UK: Volunteering works

Volunteering England, England?s volunteer development agency, and the Institute for Volunteering Research (IVR), have just launched a new report with overwhelming evidence that proves the extent to which volunteering affects key areas of government policy. In particular the report highlights five areas in which volunteer support is found to be invaluable: development; safer and stronger communities; social inclusion; quality of life and lifelong learning.

David Parker, director of social cooperative Alpha Communications, said he found the report both ?useful? and ?timely? and added that: ?It doesn?t contain any big surprises but it comprehensively presents all the complex issues in the difficult relationship between government and volunteers?.

To many it not news to find out about the contribution that volunteering makes to government policy agendas. On the other hand the government has, over the past 10 years, done more than any previous administration to support and encourage voluntary work, promoting it as ?the essential act of citizenship?. But the problem, says Parker, is that volunteers still don?t feel that the government values them.

A Volunteering England online survey in fact found that a majority of people believe that government does not sufficiently recognise the contribution of volunteers to areas of social policy while over half of the survey?s respondents felt their contribution was ?hardly? acknowledged and a further 35% responded ?not at all?.

David Parker said that he didn?t think that volunteers were likely to change their views as they have ?an inbuilt low opinion of government and public sector bureaucracy?. He also highlighted that the reason why volunteers help out in hospitals, community centres, parks and prisons is that they didn?t believe the work would get done if they didn?t.

A pilot survey by Help the Hospices estimated that the financial value of volunteers to UK hospices was around £112 million. It found that if hospices had to pay for staff to do the work carried out by volunteers, their running costs would increase by nearly a quarter. The survey showed that for each £1 spent on supporting volunteers, hospices received a return of more than £11.

Baroness Julia Neuberger, Chair of the Commission on the Future of Volunteering, said: ?Government policy has been an odd mixture of enthusiasm for the perceived outputs of volunteering, made real by the testimonies of countless individuals and visits to volunteering projects, and distrust, because it does not work along lines that can be understood and controlled. This report targets both that enthusiasm and that distrust by demonstrating the positive impact of volunteering and The Commission welcomes this report as a very useful contribution to our work.?

More info:
www.volunteering.org.uk/