report

Baroness Neuberger has published her report 'Volunteering Across the Criminal Justice System'. In it she says that 'volunteer management needs to be invested in if it is really to reap dividends, and the CJS, without doubt, needs more of this kind of investment' and 'a lack of investment in volunteer management inevitably results in volunteers having a bad experience. During the course of my research I have come across many cases of volunteers who have had a negative experience, as a direct result of poor investment in their management.'

Her recommendations:

• A ministerial champion should be established for volunteering across the CJS
• The agencies of the CJS on the ground should invest in volunteering and good volunteer management
• All agencies of the CJS should have a strategy to engage the skills and time of ex-offenders, to deliver those services alongside professionals.
• Employee volunteering should be rolled out throughout the CJS
• The Office for Criminal Justice Reform should produce guidance and a toolkit for local criminal justice boards on how volunteering can help them meet their objectives.
• Guidance should be produced for commissioners in the CJS on how to consider the involvement of volunteers when commissioning services.
• Examine how more specific schemes for offenders (and ex-offenders) who want to volunteer could be extended across the country.
• Unemployed people in contact with the Criminal Justice system should be signposted to volunteering opportunities as a stepping stone to entering the labour market.
• Government departments and their partners should work to develop a sustainable funding model for victims' organisations, where volunteers are clearly providing a vita service that is not being provided by statutory services.
• A coordinated cross-Government initiative to encourage employer support for voluntary roles.
• Joint guidance, by the trade union movement and Volunteering England, on the use of volunteers within public services should be published.

The full report can be found at: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/124076/volunteers%20in%20cjs.pdf

Yesterday AVM held its first AGM - more detailed reports on the content of the day to come. To mark the moment we released our first annual review. We attach it here and have an excerpt from it below:

We’re pleased to say that to date 126 volunteer managers have signed up as members and a further 510 people have registered on the website. It’s not just the numbers though; it’s where they are from. Our members are from all areas of the country, they come from local authorities, universities and volunteer centres, and from the smallest volunteer-led community organisations to the large national charities.

The Morgan Inquiry has just published its report which looks at "the real reasons for more young people to volunteer, the barriers that prevent young people from doing so - and produced a series of practical recommendations for change".

We've highlighted some of the recommendations from the final report:

"It is widely acknowledged that children and young adults often relate better to, and are inspired by, young adults who are closer to their age. However, attracting and retaining young adults into voluntary positions where they have a leadership/mentoring role for young people is proving difficult to achieve."

"There has been a lot of speculation about the introduction of a new national bank holiday, with the notion that it could be dedicated to volunteering. However, from our evidence the introduction of a new bank holiday per se, would have very little impact on volunteering. Instead this Inquiry would like to see the introduction of a new scheme that would grant young adults an extra day a year to volunteer."

"There is also a particular issue with regards to the payment of expenses ‘up front’ to young adult volunteers. Again, DWP along with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) need to produce clearer guidelines on this practice, which is sometimes wrongly regarded as a means of payment and thus means that unemployed young adults are penalised with regards to their benefit claims."

"With volunteering so vital in the development of the transferable skills that employers are looking for nationwide, this Inquiry would like to see the development of a Government accredited volunteering skills award that would be universally recognised and valued by not only industry but also higher/further education establishments."

"Our final recommendation is that we would like to see a consolidation of the information that is available for young adults who wish to volunteer. At present information is confusing to both young adults and employers who are interested in getting involved in volunteering."

The full report can be downloaded here.

• campaign and speak out on issues that are key to people who manage volunteers;
• facilitate and support effective peer-to-peer networking of those involved in volunteer management locally, regionally and nationally; and
• develop information and good practice resources on volunteer management.

The Association of Volunteer Managers welcomes the report from the Commission on the Future of Volunteering. We're pleased to see a number of recommendations that are intended to increase both the numbers of opportunities for volunteers and the numbers of people volunteering. For a range of reasons including increased regulation and inspection, as well as the diversification of the volunteer-force, the management of volunteers is becoming increasingly complex.