Volunteering England welcomes the publication of the Department for Education and Skills prospectus for Extended Schools: Access to opportunities and services for all .
We are particularly heartened by the fact that volunteerism is embedded in the prospectus and that the Department for Education and Skills is committed to supporting ways in which it can better enable such activity to flourish.
Volunteering England believes that there should be greater recognition of the value of volunteering in young peoples lives and the unique contribution that volunteers can make to the delivery of services. However whilst freely given volunteering is not cost free and volunteering should not be seen as a cheap option for service delivery.
We are concerned that little or no recognition is made of the existing contribution of volunteers, volunteer-involving organisations and the volunteering infrastructure. Whilst the prospectus acknowledges volunteering we feel that it paints a fairly narrow picture of what volunteering means, where and how it happens.
An evaluation of the DfES Active Citizenship in Schools pilot project shows that schools can be very successful in introducing young people to volunteering. However, schools can have difficulty in making suitable links with local community organisations (where there is a role for existing networks), although in-school support is always essential. Volunteering opportunities can best be delivered at a local level working with the local volunteering infrastructure. We believe that working in partnership with Volunteering England and through local Volunteer Centres will pay higher dividends than working through a wide range of agencies.
As there is no blueprint for the types of volunteering activity undertaken by schools delivering the Extended Schools Prospectus it is important for there to be clarity about what constitutes volunteering and about how these activities might be delivered. Within the prospectus there is a risk that volunteering could be viewed as a government-controlled or curriculum-led initiative. Whilst we do not believe this to be the government agenda, there is a real possibility that this could be the perception of the public and young people in particular. This could act as a deterrent to young people volunteering. Working within the Compact Code of Practice on Volunteering would address this issue.
Consideration also needs to be given to how volunteering in schools will work with Millennium Volunteers and the new national framework for youth action and engagement proposed by the Russell Commission.
In addition to offering volunteering opportunities for young people the prospectus also makes reference to the contribution that volunteers can make to delivering the Extended Schools Prospectus. The involvement of volunteers brings many advantages - building a sense of shared responsibility and added value through diversity, increased local accountability, and by building strong and cohesive communities.
However considerable thought needs to be given to developing appropriate roles for volunteers in this setting. This is pertinent where there are statutory, legal or moral responsibilities to deliver services.
Many organisations which operate within the not-for-profit sector feel they should involve volunteers but this is not always appropriate. There are many good reasons to involve volunteers but there are also bad reasons – not least where volunteers feel they are a substitute for paid staff. The relationship volunteers have with a volunteer-involving organisation is both distinct from and different from that of an employee. Where volunteers are involved in inappropriate opportunities they can feel exploited, paid staff feel they are an extra burden and service users feel can short changed.
The volunteering experience and contribution is unique. Involving volunteers requires organisations to think through what volunteers will bring to service delivery; how they will be managed, supported and supervised. In developing opportunities for volunteers involved in delivering the Extended School prospectus volunteer-involving organisations will need to offer opportunities that match volunteers motivation to volunteer and that are diverse and inclusive.
