DWP Work Focussed Volunteering.
The Volunteer Centre and Richmondshire Job Centre Plus are taking part in a new support programme for people who have been unemployed for six months. This is a national scheme which aims to engage 34,000 Job Centre Plus customers in some form of volunteering, over a two year period.
BTCV, CSV, v and Volunteering England have been appointed to deliver the programme In England. All interested JCP customers will be given the opportunity to take part in a work-focussed volunteering placement to help them maintain and develop their skills and keep them in touch with the labour market whilst looking for employment.
I may be referring JCP customers as potential volunteers to any of the voluntary groups in Richmondshire. If so, the key points of the scheme are as follows:
- As the scheme is voluntary, the customer is free to refuse to participate at any time and their benefits will not be affected in anyway if they choose not to engage with the programme.
- All customers must be referred to the Volunteer Centre broker by a Job Centre Plus personal advisor, and via the VC to the placement organisation. Customers can not refer themselves to the programme.
- The programme aims to provide short term work focused volunteering placements mainly in the third sector, but they can be in the public or private sector as well.
- Customers looking for longer term volunteering can continue volunteering with their placement provider after the placement has been completed, but are no longer the responsibility of the programme.
It has been proposed that placement providers receive a payment to cover administration costs, as there will be forms to fill in and possibly CRB checks required. However, what this amount might be has yet to be decided. If I do send a volunteer to you as part of this programme, I will provide more information. We have not been advised how long a placement should last, but will negotiate this with the JCP customer, and the voluntary organisation involved.
Are women most likely to volunteer?
In a survey of 925 volunteers, carried out by the volunteering website do-it.org.uk, 72% of volunteers are female, and 72% are white. They also discovered that 35% are in paid employment, while one in ten is unemployed.
The poll showed that education and working with children is the most popular form of volunteering, favoured by 37% of volunteers. Working with prisoners and young offenders is the least favoured, with only 14% expressing an interest in that area.
However, the survey, conducted between November and January, also showed that almost one in ten volunteers found their placements “boring” and 10% said their voluntary placements were “disorganised”
Do you think these results reflect the need to recruit volunteers from more diverse backgrounds and sections of the community, and should we be devising more interesting roles for the volunteers we have?
The Volunteer Centre will be interested to hear your views as to whether the survey is an accurate reflection of volunteering in Richmondshire!
We are pleased to announce that Richmondshire Volunteer Centre has once again achieved the Volunteering England Quality Accreditation.
VCQA is a quality framework for Volunteer Centres, specifically addressing the delivery of six core functions of volunteering infrastructure at a local level. These are:
- Brokerage - matching both individuals and groups interested in volunteering with appropriate opportunities in the local community
- Marketing - encouraging local interest in volunteering using a variety of initiatives
- Promotion of good practice - promoting good practice in volunteer management to organisations through advice, guidance and training
- Developing local volunteering opportunities - working with organisations to develop new opportunities for people of all abilities and ensure that those who face barriers to volunteering are able to contribute
- Policy response & training - identifying and respond to proposals or legislation that may impact on volunteering
- Strategic development of volunteering - networking at a local, regional and national level in the strategic development of volunteering
The assessment process for Volunteer Centre Quality Accreditation examines the activity of a volunteer centre in delivering these six core functions, and for each of them, the centre is asked to demonstrate that it has processes in place to deliver that function and to monitor the outcome of its delivery
Richmondshire Volunteer Centre has been judged as meeting these objectives and performing all six core functions within the District of Richmondshire,
Our Volunteering England Quality Accreditation was awarded in June 2008 and will be valid for the next three years.
Local Area Agreement Stretch Targets
In support of a Local Area Agreement Stretch Target programme to measure the increase in volunteering over a period of three years, Volunteer Centres across North Yorkshire are working together to collect statistics from 10 voluntary organisations in each district. (Local Area Agreements are three-year agreements that set out the priorities for a local area agreed between central government and the local authorities and their partners at local level.)
LAAs are structured around four blocks (or policy fields)
- Children and young people
- Healthy Communities and older people
- Economic Development and Enterprise
- Safer and Stronger Communities
The results achieved through the LAA will be measured by putting in place targets for improvement in key services affecting quality of life within these blocks. Central government funding will be available to the LAAs, and there will be cash rewards for local areas which achieve the targets.
Volunteer Centres are involved in all LAA policy fields, but particularly in the Stronger Communities block, within which the need to increase volunteering is mandatory. All VCs want to increase the numbers of their volunteers and particularly those who are traditionally more difficult to attract. A major barrier to 
this work is lack of time and funding resources. If targets are achieved, the 12 Volunteer Centres in North Yorkshire will share a Performance Reward Grant, which in turn will benefit the community as VCs will be able to offer more support. In the meantime, VCs will be working closely with the organisations taking part in the survey to help increase their numbers.
