1291825521 VE NSS Eval Report F

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Evaluation ofthe ModernisingVolunteeringNational Support

Services ProgrammePrepared by David Payne and Mick Feloy,Local Economy Solutions Ltd


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About Volunteering England

Volunteering England is an independent charity and membership organisation, committed

to supporting, enabling and celebrating volunteering in all its diversity.

Our work links policy, research, innovation, good practice and programme management in the

involvement of volunteers. We have a diverse membership drawn from the public, private and

voluntary and community sectors. These include national charities, further and higher education,

NHS Trusts, arts and sports organisations, Volunteer Centres and local community projects. On behalf

of our members and the wider volunteering movement, we work with local and central Government,

national agencies and infrastructure partnerships.

Volunteering England is at the centre, bringing ideas and people together, developing better networks

and structures, and initiating projects to support volunteering in a wide range of elds, such as health

and social care, sport and employer-supported volunteering.

Author: Local Economy Solutions Ltd

Publisher: Volunteering England

Place of publication: London

Date of publication: October 2010

Although all possible care has been taken, and the publisher believes the content to be correct, no guarantee can be given.

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About Modernising Volunteering

Working at a national level, the Modernising Volunteering workstream is funded by Capacitybuilders

through the National Support Services programme.

It aims to develop the skills and performance of people and organisations supporting locally based

social enterprises, charities and voluntary groups.

Resources, information and learning gathered and developed by the Modernising Volunteering

workstream are shared with support providers through the Improving Support website, magazine

and e-bulletin.

To nd out more, visit: www.improvingsupport.org.uk

The authors

Local Economy Solutions provides a range of research activities to underpin practical action including

voluntary and community sector research and support, business support and enterprise (including

social enterprise), monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment, local area regeneration and

tackling disadvantage and community consultation.

To nd out more about Local Economy Solutions, visit: www.localeconomysolutions.co.uk


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Contents

Foreword 51. Introduction 82. The approach adopted by Volunteering England 113. Skills-based employer supported volunteering 15

4. Faith-based volunteering 215. New forms of volunteering and management 28

6. Overcoming barriers to volunteering 35

7. Online survey results 408. Financial income and expenditure 439. Overall conclusions 46Appendix one 49

Appendix two 51


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Foreword

Welcome to a journey into the heart of

Modernising Volunteering; I have been

impressed by the rigour, independent

thought and analysis that Local Economy

Solutions have brought to bear. Their desk

research ran through hundreds of pages of

rst year research ndings, management

reports, plans and an array of good practice

resources. They talked in depth to all key

management personnel involved in the workand dozens of direct beneciaries. Their

research engendered a range of ndings and

subsequently they have sifted through these

to form a clear view on the work undertaken.

Of course all views those of Local Economy

Solutions included are subjective to some

extent, and neither Volunteering England nor

our partners necessarily agree with everything

presented here. But as a viewpoint outside the

day-to-day work of the Modernising Volunteering

programme and therefore one well placed to

see the wood as well as the trees theirs is one

that should be taken seriously.

Did we achieve everything exactly as planned at

the beginning? Clearly not. For example, in the

skills-based employer supported volunteering

strand, after recruiting three full-time

coordinators, providing comprehensive induction

training, running project launch events, mappinglocal needs and delivering effective consultancy

services for employers who had paid money

in return for their employees being placed in

volunteering roles, reaching the demanding

target of securing 30 paid for brokerage

partnerships by September 2010 proved a step

too far (see pages 17 and 18).

Yet when I read through the evaluation and

reect back Im reminded of the words of the

renowned 16th Century artist Michelangelo: The

greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim

is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low

and we reach it.

If aspirations and ambitions were at times

demanding, we make no apology; during these

challenging times, the aspirations and ambitions

of all organisations will need to be higher thanever. In light of the seismic public decit, the

volunteering movement has a critical role to

play in meeting social needs which will be

higher than ever, but one made more

challenging by funding cuts. Sharing learning

effectively and making the most of precious

resources will be fundamental over the coming

years. Our hope is that, in its own way, this

evaluation will contribute to meeting this sector

necessity through sharing learning and key

evaluation ndings in four key areas: skills-

based employer supported volunteering;

new forms of volunteer involvement and

management; overcoming barriers to

volunteering; and faith-based volunteering.

The ndings make interesting reading.

