The Future of Volunteering:

Implementing the recommendations

for change from the Commission
on the Future of Volunteering
What?
Volunteering England wants volunteers to be able to
give their time and talents effectively, and to help make
a difference while having the best time possible. We
want the future of volunteering to be bright. We decided
to help implement the recommendations made in the
Manifesto for Change produced by the Commission on
the Future of Volunteering. The Commission reported
and disbanded in January 2008. It was set up to
develop a long term vision for volunteering in England.
As the key driving force behind the Commission,
Volunteering England has worked hard over the last
year to achieve the twenty recommendations for
change outlined in the report. We have held meetings,
designed campaigns, secured national and local press
coverage, developed new relationships and mobilised
our movement. This has been done in partnership with
colleagues in the volunteering movement to bring about
change together. There are no reports sitting on shelves
here. We want to see change, and recognise our role in
bringing it about. It’s been an amazing year – read on to
find out what Volunteering England has done.
Who?
We set about building on our relationships with key
players in the voluntary, public and private sectors.
We asked for help from some influential friends who
agreed to lead seven Action Groups. Once we had the
leaders in place we looked to recruit others to help us
improve the volunteering environment. We set up seven
coalitions of organisations and individuals to help take
action to improve the lot of volunteers.
People came from the government, from hundreds
of organisations who work with volunteers, leading
figures in the private sector and of course volunteers
themselves. Everyone involved in the Action Group
volunteered their time, knowledge, energy and passion
– for which we are very grateful. It’s been incredible to
see what can be achieved when we work together.
How?
We grouped the twenty recommendations from the
Manifesto for Change into seven key areas for change.
We wanted to create solid outcomes and a clear plan of
action for the change that we were aiming to achieve.
Each page of the report lists what happened for each
Action Group. We also brought together the leaders
of each group regularly to check we were on course,
working well together and making a difference. This
report describes the progress made by Volunteering
England and our partners in the Action Group.

Action Groups and themes Chair

Inclusion Jo Sullivan, Guide Dogs for the Blind
Employers Rt. Hon. Alun Michael MP
Skills and Empowerment for Volunteer Managers Sue Davies, National Trust
Promotion Caroline Diehl, Media Trust
Skills for Volunteers Mike Nussbaum, Volunteering England
Modernising Structures Stephen Dunmore, Diana Memorial Fund
Public Sector Baroness Joan Hanham

What next?
As the national volunteer development agency, Volunteering England will continue to strive to improve the
future of volunteering. We are committed to working to improve the experience of volunteers and to unleash
their potential for social change. Although the Action Groups have wound down, we will maintain these
relationships and have already embedded much of the activity in our own strategy. We will continue to work
towards our objective, which is of a society where the potential and passion of people to transform lives and
communities through volunteering is fully realised.
 What the Commission said...
2.1 We recommend the establishment of an Access to Volunteering
What Volunteering England’s Inclusion Action Group did
Chair: Jo Sullivan, Guide Dogs for the Blind
&UNDING
Following the Commission’s Manifesto for Change,
the government committed to running a £2 million
pilot project. This is to test the idea of having a
fund for organisations to access to ensure they can
offer volunteering opportunities to volunteers who
are deemed socially excluded. When questions
were raised about this fund as the recession hit,
we campaigned to secure its future. We wrote to
ministers and liaised with civil servants. We are
pleased to report this was successful and the fund
will be rolled out towards the end of 2009.
&UNDING
We looked at the Access to Work fund, its history
and how the organisations behind it succeeded.
We will continue to work on this and lobby for a
roll-out of a critical Access to Volunteering fund
to ensure more and more people have access to
volunteering.
)MPACT
plans for each Action Group to ensure that the work plans
We proofed and amended all the work from
Volunteering England and its Action Groups
to ensure everything was fully accessible. We
used more images and changed the language
accordingly.
)NmUENCE
We had a wide-ranging debate about the most
damaging barriers to people who are already
socially excluded also being excluded from
volunteering. Our discussions kept coming back
to the psychological barriers. We will work to bring
these barriers down.
Inclusion Action Group
aid...
ring F
Fund.
nd
)NmUENCE
We produced a response for the Equalities and Human
Rights Commission consultation to ensure volunteers’
rights and needs are considered.
&UNDING
We produced a map of all funding available for
inclusion and volunteering projects.
%VIDENCE"ASE
We looked at the information available and found
some innovative case studies of inclusive volunteering.
“Bringing expertise together from so many groups at risk
of social exclusion has been such a useful exercise, and
to work together in a constructive way to highlight and
begin to address the barriers to volunteering is something
I hope we can take forward into the future.”
Jo Sullivan, Guide Dogs for the Blind
“Our work plans were rigorously scrutinised by people
with knowledge and expertise of excluded groups. The
Inclusion Action Group was involved in proofing the work
were inclusive of all those potentially excluded. I believe
that small steps such as this help move us one step
closer to reducing exclusion and tackling discrimination
across volunteering.”
Nikki Squelch, Scope
What next for the
volunteering movement?
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 What the Commission said...
said..
1.1 We recommend a sustained, high-level approach to raising
ising th
the profile of
volunteering. As part of that, we recommend that existingg even s to prom
events e
promote
volunteering be enhanced and made more effective.
4.1 We recommend the development of new mechanisms for reward ward a nd
and
at mo
recognition of volunteers, attuned to the diversity of factors that iva
motivate.

