Press release 20 October 2006
The government will need to invest over £20 million in local volunteer centres in order to achieve targets for increasing volunteering by the most excluded in society, according to national volunteering agency, Volunteering England (VE).
In its submission to the Cabinet Office’s Third Sector Review, VE recommends a series of simple but radical proposals to modernise the existing network as part of a ten year change management plan. These include:
- Reconfiguring the Volunteer Centre network to complement the structure of local government – i.e. one per unitary authority/county council – to ensure countrywide coverage.
- Spending up to £22.2 million per year in the first three years to deliver the six core functions on the basis of full cost recovery. [1]This would be split in the ratio of 2:1 between central government and local authorities to rebalance current disparities in funding [2]
- Creating a Volunteer Centre Modernisation Fund of up to £13.2 million over three years to: establish new volunteer centres in areas where there is no coverage; providing core funding for centres that are already appropriately structured; and funding the reconfiguration of centres where appropriate to align with the unitary and county structure.
- Establishing a ten-year funding model, in which funding of core services is split between volunteer centres (25% held constant), central government (50% in year 1 tapering to 25% in year 10) and county councils, unitary authorities and district authorities (25% in Year 1 increasing to 50% in Year 10).
Christopher Spence CBE, Chief Executive of Volunteering England, said:
“I am confident that Volunteering England’s recommendations will create an all-inclusive, sustainably-funded network which is effective and fit for purpose. We will, of course, be engaging stakeholders in a very thorough communication and consultation exercise on every aspect of the implications.
“It is clear that, thus far, while volunteer centres do extraordinary work, they have been prevented from realising their full potential because of chronic underfunding. This problem will not go away unless it is dealt with in robust fashion. Volunteer centres could play a significant role in increasing the number and range of opportunities for volunteering by people from groups at risk of social exclusion. The time is now right for government to invest strategically in the development of a volunteering infrastructure able to deliver the changes it wants to see.”
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Notes to Editors:
For more information and to arrange interviews, call Cat Dean on 020 7520 8932; email cat.dean@volunteeringengland.org . During out of office hours, please call Sonya Roberts on: 07952 128057
Volunteering England’s proposals build on its long term strategy for modernisation, Building on Success, as well as its work in partnership with government to implement the Volunteering Compact Code of Good Practice and the ChangeUp programme
Volunteer Centre facts and figures
- 320 volunteer centres currently belong to the national network accredited and branded by Volunteering England
- Volunteer centres work hard to combat the effects of social exclusion. Of those who made enquiries in 2005/6, 29% were fro BME groups (vs 9% of national population), 20% from students (vs 7%) and 19% from people seeking work (vs 3%). In many cases volunteer centres were the first port of call for novice volunteers and the last for those who had previously experienced difficulties in obtaining a placement
- At present, there are nine gaps in coverage of unitary authorities and seventeen in district councils
- In 2005/6, volunteer centres:
- Managed around 1,000 projects in addition to their core functions for a wide variety of funders
- Were strongly involved in partnership activities: 95% were represented in ChangeUp consortia; 92% in Local Strategic partnerships and 88% in Local Area Agreements
- Worked with approximately 70,000 organisations in the private, public and third sectors to involve and support volunteers
- Dealt with enquiries from approximately 350,000 people.
Volunteering England’s aims are to increase the quality, quantity, contribution and accessibility of volunteering throughout England; secure and support an England-wide network of quality volunteer development agencies, promoting and enabling volunteering and community involvement; undertake research, policy and development activity; and provide grants, support and advice to sustain and develop volunteering. It understands the term volunteering to include formal activity undertaken through public, private and voluntary organisations as well as informal community participation.
[1] Six core functions include: brokerage; marketing; developing good practice with volunteers and volunteer-involving organisations; developing volunteering opportunities in the private, public and third sectors; campaigning and contributing to policy-making; and facilitating the strategic development of volunteering
[2] Volunteer centres in London receive four times as much funding as those in the West Midlands, and inner-city centres receive three times of those in small towns.
