The benefits of volunteering are well established. The last Labour Government promoted the idea through an indicator (NI16) and saw the rationale as being:
- Empowering individuals. Volunteering builds the confidence of individuals and is often a means of helping individuals build skills and experiences that may lead onto formal training or employment.
- Contributing to strong communities. Volunteering contributes to increased community cohesion, the Government’s Citizenship survey shows a positive correlation between volunteering and the trust that individuals feel towards others in their community.
- Adding value in the delivery of public services. Volunteers can enhance public services and are active in a range of public service settings. These include schools, hospitals and the criminal justice system. Their involvement ranges from mentoring in schools, providing social care support to individuals and visiting those in custody.
The Coalition Government has embedded volunteering in their joint Manifesto and concept of The Big Society:
“Our Conservative – Liberal Democrat Government has come together with a driving ambition: to put more power and opportunity into people’s hands.
We want to give citizens, communities and local government the power and information they need to come together, solve the problems they face and build the Britain they want. We want society – the families, networks, neighbourhoods and communities that form the fabric of so much of our everyday lives – to be bigger and stronger than ever before….
- We will encourage people to take an active role in their communities
- We will take a range of measures to encourage volunteering and involvement in social action, including launching a national ‘Big Society Day’ and making regular community involvement a key element of civil service staff appraisals.
- We will take a range of measures to encourage charitable giving and philanthropy.
- We will introduce a National Citizen Service. The initial flagship project will provide a programme for 16 year olds to give them a chance to develop the skills needed to be active and responsible citizens, mix with people from different backgrounds, and start getting involved in their communities.”
The voluntary sector has long argued the benefits of volunteering, and that volunteers have to be treated with consideration, so that they benefit from the experience as well as the principal beneficiary.
Surrey Youth Focus has a policy about using volunteers. There is also an excellent paper on using volunteers from the Social Market Foundation setting out the benefits to corporates and to volunteers.