Volunteering Englands overall approach

was one of partnership (see page 11) and

engendered a range of reactions initially. Thereare certainly arguments against a partnership

approach it can make accountability more

challenging, it increases work, particularly in

the early stages, and managing relationships

can at times be tricky. But get partnership work

right and it can bring signicant benets. The

approach taken enabled Volunteering England


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not only to leverage in additional funding for the

programme, but to access new groups whose

non-nancial contribution added immense

value the volunteer contribution of Policy

Action Community Team members (see page 35

onwards) being but one example.

When we began our employer supported

volunteering (ESV) work (see page 15), there

was often agreement that Volunteer Centres

and other organisations delivering brokerageto employers needed to be less reliant on grant

funding, but considerable scepticism that a

charged for brokerage model could take off in a

wide range of locations. When we pointed to the

success of Westminster Volunteer Centres ESV

offering, for instance, which had over the years

grown to be sustainable through employers

membership fees alone, an audible groan

often came back: but thats London. Whilst we

needed to make signicant departures from the

Westminster model and learn from a wide range

of ESV schemes, the three pilots in Oxford,

Darlington and Exeter have demonstrated that

a charged for ESV brokerage model can work

outside London. Between them, they have

recruited a range of employers, including small

and medium sized enterprises.

Paradoxically, in a climate where cash provided

to support volunteering by government and thepublic sector is inevitably squeezed, investment

in ESV may well become even more attractive

as a way for employers across all sectors to

maintain a foothold in the community; there

is also an opportunity here for Volunteer

Centres and others to build the capacity of their

brokerage as core funds are reduced.

A hands-on approach was critical to moving

our ESV work forward (weekly conference

calls with pilot projects, for example). This

approach was similar in some respects to our

work with six innovative faith pilots (see page

21). At the beginning of the work, we committed

to providing a strong support structure of impact

assessment training when the faith pilots were

initially commissioned, followed by regular

Action Learning Workshops to address keychallenges collectively.

The support structure was a surprise for pilots

who had been used to receiving a grant, getting

down to delivery, and then producing a nal

report. But it enabled challenges and learning to

be collectively shared; the hands-on approach

also meant that Volunteering England was able

to develop signicant insight into a diverse

projects, spanning a number of faiths, and

share that learning with the wider volunteering

movement. Whatever the challenges of bringing

different faith groups together, the results have

made investment worthwhile; for instance,

between them the pilots have created to date

over a thousand new volunteering opportunities.

On a personal note, it has been a pleasure to

see such interesting projects funded take the

Engage project, for example, which seeks to

involve female as well as male youth volunteers

in how their Mosque operates so that local

community needs are met.

The new forms of volunteer involvement and

management strand comprises one of the most

innovative areas of the whole Modernising

Volunteering initiative, spanning social

networking and a public sector Volunteering

Champions scheme (see page 28). When the

work began, I was full of condence about


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the potential and benets of public sector

volunteering which the Warwickshire County

Council Volunteering Champions pilot has

conrmed; an audit they undertook, for example,

identied 6,000 volunteers involved in council

services (see page 33).

In contrast, I started out being sceptical about

the benets of social networking to volunteering

(partly because of, it has to be acknowledged,

my aversion to new technology in general). Butover the programmes course I have grown into

a convert. Social networking can never replace

face-to-face conversation, but examples like

Barack Obamas use of social networking to

help mobilise thousands of volunteers to aid

his 2008 Presidential victory shows that it can

be a powerful force. With millions of people in

the UK now using social networking, there is an

opportunity for organisations to get to grips with

it and then use it to both promote volunteering

to a wider base of people and support delivery

in key sector work. Red Foundations training

in setting up and using social networks has

touched every region, reached hundreds of

people and has gone a long way to ensuring that

we make the most of the opportunities social

networking affords in this country.

Last, but by no means least, we come to

the Network of National Volunteer-InvolvingAgencies (NNVIAs) work on overcoming

barriers (see page 35). Their work through

the Policy Action Community Teams has

shown that there is considerable appetite for

overcoming barriers to volunteering in a range of

organisations, both infrastructure and frontline.

Whilst increasing the diversity of volunteers

within NNVIA organisations remains a constant

challenge requiring ongoing work, the impact

of the PACT work to its members and wider

stakeholders has been impressive.

The shortest case study presented in this

report relating to overcoming barriers is also

one of the most powerful. Leonards realisation

through involvement with the Refugee and

Asylum Seekers PACT that volunteering is seen

as a worthwhile and indeed legal activity in

this country demonstrates the difference

that can be made to individuals (it is onlytoday I realised that I am not doing anything

illegal [by volunteering]).