What Volunteering England’s Promotion Action Group did

Chair: Caroline Diehl, Media Trust
2ELATIONSHIPS
We built a solid and ongoing partnership between
the leading volunteering support organisations;
CSV, YouthNet, TimeBank, Volunteering England,
Media Trust and the Red Foundation. We want
people to see and think about volunteering
differently, and we recognise the need to work
together to help bring this about.
Influence:
The Media Trust very kindly opened up its little
black book of contacts and got senior figures from
Google, the BBC, the Sun, the Daily Mirror, and
marketing experts Beattie McGuinness Bungay
around the table. These group members were
exceptionally committed to our cause and gave us
some great advice and ideas.
Information:
Together we captured this expertise and produced
a guide for volunteering organisations on how to
promote volunteering in a dynamic and innovative
way. The Media Trust will be releasing this soon.
Impact:
RockCorps, an organisation which aims to
inspire young people to volunteer, made a huge
contribution to our movement. It pulled together
an exciting group of highly successful marketing,
PR and communications agencies from the
private sector. It also produced a fully worked-
up creative brief for our volunteering partnership
to take forward. Again, watch this space for the
development of these ideas.
Impact:
We secured all kinds of media coverage on
volunteering through the group. This included
online, broadcast and print. Key coverage included
a feature on BBC Breakfast news, an article
showcasing volunteering in the Daily Mirror, a piece
in the Independent, and crucially, lots of local press
coverage.
Information:
We have enhanced current promotional campaigns
on volunteering, with the Mirror being the official
media partner for Volunteers’ Week, the annual
awareness week for volunteers and volunteering,
and the BBC making a series of short films about
volunteering for ‘Make a Difference Day’.
Influence:
We discussed the reward and recognition of
volunteers and fed this important discussion into
the Prime Minister’s Council for Social Action.
Evidence base:
Google kindly gave us a tool that we can use to
monitor how people are searching for information
about volunteering online. This has provided
fascinating information and is a tool that we will use
to inform our work.
What next for the
volunteering movement?
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 “Volunteering England did a fantastic job in
bringing together a wide range of interested
parties to participate in the Promotions
Action Group and achieved some
impressive results.
The Daily Mirror were proud to work
alongside them in creating a series of
features highlighting Volunteers’ Week
which drew a very positive response from
our readers. It was an extremely worthwhile
and rewarding project.”
Conor Hanna,
Deputy Editor, The Daily Mirror

“Volunteering England created a forum

to brief key people from the media on
the current situation with volunteering in
England that then enabled the members of
the group to discuss, suggest and create
new ideas to grow awareness of and
involvement in volunteering.”
Pete Picton,
Online Editor, The Sun
 What the Commission said...
said.
2.2 We recommend that, as a matter of urgency, the Government
rnmen sets up a
working party with volunteer-involving organisations and d the vo unteering
volunteering
rtionate obstacle
infrastructure in order to remove unnecessary or disproportionate obstacles
to volunteering (for example, in relation to Criminal Records Burea
Bureauu checks,
entitlement to benefits by volunteers, risk management, etc).

