Volunteering

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Volunteering activity is the bedrock of the VCS and this is a time for dramatic change for volunteering as it is given a more prominent role in the Big Society agenda.

The Citizenship Survey shows that 41% of the UK population volunteer formally once a year. It is estimated that an even larger number of people volunteer informally, by giving unpaid help to people who are not relatives (outside any formal setting).

Based on a survey of volunteering across the East Midlands carried out in September 2010, around 15,000 people have been supported into formal volunteering roles in the last year with more than 20,000 volunteering opportunities still available.

One East Midlands supports the England Volunteering Council (EVDC) in the region, which aims to capture the intelligence of a broad range of organisations in the region and act as a powerful lobby to steer government policy.

Queens' Birthday Honours List 2012

One East Midlands would like to congratulate to all those individuals in the East Midlands who were honoured in the Queens' Birthday Honours List 2012 for their services to their communities, volunteering or charity work, including the following individuals:

Volunteering code of practice published

Volunteering England and the Association of British Insurers (ABI) have published a code of practice for volunteers, which has been developed by a working group to address the problem of unnecessary red tape raised in Lord Hodgson's report Unshackling Good Neighbours.

The code informs people that volunteering is not a generally risky activity and provides seven points to give volunteers guidance on staying safe and when to ask for advice:

Volunteering social networking website launched

ivo, a new social networking website, which claims to provide the first-ever national listing of charity volunteers, has being launched.

VCS organisations can search the website, which is designed to match people with community projects relating to their interests, for volunteers by skills and location. The website, which has been launched following the success of the 18-month i-volunteer pilot, also provides a forum where people can share their interests and experiences using blogs and videos.

Second round of Innovation in Giving Fund

The second round of the £10million Innovation in Giving Fund has been announced by the Cabinet Office and Nesta, focusing on inspiring innovation in established charities.

Whilst the first round focused on new ideas to increase giving, the second round calls for established charities that want to use their expertise, networks, assets and capabilities to find new ways to engage people in giving.

Guide published to avoiding job substitution

Volunteering England, in partnership with Locality, Navca and NCVO has published A Guide to Avoiding Job Substitution, explaining how VCS organisations should manage situations so that volunteers do not, or are not perceived to, take on roles previously done by paid members of staff.

Job substitution is when volunteers replace paid members of staff. It can occurs when jobs are cut and volunteers are recruited to fill gaps or when an organisation withdraws a service and community volunteers offer to run it.

Results of annual volunteer centre survey

Volunteering England has published the results of its survey of 169 volunteer centres in England, which included that although 89 per cent of respondents received funding from local authorities in 2010/11, this had fallen by 12%, from an average of £32,000 in 2009/10 to £28,308 in 2010/11.

Other results from the annual survey, which Volunteer England jointly conducted with the Institute for Volunteer Research, are:

Government considers charging volunteers for criminal records checks

The government is considering charging volunteers to use the portable criminal records checking system, due to come into force in 2013.

Under the system, laid out in the Protection of Freedoms Bill, which is currently before parliament, there would be two types of criminal records check, a one-off check and a portable one based on a continuously updated criminal records database, allowing an individual to work or volunteer for a number of organisations.

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