Volunteering England's policy blog

Tuesday, 30 November 2010

The Policy & Information team at Volunteering England supports and represents volunteering by

• maintaining and developing the Good Practice Bank and Information Service, responding directly to queries from members;
• developing policy by keeping up-to-date with sector developments, consulting members, and engaging with government and our partners in the public, private and voluntary and community sectors; and
• campaigning for an effective and sustainable volunteering infrastructure at local, regional and national level.

Talking to other people, especially those we represent, is essential when deciding the issues we should be working on and the best course of action to take. By listening to and sharing experiences, opinions and knowledge, we gain a better idea of the problems we need to solve and the opportunities available to us.

Discussion also helps us identify evidence for the things we want to say, and when we’re trying to influence decision makers - especially government - being able to support ideas with facts makes it much more likely that we’ll be listened to. Therefore our hope for this blog is that it will spark discussion about the issues facing volunteers and volunteer involving organisations that will inform our work.

Without engaging with volunteers, volunteer managers, researchers, grant makers and others, those of us who do have 'policy' in our job title wouldn't be able to form any concrete or persuasive arguments. It’s only by understanding the challenges faced by those on the front line, by being aware of the experiences of volunteers and those who support them, and by benefiting from the latest research, that we can speak to government and others with any authority.

So we hope that by talking to as many people as possible and involving them in our work we'll all gain a better understanding of how to create a better social, political and economic climate for volunteering.

Some of the issues we’re currently working on are:

• the 'Big Society';
• the impact of changes to immigration law (see Volunteering England's survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/visas);
• volunteering and young people not in education, employment or training;
• reducing bureaucracy; and
• risk aversion.

We look forward to discussing them with you.