Volunteering England is the integrated national volunteering development organisation for England. We work across the private, public and third sectors to raise the impact of volunteering as a powerful force for change. In particular, we are working to improve the capacity of the volunteering infrastructure. We are the accountable body for the Volunteering Hub and accredit and brand the network of local volunteer centres. We are a strategic partner of the Cabinet Office (Office of the Third Sector).
Volunteering England welcomes the opportunity to comment on the Comprehensive Area Assessment and the commitment it demonstrates to providing people with an assessment of their local public services and the prospects for their quality of life in the future. However, the document does not explicitly refer to volunteers and it is unclear how volunteering is understood by the consulting bodies. It would be helpful to clarify this, and if volunteers have any involvement in the assessment processes, in order to follow the Compact Code re Good Practice in Volunteering. Volunteering England also believes it is important to include within the CAA an assessment of the support that the Local Authority provides to volunteering and the third sector, and what steps the Local Authority is taking to enable volunteering to happen.
The definition of volunteering used by Volunteering England & the Compact is:
| ‘an activity that involves spending time, unpaid, doing something that aims to benefit the environment or someone (individuals or groups) other than, or in addition to, close relatives’ |
Volunteering England would like to make the following responses to the consultation document:
Question 3: ‘Should we adopt the term “the prospects for the area and the quality of life for local people” rather than “risk assessment”. Our view is that the former term is more easily understood and thus should be used.
In paragraph 55 the document says that ‘Inspectorates will work together with…this will include its engagement with local people and organisations: and the plans and capacity it is putting in place to sustain and strengthen improvement for the future’. Volunteering England would like to know how this engagement with local people would be demonstrated and measured and whether it would include funding for organisations that supported community engagement, such as Volunteer Centres. Would it also include a long term funding relationship with third sector and volunteer involving organisations to enable them to develop long term strategies for their work?
Paragraph 62 refers to assessing the management of resources including people and information technology. Volunteering England believes that this should include volunteers and relationships with volunteer involving organisations rather than simply managing paid staff.
Chapter 10 talks about how the CAA will be experienced by councils and their partners, but Volunteering England cannot see how this process will engage volunteer involving organisations in the third sector. This is important because third sector volunteer involving organisations are contracted to deliver services to the Local Authority such as environmental groups who contribute to reducing waste sent to landfill, or WRVS and Red Cross supplying services as part of emergency planning. Perhaps more importantly, this process does not measure or celebrate any volunteering that takes place in local public sector organisations such as schools, the police & libraries, or independent providers who are subject to inspection, such as those providing residential care for elderly people.
The Commission on the Future of Volunteering has recently published its manifesto (copy enclosed with this submission). Recommendation 6.3 says that ‘we recommend that regulatory bodies, such as the Healthcare Commission, the Commission for Social Care Inspection and Ofsted should include as part of their regular inspections as assessment of how organisations involve, support and manage volunteers in order to provide high quality and user sensitive services’. Volunteering England would be pleased to provide examples of how volunteering helps a Local Authority achieve standards within the National Indicator Set, as part of its work to support the implementation of Commission recommendations.
Volunteering England believes that local voluntary action makes a significant contribution to developing health and well-being; community safety and cohesion; sustainable communities; economic development and services to children and older people. We believe that a comprehensive assessment of the quality of life in a particular area must include how public bodies are engaging with volunteers, the volunteering infrastructure and volunteer-involving organisations and measuring the impact this has on the local community.