What Volunteering England’s Public Sector Action Group did

Chair: Baroness Joan Hanham Influence:
Volunteering England’s Policy and Information
%VIDENCEBASE team influenced auditors by responding to the
consultation on the review of the Comprehensive
We asked organisations that involve volunteers what
Area Assessment. This assessment will pull
the key barriers to volunteering were. We planned our
together all inspectorates of public services. The
work accordingly.
Cabinet Office has also been active in this area and
in raising the profile of volunteering.
2ELATIONSHIPS
As local government is fundamental to improving the Impact:
future of volunteering we prioritised this work. We
The Cabinet Office is looking at setting up a group
developed relationships with the Local Government
of relevant government officials to remove barriers
Association. We held a conference for local
to volunteering. Cross-government groups, such
government officials, and talked to them about what
as the Third Sector Liaison Officers group, have
the volunteering sector felt was important.
already discussed volunteering and will continue
to do so.
"ETTERINFORMATION
The Cabinet Office and other relevant government Influence:
departments worked with Volunteering England to
Volunteering England has been influencing how
update the Criminal Record Checks guidance and
the volunteering movement relates to government
the guidance on volunteering while claiming benefits.
by encouraging and securing volunteering
Both sets of guidance have been widely used and
commitments in the revised Compact
welcomed. The Office of the Third Sector and the
(The Compact is the agreement between
IDeA are training those who commission public
government and the third sector).
services. This includes informing organisations that
the costs of involving volunteers must be recognised
in the design and delivery of public services.

&UNDING
We sourced funding from the Commission for
What next for
the Compact to look at how the volunteering
the volunteering
infrastructure is funded. This information will be
movement?
invaluable and will be available in autumn 2009.

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 What the Co
Commission
mm ssion said...
5.5 We recommend that public lic se
service
ce st
staff (such
uch as those in the NHS, civil
ment officers)
servants and local government cers be trained to enhan
enhance their
understanding of the role of volu erin and
volunteering d in acquiring skills in working
with volunteers.
5.6 We recommend that training for pub
public serv
service staff should enhance their
understanding of the necessity forr org
organisations
nisat to be funded to cover the full
costs of involving, managing and supporting
uppo ing vvolunteers
nteers when they submit
proposals to deliver services that include
ude the engagement
he en volunteers.
gement of volunte
6.3 We recommend that regulatory bodies, such as tthe Healthcare Commission,
the Commission for Social Care Inspection and
n an Ofsted,
d Of d, should include as part
of their regular inspections an assessment off ho
how organisations
w or involve,
nisations involve
support and manage volunteers in order to provide
ovide high quality and use
e hig user
sensitive services.
6.4 We recommend that all government departments and agencies
nd age cies make a specific
commitment to the Compact and the Volunteering Code Practice
de of Practice and
monitor their implementation.

“The Public Sector Action Group was one of the most

inspiring pieces of work related to the development
of volunteering that I’ve ever been involved in. I think
some of the reasons for this were the fact that it
was very practically focused work from a group of
people who really wanted to be there; involvement of
volunteer-involving organisations, Volunteer Centres
and relevant public sector bodies gave a good
cross-sector and cross-specialism perspective.”
Tessa Willow, Chief Executive,
Volunteer Centre Liverpool

“I think we made a huge impact, not just for

particular issues that were around at the time of the
Commission, things like the challenges with CRB
checks for example, but also the Government are
now thinking more proactively about the impact of
schemes such as the ISA on volunteers.”
Chris Reed, Chief Executive,
Volunteer Centre Westminster

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 What the Commission said...
said..
1.2 We recommend the introduction of volunteering champions
pions a
at local leve
level.
3.1 We recommend that funds be made available to assist with modernisation
ith the modernisa on
of the volunteering infrastructure at local level.
3.2 We recommend that volunteer-involving organisations undertake ake a crit
critical
ative
review of their ways of working in order to identify new and creative
opportunities for volunteering.

