You are hereBlogs / Kate Bowgett's blog / James Purnell - long term unemployed and volunteering
James Purnell - long term unemployed and volunteering
James Purnell issued a ministerial statement on Monday on the government's plans to get people who are long term unemployed back into work. Unsurprisingly volunteering is mentioned but, at least the way I read it, he seems to have made the assumption that most volunteering will be full time.
Obviously this is far from true, very few people volunteering are doing so full time. I've come up against this assumption a couple of times with governmenty peeps, and I'm wondering what effect this has on government plans around volunteering? Do they see the CSV full time model as the norm, and is effecting their plans and strategies?
Liam Byrne expands (slightly!) on the scheme Purnell mentions. It's right at the end again!
- Kate Bowgett's blog
- Login or register to post comments
- 1872 reads
Good work! Your article is an excellent example of why I keep comming back to read your excellent quality content that is forever updated. Thank you!
Thanks Zombo09 for your really kind words. They're really appreciated.
=============
Patrick Daniels
Online Volunteering and Advice Manager - YouthNet
From Liam Byrnes comments: ‘A new full-time structured vocational volunteering programme is being created, with places reserved for those not in education, employment or training: We are supporting the charity to deliver volunteering opportunities that offer a clear route to gaining skills and employment. The 33 local authorities that have been selected to deliver this full-time programme will deliver 30 placements’
It would be interesting to know if the people filling these vacancies would be included in the unemployment figures (though if my maths are correct and 30 placements = 30 people, this would only create 990 placements.
It would also be interesting to know if these people would still be eligible to claim unemployment benefit given that if they are volunteering full time, how could they have time to actively find work?
Entering that grey area of what constitutes a voluntary role and what should be a paid role, would not a full time voluntary role perhaps indicate that the role should actually be a paid role? What would be the effects on the charity’s services if that role was suddenly vacated?
To me this is another example of Government misunderstanding volunteering and misusing volunteering for political ends. Gaining and developing skills, helping with social mobility, building self-confidence which would also help to gaining employment etc can be gain through volunteering, however, that is not the primary objective of volunteering. I could bang on about better funding and support of volunteer management instead of ‘initiatives to be seen to be doing something’ is a better use of funds however I guess I’d be preaching to the converted…