One thing that we realise today is that as our

journey to modernise volunteering in this three-

year partnership initiative nears its end, across

the volunteering movement there will be many

new vital journeys beginning. If this evaluation

can at times act as something of a compass or

guide for some of those new journeys it will have

served its purpose.

Finally, for those wanting to focus on any one

area of the evaluation in more detail there are

detailed strand reports (as well a range of good

practice resources produced throughout the

programme) which can be downloaded from

www.volunteering.org.uk/improvingsupport.

Heres to tomorrows ventures and good luck

on your travels.

Patrick Scott

Modernising Volunteering

Implementation Manager


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The purpose of this report is to summarise

the results of a comprehensive evaluation

of the Modernising Volunteering National

Support Services (subsequently referred

to as Modernising Volunteering), a three-

year programme that aims to modernise

volunteering in a number of key priority areas.

Modernising Volunteering is one of nine national

workstreams funded by Capacitybuilders

National Support Services programme. The

aims of the national workstreams are to:

Improve the effectiveness of those who

support the third sector1 by increasing their

condence, knowledge, skills, collaboration

and practice

Exert inuence on policies, programmes and

funding to the third sector that will enhance

its effectiveness.

The overall aim is to ensure that support

providers are better equipped to support the

frontline by 2011.

Volunteering England, as lead partner of the

Modernising Volunteering workstream, is

working with Capacitybuilders and a number

of partners to improve volunteering support in

innovative ways. This includes the following four

key strands of activity:

Skills-based employer supported

volunteering (SBESV), in partnership

with the Nationwide Foundation

SBESV involves employers supporting

their staff to volunteer and donate their

professional skills to support the operation

and growth of voluntary and community

organisations. This strand involved the

development and piloting of a new model

through three Volunteer Centres in different

locations in England. The goal of the pilots

was to work towards operating the SBESV

schemes on a self-sustaining basis through

membership fees raised from employers

participating in the schemes and other

sources.

Faith-based volunteering, in partnership

with v and the Multi-faith Centre Derby

This strand centred around six different and

innovative pilot projects that all involved

young people and came together through

the use of a faith-based volunteering support

model. This revolved around a series of

Action Learning Workshops undertaken

during the course of the pilot programme,

which sought to build the capacity of keyproject members and improve project

outcomes. The aims of all of the pilot projects

were to develop leadership skills amongst

young people, increase engagement and

volunteering by young people from faith-

based communities and promote community

and cross-faith cohesion.

New forms of volunteer involvement

and management, in partnership with

Red Foundation

The evaluation work covered two of the three

work areas undertaken as part of this strand:

- The role of social network services in

supporting volunteering, which

included a programme of training

seminars and a social networking

pilot at Volunteer Centre Brighton

and Hove

1. Introduction

1.1 Background and context

1 The term support is used throughout this document (and can be used interchangeably with the term infrastructure, which is also used

within the voluntary sector) and is dened as any organisation or network that provides a service to the frontline .


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- Developing the role of Volunteering

Champions, which included a

pilot scheme at Warwickshire County

Council that also sought to embed

good volunteering practice within

the organisation

Overcoming barriers to volunteeringfor

socially excluded groups, in partnership

with the Network of National Volunteer -

Involving Agencies (NNVIA)

This strand involved the establishment of

ve Policy Action Community Teams (PACTS)

that brought together expertise from national

and local organisations to develop policy

and practice that would result in more people

from under-represented groups participating

in volunteering.

The Modernising Volunteering programme

covered the three-year period from April 2008

March 2011. Throughout this report reference

is made to the year in which activity undertaken

on the programme actually took place Year

One (April 2008 March 2009), Year Two (April

2009 March 2010) and Year Three (April 2010

March 2011).

1.2 Evaluation methodsOnline survey

A bespoke web-based customer satisfaction

survey was developed and sent to all support

beneciaries in each strand of activity. The

design of the survey was based on the specic

outcome requirements of Capacitybuilders

that were included within the tender brief2.

The opportunity was also taken to include

open-ended questions so that qualitativedata could also be obtained. The survey

questionnaire, which was specically tailored

to each strand of activity, was thoroughly piloted

prior to implementation.

Face-to-face interviews

A total of 25 face-to-face interviews were

undertaken with 27 individuals, including key

strand representatives and activity / pilot leads.

