas of work that are appropriate for and can be
completed by volunteers and of the boundaries and limitations of volunteer involvement in
your organisation. If you take on volunteers without proper planning and preparation then you
are setting yourself up to fail. The volunteer will have a poor experience and may not offer
time again and you will feel very disheartened. Your local Volunteer Bureau should be able to
advise you about setting up a volunteer programme and Volunteering England can provide
you with advice, information and publications that you may find helpful.
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Q. How can I persuade my colleagues that our organisation would benefit from taking on
volunteers? They say they are too busy.
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Being too busy can be a genuine reason for not working with volunteers, but it can also be a
polite way of hiding the real reasons. It could be that staff fear that volunteers could be used
as substitutes for staff or that they might find it difficult to "control" volunteers. It can be useful
to organise a meeting to discuss the issues and bring these fears out in the open. Techniques
such as staff talking in pairs and then feeding back to a larger group can encourage more
openness.
Once you have found out what the barriers are, you can start to deal with them. A well thought
out and well-written and well-understood policy can help to dispel fears. This can cover issues
such as: reliability and standards of work, induction, training, support and supervision and
procedures for moving volunteers to more appropriate work or requiring them to leave if
necessary.
It is also important to acknowledge the skilled and complex role of paid staff who manage
volunteers. This could be part of their job description. With the exception of the very smallest
organisation, every organisation will probably need one person who is the main volunteer co-
ordinator.
On a practical note, it is important to look at space and equipment. Volunteers will need
adequate physical space to work in, and access to telephones and computers. It can cause
real friction to introduce volunteers to already cramped accommodation.
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Q. Is there any maximum hours a volunteer on Job Seekers Allowance can volunteer for?
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No, there are no maximum hours that someone claiming JSA can volunteer for. However, the
individual must be actively seeking work and be available for work. Therefore while there is no
stated limit to the number of hours a person can volunteer for, it is very likely that a claimant
volunteering more or less full time 5 days a week will be considered not to have time to be
actively seeking work by benefits agency staff. To be available for work, a volunteer must be
available to attend a job interview at 48 hour's notice, or start work at a week's notice.
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Q. Should we pay our volunteers expenses?
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Volunteers are already donating time to their organisations. It would be wrong to expect them
to end up out of pocket - effectively donating money - as well.
Payment of expenses is important from an equal opportunities point of view. People on
benefits or low incomes should not be excluded because they cannot afford the cost of travel
or meals out.
Not paying expenses will make it harder to recruit, as the more barriers you place in the way
of volunteers the less likely they are to want to volunteer for you.
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Q. We seem to be losing volunteers faster than we recruit them. Where are we going wrong?
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One obvious way to find out why volunteers are leaving is to ask them - exit interviews or
questionnaires might reveal issues that need addressing.
Do people know what they're letting themselves in for when they volunteer for you? Does the
information enquirers receive give them a clear picture of what will be expected of them when
they volunteer? Do they receive task descriptions? It may be worth having trial periods for new
volunteers, to give them a taste of their roles.
Another area that might be lacking could be the level of supervision volunteers receive. It's
very important that they have adequate feedback and support. On top of this, if they do have
concerns it's better if they have a chance to express them, rather than having to bottle them
up until it's too late and they've decided to leave.
When people decide to volunteer they will have certain motivations to do so. They want to feel
useful, learn new skills, get out of the house and meet people - the list is endless. If these
needs are not met by volunteering with you they'll move on to another organisation or into a
different activity altogether. Therefore it makes sense to find out what these motivations are,
and how well they are being fulfilled. Remember too that motivations change. You might start
to volunteer to improve your CV, but stay because you enjoy the company of the people you
work alongside.
Most of us like to feel that we're part of something. If volunteers feel marginalised they are
less likely to want to stay with you. Make sure that volunteers are involved in the internal life of
the organisation - consulted on decisions that affect them, invited to participate in relevant
meetings, and included in any social plans.
Lastly there are specific measures to reward or recognise volunteers - certificates, parties,
volunteer events. More important than the big gestures though are the everyday things you do
to let volunteers know they are valued. A simple thank you goes a long way.
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Q. What kind of Police Checks can we get from the Criminal Records Bureau?
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There are three levels of checks: The first are Enhanced Disclosures. These are for posts
involving substantial contact with children or vulnerable adults regularly training, supervising or
being in sole charge of individuals or groups. Also for individuals seeking gaming or lottery
licences or judicial appointments. The Disclosures contain details of all convictions current or
spent as well as details of cautions reprimands or warnings. They also detail inclusion on the
lists held by the Department for Education and Employment and the Department of Health (the
Protection of Children Act (POCA) list) of individuals unsuitable to work with children. In
addition to this they will also contain any other 'relevant' information held by the police,
including so-called 'soft' information.
The second are Standard Disclosures which are for posts involving regular contact with
vulnerable people and people entering 'positions of trust' such as accountancy and veterinary
professions. The Standard Disclosure will be the same as the Enhanced Disclosure but
without the addition of extra information held by the police.
The final level is the Basic Disclosure, which is available for anyone. It contains details of
convictions, which are 'unspent' under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act.
Enhanced and Standard Disclosures are currently available and will only be issued to
registered organisations for posts which fit the requirements. Disclosures are posted out to the
organisation and to the individual. The introduction of Basic Disclosures has been postponed
indefinitely.
You can contact the Criminal Records Bureau Information Line 0870 90 90 811 or the
Disclosure website for more details: www.disclosure.gov.uk .
The above FAQs and more are available on the Volunteering England Website
www.volunteering.org.uk .
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