Information Sheet Summary This Information Sheet about reimbursing volunteers’ expenses for childcare or care of adult dependents has been written to complement Volunteering England’s main Information Sheet “Volunteer Expenses” about all types of volunteer expenses. We have developed a specific Information Sheet because care expenses often present a range of challenging questions to volunteer-involving organisations, even when they have well-established procedures for reimbursing travel or meal expenses. Many organisations don’t actually consider reimbursing care expenses until asked by a potential volunteer. You might be reading this because you want to support a particular volunteer or you may be writing a broader policy on covering volunteers’ expenses. This Information Sheet is designed to help you consider the issues involved, and to develop a fair and workable policy for your organisation. |
Why should an organisation reimburse a volunteer’s care expenses?
Reimbursing expenses is an important way of demonstrating your organisation’s commitment to equal opportunities. It helps to reduce potential financial barriers to new and current volunteers. It also demonstrates that your organisation values your volunteers’ time, and doesn’t want them to be out of pocket for their contribution.
Research by the Institute for Volunteering Research has shown that volunteers with lower incomes can often find it more difficult to afford to volunteer. Offering to reimburse care costs could be a particularly welcoming gesture to a parent or carer who finds it difficult to step out of their daily routine, or who simply can’t afford to. Above all, it could help your organisation to support a new source of valuable and committed volunteers.
How much can be reimbursed?
As with reimbursing all other types of expenses, the best principle is to cover the actual cost incurred by the volunteer. It is good practice to ask volunteers to complete an expenses record form and to submit receipts for anything they are claiming for. You can find a template expenses record form in Volunteering England’s Good Practice Bank (in the section on ‘Expenses and State Benefits’).
The Department of Work and Pensions accepts that care costs are a reasonable expense incurred through volunteering. The DWP’s Decision Makers’ Guide for advisors includes a note on volunteer expenses as follows: “The expenses may be for personal incidental expenses resulting from the person being a voluntary worker, for example travelling expenses or child care costs.”
If any of your volunteers are receiving a state benefit, (such as Jobseekers’ Allowance or Incapacity Benefit), you should give them a copy of the expenses record form and receipts so they can show it to their Benefits Advisor. It’s also helpful to remind any new volunteers claiming state benefits that they should inform their Jobcentre advisor before they begin volunteering and let them know about any expenses claimed.
Please note that volunteers’ childcare costs cannot be covered through the national employer-supported childcare voucher scheme, because it is designed to allow employees to pay for childcare through pre-tax income. (For further information on this issue, visit http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/childcare/ or http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/health/childcare-vouchers)
What kinds of care costs could be reimbursed?
Children
There is a range of options in the UK, from childminding, private nursery and crèche places to local babysitting. While it is ultimately a parent’s right and responsibility to choose suitable care for their child, some organisations have worries, preferences or statutory guidelines over certain forms of childcare.
Technically speaking, childcare can be divided into “formal” provision and “informal” provision. Your organisation may decide to only cover the costs of a “formal” childcare provider or a registered childminder. Alternatively, you might be happy to reimburse other types of “informal” childcare expenses such as babysitting fees.
When making your decision, there are many factors to consider:
- Some organisations are only allowed to use their funding to cover formal childcare which is given by a registered provider.
- Some people believe that informal babysitting does not offer the best or most stimulating education and care for a child on a regular basis. This consideration might be particularly relevant for an organisation which works in the children’s or youth sector and wants to set a volunteer policy which is consistent with its wider principles.
- Others can feel reluctant to reimburse babysitting costs because it is regarded as a more unofficial method or because babysitters are often family members or close friends of the volunteer.
- Alternatively, informal childcare might be more practical for a volunteer in certain situations. For example, it could be the simplest option for a new volunteer who needs time to come for an informal interview and try out their new role for a few weeks.
- Or indeed, some children might react better to spending time with a local and well-loved babysitter, than joining a new crèche.
You may decide to adopt clear criteria on whether your organisation will cover both formal and informal childcare costs, or you may decide that it is better to discuss each case with each individual volunteer.
Adult dependents
The Department of Work and Pensions’ booklet called “A Guide to Volunteering while on Benefits” says that “Volunteering within the UK shouldn’t affect your Carer’s Allowance, as long as you are still caring for a disabled person, who is getting a qualifying benefit, for at least 35 hours a week”.