What Volunteering England’s Modernising

Structures Action Group did

Chair: Stephen Dunmore, Diana Memorial Fund %VIDENCEBASE

%VENTS
As local authorities are an extremely important
element in sustaining local Volunteer Centres/
volunteer development agencies, we went to talk to
them. We held the ‘Volunteering Works’ conference
for local government officials in partnership with
the Local Government Association (LGA). Over 70
delegates attended. We actively promoted local
infrastructure and we have carried out follow up
work. We will continue to work with the LGA and
the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA)
to improve the future of volunteering.
2ELATIONSHIPS
We explored co-production, mutuality and made
new connections with Time Banking UK.
We produced a comprehensive collection of case
studies relating to Volunteer Centre innovation. We
also produced a set of case studies of new and
flexible forms of volunteering.
)NmUENCE
We also spoke to the Office of the Third Sector’s
Advisory Board, who raised these issues with the
Cabinet Office. We will continue to work with
the Board.
)NmUENCE
We wanted to know more about Champion
schemes; what exists already, and what works. The
Red Foundation produced an important report on
this subject. We will be working with partners to
help promote Champion schemes.

&UNDING &UNDING
While work on the project progressed several
We wanted to secure a source of funding to help
funds were announced which infrastructure
further the modernisation of the volunteering
agencies can apply for. These included a
infrastructure. We wrote to ministers to secure
£3 million fund for volunteer managers, which we
their commitment and submitted a proposal to the
helped to devise in order that it was accessible to
Cabinet Office for funding. Although we received
infrastructure bodies. An £8 million fund to
assurances of the government’s commitment to
help people who are unemployed to
the volunteering movement, the proposal was
volunteer was also announced.
not taken forward. We are committed to continue
to lobby to see our vision of a sustainable
infrastructure realised.
What next for the volunteering movement?

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Modernising Structures Action Group

 “Modern volunteering is about building
relationships, about sharing skills and
aspirations across artificial barriers like
income, race, religion, ability and age. Our
focus needs to be on bringing back to life the
local social networks that have in the past
made it possible for people to reflect together
on issues of mutual concern and then to take
collective action to improve quality of life for
each other and for the wider community.”
Martin Simon, Chief Executive,
Time Banking UK
 What the Commission ssaid...
aid..
5.4 We recommend that serious attention be given to meeting th
support needs of managers in volunteer-involving organisations.
What Volunteering England’s Skills and Empowerment
for Volunteer Managers Action Group did
Chair: Sue Davies, National Trust
Funding:
As a direct result of the Commission’s Manifesto
for Change, the Cabinet Office announced what
was to become a £3 million investment in volunteer
management. This Action Group worked hard to
maintain this fund when questions were raised
about its future as the recession deepened. We
made a strong case to government, wrote to
ministers and liaised with civil servants to protect
the investment. We are pleased to say the fund was
retained. 2009-11 will see an unprecedented multi-
million pound investment in volunteer management.
Evidence base:
We looked at all the research and identified the
gaps in the evidence base. We are currently
exploring options for addressing the gaps in the
evidence base. There was a lot of great information
and work going on to support volunteer managers
which we were delighted about.
Influence:
We ensured volunteer managers and their support
agencies were involved in designing the roll-out
of the Volunteer Management fund. We ensured
that the views of the volunteering movement,
heard during the Commission’s consultation
and our Action Group work, were reflected
in the programme. We also started to embed
the importance of good professional volunteer
management in the wider skills agenda. Work on
this continues.
Evidence base:
We also spoke to volunteer managers and the
organisations which represent them and produced
a list of the key issues they need to improve
volunteer management in the round. We presented
this to the Cabinet Office to inform how they
designed the Volunteer Managers Programme.
Skills and Empowerment for Volunteer Managers Action Group
the tra
training
gaand
ion
Information:
We produced a draft directory of professional
development for volunteer managers. This lists all
forms of support available to them. It includes the
new national occupational standards in volunteer
management, professional networks, trade bodies,
accredited and informal training and sources of
good practice and advice. This is available on
the Volunteering England website and will be
developed within the new programme.
Events:
We held a one-day conference for volunteer
managers. The National Trust kindly hosted the
event which was attended by over 70 volunteer
managers from all sections of the profession.
The event was well received, with much positive
feedback and ideas for the future.
Relationships:
We made links with London Organising Committee
for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. We
discussed the 2012 Games to ensure volunteer
management is at the heart of the Games, and that
ce.
everyone giving their time has a great experience.
Volunteering England is now leading a
programme of work with YouthNet to promote a
diverse range of ways to volunteer
before and after the Games.
What next for the
volunteering movement?
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 “The benefit of the project and the conference that
took place was that it brought together a very wide
range of volunteer managers from very diverse sectors
and that we all learned form each other.”
-ARGARET$ANE#HIEF%XECUTIVE
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!DVISORY3ERVICES

