Government announcement on organisations receiving £6.5m earmarked to provide volunteering opportunities for unemployed

Third Sector reports that the government has announced that the £6.5 million pounds earmarked in ithe Third Sector Action Plan to offer volunteer opportunities to people who are long term unemployed will go to BTCV (British Trust for Conservation Volunteers) as a prime contacter, with CSV, V, and Volunteering England as subcontractors. According to the article

" Job centres will give people who have been unemployed for more than six months a volunteering freephone number for Doncaster-based BTCV. The organisation then has five days to consult with its subcontractors on the opportunities that are available before coming up with an offer."

BTCV may seem a surprising choice as a lead body in the partnership, given that they only deal with a very specific type of volunteering, but they have delivered welfare to work programmes for the DWP in the past. It will be interesting to see how the partnership develops.

 You can read the full article here: http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/News/DailyBulletin/897421/Volunteering-char...