If your organisation is considering reimbursing any care costs to a volunteer who receives Carer’s Allowance, we strongly recommend that volunteers check this with their Benefits Advisor in advance to make sure that they will still meet the requirement of 35 hours per week.
What if something happens to a child or adult whilst in care? Could the volunteer-involving organisation be partly responsible?
The volunteer and the care provider should arrange the care between themselves, so that your organisation doesn’t need to be directly involved. If you help a volunteer to find contact details for a local care provider, you should remind them that you can’t accept responsibility for helping them to choose which service to use.
In some ways, you can compare the situation to reimbursing travel or meal expenses. Volunteer-involving organisations aren’t expected to check the safety of a volunteer’s car or the hygiene of a café where a volunteer goes to eat lunch, so they shouldn’t be expected to take responsibility for care providers who look after a volunteer’s dependents. (It is certainly true that the safety and wellbeing of a young or vulnerable person entrusted to a care provider is generally much more important than choosing the right place to purchase lunch, but ultimately the decision rests with the volunteer.)
As a general principle, your organisation should avoid paying the care provider directly, and all receipts should be written for the volunteer rather than for your organisation. If care payments are due at certain times, you can consider giving money in advance to cover these expenses. The Social Security Amendment (Volunteers) Regulations (2001) say that this is allowed for people claiming state benefits.
Accepting volunteers’ children into your organisation’s crèche
This may be a tricky question for some organisations, because it raises questions about professional boundaries. Some crèches prefer not to accept children of volunteers or staff, because of worries about a potential conflict of interest. For example, how would your crèche deal with any problems between a client’s child and a volunteer’s child?
Some organisations prefer not to create a relationship with their volunteers on multiple levels; for example, by working with them as volunteers and simultaneously providing a care service to their children. Other crèches may have limited capacity, and therefore not be able to provide a place for a regular volunteer. Equally, some organisations recognise the convenience for their volunteers of being able to volunteer and find childcare in the same place, and decide that offering crèche places is an important part of removing potential barriers to volunteering.
Ultimately, it is entirely your organisation’s choice, but the key thing is to deal fairly with each volunteer and to be consistent.
Estimating care costs or finding out what is reasonable in your area
If you want to begin reimbursing care costs but aren’t sure whether your volunteer expenses budget will stretch, you can do some research into costs in your area.
Children
The ChildcareLink website helps you to search for childminders, crèches, nurseries and playgroups by local town or postcode. It provides contact details and some of the entries also give cost estimates. The website address is http://www.childcarelink.gov.uk/ or alternatively you can be connected to your local information service by calling them freephone on 0800 2 346346.
Adult dependents
The Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) website has a directory to search for care services by postcode or local authority. The website also includes advice for anyone looking for care services for the first time. You can contact CSCI directly on their helpline on 0845 015 0120 or 0191 233 3323 or by email at enquiries@csci.gsi.gov.uk.
Planning your volunteer budget
If your organisation hasn’t reimbursed volunteer care expenses before, you will need to plan ahead and set money aside. When preparing your volunteer programme budget, you need to estimate how many volunteers will need their care expenses reimbursed and how often this will be. This may not be easy at first, so don’t panic!
If you need to find out how many of your current volunteers have caring responsibilities, remember to do this sensitively. Obviously, you don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up during the planning stage, in case you decide that you can’t afford to start reimbursing care expenses. If none of your volunteers care for a child or dependent adult, you may have spotted an important gap in your expenses policy! Your local Volunteer Centre might be able to give you advice on the number of potential volunteers who approach them and want opportunities which reimburse care expenses or offer particular hours which suit their caring commitments.
When you are planning your budget, consider what you will tell volunteers in advance.
- Ideally you should clearly advertise in recruitment materials that all reasonable expenses are reimbursed. This means that potential volunteers don’t have to ask, or aren’t put off because they are too scared to ask.
- But for organisations with a limited budget, it would be wise to introduce your new provision for care expenses gradually and not advertise too widely so that you don’t raise expectations in the local area.