“One of the strengths of the Volunteer Managers

conference was that it attracted people and
organisations that were outside the usual volunteering
networks. The exciting part about it was that for
the first time there was a real acknowledgement
that volunteer managers are not just a vital part
of volunteering but that their role requires specific
support and training. To paraphrase Winston
Churchill, this isn’t the end of the process, nor even
the beginning of the end. But perhaps, it’s the end of
the beginning. One of the legacies I hope the Action
Group has left is the recognition that we all have a role
to play in developing volunteer management.”
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 What the Commission said...
said..
2.3 We recommend an extension of employer-supported volunte
volunteering,
ing, appro
appropriate
iate
to the size and operational requirements of the business.
onsib ty for the
2.4 We recommend that one department or agency takes responsibility
ppropriate targe
promotion of volunteering by government employees, with appropriate targets
for raising the level of volunteering by public servants.

What Volunteering England’s Employers Action Group did

Chair: Rt. Hon. Alun Michael MP
)MPACT
We separated our target employers by the sector
they were in. We planned a programme of work
with the private, voluntary and public sectors.
We worked through the infrastructure or support
organisations for each sector to make sure we
achieved maximum impact.
Relationships:
We met with the Minister for the Third Sector
and the Civil Service Capability Group to find out
what central government is doing to run exemplar
volunteering schemes for civil servants. A huge
amount of work has been done by the Cabinet
Office on this. Their Civil Service Live event, which
attracts thousands of civil servants, had the first
day of the conference dedicated to volunteering.

)MPACT Influence:
We worked with the LGA to promote ESV to local
We worked with Investors in People (IiP) to
authorities across the country. We showcased
influence all employer practice. Employers currently
good practice, and are following this up with the
assess themselves by achieving the IiP standard.
LGA to increase the numbers of local council staff
We want them to think about volunteering. We
engaging with their local communities through
are pleased to say the standard has been revised
volunteering. We know that many of the councils at
and is now more explicit about volunteering. This
the ‘Volunteering Works’ conference are examining
should have a positive impact on the numbers
how to set up ESV schemes.
of employers developing employer-supported
volunteering (ESV) schemes in the long run.
Events:
)NFORMATION We held a voluntary sector summit to influence the
voluntary and community organisations. We met
We ensured high quality information about ESV
with all the leading infrastructure bodies. We want
schemes was available to all organisations. We
them to involve employer-supported volunteers
worked to actively promote employer-supported
as well as run successful schemes for their own
volunteering through various channels. We
employees.
met and worked with the Institute of Directors,
the Federation of Small Businesses and the
Confederation of British Industry. They helped us to
Evidence base:
send key messages to private companies through Our research body, the Institute for Volunteering
newsletters, articles in relevant private sector and Research, produced a literature review of the
online magazines. The Institute of Directors also information we currently have on ESV. This will be
helped us to draft messages which were relevant used in all our future work.
and effective with private sector stakeholders,
particularly during a period of recession. What next for the volunteering movement?

