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 acknowledgement in this plan of the important role of volunteering in supporting the work of the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.We particularly welcome the recognition of the difference between volunteering and the Voluntary and Community Sector, a distinction not often grasped in government yet an important one, not least because volunteering happens in all three sectors and because not all Voluntary and Community Sector activity involves volunteers.
There are two specific points we would like to make in response to your consultation:
In section 5: Working in Partnership and in section 7, Common Goals, we welcome the focus on working within the Compact, and would support DEFRA to utilise the volunteering code of good practice.
In section 7: Common Goals, c) strengthening communities:
volunteering to strengthen communities
Employer-supported volunteering is a vital strand of volunteering development. We also urge DEFRA to look to other strategic links with volunteering infrastructure to strengthen communities through volunteering.
Throughout the rest of the DEFRA strategy, Volunteering England is pleased with the emphasis on the vital role of volunteers in creating vibrant communities.
Other strategic ways of strengthening communities through DEFRA volunteering include:
i. DEFRA and partners working with the network of Volunteer Centres in England - Volunteering England would welcome DEFRA supporting our call to central and local government for a sustainably funded local volunteering infrastructure throughout England.This would help enable the potential of volunteering to contribute to DEFRA’s ambitions as laid out in this strategy consultation.
ii. Assessing the impact volunteers have on their local community or recognise the value of volunteering wider public policy e.g. economic regeneration, effective public service delivery, integration & cohesion.Examples of how volunteering can contribute in these ways can be found the “Volunteering Works” publication from the Institute for Volunteering Research and The Commission on the Future of Volunteering (see copy enclosed). Impact of volunteering is particularly important when considering how to measure volunteering, and to balance any numerical and quantitative methods of measuring.
We would therefore encourage DEFRA to consider how volunteering can contribute to all the priorities and objectives it seeks to shape and influence, both locally and nationally and to champion cross-governmental working by linking to Office of the Third Sector
We would be happy to meet with DEFRA colleagues to discuss this or any other aspect of our response further.