- Alternatively, if you have been able to identify a comfortable budget, you may even be able to actively target more volunteers with children or other care responsibilities. (For ideas about targeting your recruitment at under-represented groups, please visit the Good Practice Bank section on “Equal Opportunities and Diversity”).
Aspirations and seeking funding
Alternatives to reimbursing care costs
If your organisation doesn’t have the budget to consider reimbursing care costs to volunteers, a volunteer co-ordinator can offer support in many other ways. One example is exploring the possibility of adapting a volunteer role or the times of a volunteering opportunity to fit someone’s caring commitments. A new volunteer might feel reluctant to ask, so try to take a proactive approach in asking about this during the recruitment process.
Seeking funding
If your organisation recognises a need and intends to begin reimbursing care costs in the future, you could include this as an aspiration in your volunteer policy or strategy. You can find some ideas for seeking funding or applying to grantmakers which recognise volunteering costs in Volunteering England’s Information Sheets “Fundraising Resources” and “Trust Fundraising”.
Making the case: how can you convince management or external funders to consider reimbursing volunteers’ care costs?
There are a number of research documents and local and national documents which can help you to build a case for developing your expenses policy.
The Compact
http://www.thecompact.org.uk/
The Compact is a national agreement on the working relationship between the government and the voluntary sector. The Compact is reinforced by local compacts signed by each Local Authority and the local statutory bodies and voluntary sector. (To read your local Compact, visit www.thecompact.org.uk/ or ask your local Council.
The Compact is also complemented by Codes of Good Practice on specific areas, including one about volunteering. With reference to volunteer expenses and promoting better opportunities to volunteer, the Code says:
“Government and the voluntary sector will:
• Adopt clear policies regarding the payment of volunteer expenses. Volunteers should not be out-of-pocket because of their voluntary activity. Volunteers are entitled to reimbursement of all reasonable expenses and volunteer should be encouraged to claim
Government will:
• Recognise that it is legitimate for voluntary and community organisations to include the costs of enabling greater access to volunteering in relevant applications for volunteering.
The voluntary and community sector will:
• Work to put in place equalities schemes or other means to effectively remove unfair discrimination.
• Include reasonable costs for reducing barriers to volunteering in relevant funding bids.”
Read the Volunteering Code of Good Practice on the Compact website.
Volunteering For All? A report exploring the link between volunteering and social exclusion
This report summarises the findings of research undertaken by the Institute for Volunteering Research. It looks at what volunteering can do to reduce social exclusion, the challenges faced in making volunteering more inclusive and the steps taken by some organisations in overcoming barriers.
The report makes particular reference to supporting volunteers with expenses such as childcare costs on pages 37 and 50.
Read IVR's report
Reward and Recognition in the NHS
The NHS has published a national guide which sets out its principles for paying and reimbursing service users and volunteers for their involvement in service improvement activities in health and social care. It includes guidance on what kinds of care costs should be reimbursed, and how this can be approved in advance by Jobcentre Plus staff.
Read the NHS guide
Further information
Volunteering England Information Sheets
“Volunteer Expenses” and “Volunteer Travel Expenses”
“Volunteering and State Benefits”
“Fundraising Resources”
“Trust Fundraising”
Volunteering England Good Practice Bank
- includes a section on “Expenses and State Benefits”
- includes a section on “Equal Opportunities and Diversity”
The Department for Work and Pensions’ booklet “A Guide to Volunteering while on Benefits”
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/dwp/2006/vg1-2006.pdf
Childcare Link
A website where you can search for information about local childcare providers and costs
http://www.childcarelink.gov.uk/
The Daycare Trust
A national body which gives advice on childcare to parents and organisations
http://www.daycaretrust.org.uk/
Commission for Social Care Inspection
A national body which provides information about care services and inspects care providers.
http://www.csci.org.uk/
Last reviewed: April 2008
We have made every effort to ensure that this Information Sheet was correct at the time of publication. It is intended as a summary of relevant issues and suggests further sources of information. Legal advice should be sought where appropriate.
For more information on managing volunteers, please visit
The Good Practice Bank at www.volunteering.org.uk/goodpractice
Or please contact Volunteering England Information Service
Email: Information@volunteeringengland.org
Freephone Information Line: 0800 028 3304 (M-F 10.30-12.30 & 14.00-16.00)
Volunteering England
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