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Employers Action Group
 “We have been delighted to be involved in
this year-long project to improve the future
of volunteering. A number of our members
have in place extremely successful schemes
that are encouraging volunteering within their
organisations, and this has helped them be an
employer of choice and attract the best talent.
However, to further increase private sector
support for volunteering, employer-supported
volunteering schemes have got to be easy to
set up, with administration levels, on behalf of
the company, kept to a minimum. If this can
happen then we know that the interaction
between business and volunteering will be
further enhanced and it will help to make the
recommendations of the Commission on the
Future of Volunteering a reality.”
!LEX-ITCHELL(EADOF)NmUENCER2ELATIONS
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 What the Commission said...
said.
4.2 We recommend that time spent in formal volunteering should be acknowacknowledged
dged
culum vitae and c
as a legitimate and important part of an individual’s curriculum eer
career
development path.

What Volunteering England’s Skills for Volunteers Action Group did

Chair: Mike Nussbaum, Volunteering England Influence:
We secured national press coverage on
volunteering as a way in which to stay work-ready.
Events:
We held the voluntary sector summit where we Impact:
agreed to communicate more to the voluntary
We worked with the Cabinet Office and the
sector infrastructure that it’s important that those
Learning and Skills Council to ensure volunteers
who involve volunteers train and develop them.
were benefitting from the national Train to Gain
funds that are available.
Influence:
We supported the work done by Volunteering Relationships:
England’s Policy and Information team to increase
We made stronger links with the Department for
the recognition in Department for Work and
Business, Innovation and Skills and the wider
Pensions of the link between volunteering and
skills agenda. We will continue this work so that
skills development.
volunteers and those that support them are well
trained and developed.
Evidence base:
We explored the possibility of getting research
funded to ascertain the link between employability
and volunteering. The Institute for Volunteering
Research, in the meantime, has secured funding
and produced a report on this.

Relationships:
We made links with Skills - Third Sector to ensure
the voluntary sector workforce is training and
developing their volunteers. We also made links
with those leading on developing the European
Year of the Volunteer.

Information:
We worked with the CBI to
map the way in which What next for the volunteering movement?
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Skills for Volunteers Action Group

 What the Commission said...
5.1 We recommend that government, volunteer-involving organisations and the
volunteer infrastructure endorse an explicit commitment to train
(and be trained) for all formal volunteers up to an agreed basic level.
Beyond that, training must be made available, as appropriate to the individual
circumstances and aspirations of the volunteer and to the needs of volunteer-
involving organisations.
5.2 We recommend that government, volunteer-involving organisations and the
volunteering infrastructure work closely with Further Education colleges, adult
and community education centres and Higher Education institutions to develop
training, which must be valued, accredited and recognised within and beyond
the context of volunteering.
5.3 We recommend that government actively promotes and supports a coherent
approach to accreditation and training for volunteers and ensures that national
standards for volunteer training are established.

“It was a pleasure to work with an

enthusiastic group of people from all three
sectors, recognising the strategic importance
of volunteers and volunteering to all sections
of society. The common denominator for
all of us was the value of skills, whether it
be formal recognition for a young person
as an important part of building a cv or the
contribution an older person can make from
their life experiences.”

Mike Nussbaum,
Skills for Volunteers Action Group
Published by Volunteering England
Regent’s Wharf
8 All Saints Street
London N1 9RL

Tel: 0845 305 6979

Email: volunteering@volunteeringengland.org
Web: www.volunteering.org.uk

Registered Charity No. 1102770

A company limited by guarantee Registered in England and Wales No. 4934814

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