This formed an extremely important component

of the evaluation and involved site visits to all

pilot projects. Appendix one provides a listing

of those key strand representatives and strand

activity leads who were interviewed as part of

the evaluation. Interviews were digitally recorded

and, in nearly all cases, notes were written

up and sent back to the interviewee for their

comments and agreement.

Telephone interviews

30 telephone interviews were undertakenwith programme beneciaries in the following

strands:

Overcoming barriers to volunteering (ten)

Faith-based projects (ten)

SBESV (ten, including partner organisations

and volunteering organisations).

2Capacitybuilders developed a number of shared outcomes and associated indicators in order to ensure a consistent approach to

evaluation across all national workstreams and priority areas.


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Appendix two provides a listing of those

beneciaries who were interviewed as part

of the evaluation.

Telephone discussions were also held with

Dr Justin Davis Smith, Chief Executive of

Volunteering England and Rob Jackson, Director

of Development and Innovation at Volunteering

England. They were involved in setting the

programme up initially and appointing the

Implementation Manager.

Desk-based research

This involved examination of Year One research

reports, associated strand documentation and

analysis of eldwork outcomes.

A desk-based review of all relevant nancial

information relating to each area of activity

was also undertaken.

It was recognised that an important aspect of

the evaluation approach was to ensure that all

individuals who participated within an activity

should be given the opportunity to respond

as part of the evaluation process. We believe

that the methods outlined above satisfactorily

achieved this goal.

Evaluation challenge

The evaluation was commissioned halfway

through the nal year of Year Three and

this had an important bearing on impact

assessment. Whilst it was possible to discuss

and review project outputs and outcomes,

the timing of the evaluation meant that it was

not possible to undertake a comprehensive

impact assessment3.

This overall summary report is based on detailed

reports on each of the strands, along with a full

report on the online evaluation. For readers

interested in reading about any area in more

detail, all reports can be accessed from

www.volunteering.org.uk/improvingsupport

3 Whereas an outcome is the change occurring as a direct result of project outputs, impact is the effect of a project at a higher or broader

level, in the longer term, after a range of outcomes has been achieved. It seeks to assess all changes resulting from an activity, project, or

organisation and it is clearly more difcult to assess this level of change, particularly within the lifetime of a short project.


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A number of factors appear to have driven the

approach adopted by Volunteering England in

managing Modernising Volunteering, notably:

Establishing effective partnerships

Setting out clear strands

of programme activity

Putting forward a clear delivery model

Developing effective management controls

and arrangements.

2.2 PartnershipAlthough Volunteering England considered

that it was in quite a strong position to run

the programme itself, it was nevertheless

felt that partnership working was the way

forward and that the sector needed to

undertake more partnership working. The

National Support Services programme was

therefore seen by Volunteering England as

a good opportunity to bring together a

consortium of partners to really add value

and maximise the opportunities available.

Volunteering England was successful in not

only bringing together a partnership that has

subsequently delivered very effectively over the

three-year programme to date, but also ensureda relevant and appropriate mix of partners in

terms of track record, good networks and/or

capacity to bring in additional resources:

Nationwide Foundation has been interested

in the issue of skills exchange within ESV

over a long period of time and was able to

provide 100,000 in support of the SBESV

pilot activity

v had a long standing interest in faith issues

around young people and had considerable

expertise in the area. v was also able to

provide 100,000 in support of the faith

strand pilots

Volunteering England was keen to work

with Community Service Volunteers (CSV),

which had a long standing interest in barriers

to and inequality in volunteering, and

also provided secretariat services to NNVIA,

which was also keen to be involved in the

Modernising Volunteering programme

The fourth strand partnership arrangements

were initially seen as difcult in some

respects because it was such a new area of

work to explore and not many organisations

had a substantive track record around new

forms of volunteering. In this regard, RedFoundation was seen as one of the few and

was considered to be the right organisation

with which to undertake joint working.

It is apparent that the partners have worked

through the inevitable teething troubles

associated with a partnership programme of

this nature very successfully, particularly as the

partnerships were put together at quite short

notice. Overall the process of establishing an

effective strategic partnership and producing

various iterations of the business plan over the

period January July 2008 appears to have

been well managed.

2. The approach adoptedby Volunteering England

2.1 Introduction

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The partnership approach appears to have been

open with effective dialogue, even in areas of

considerable disagreement between partners.

There is also evidence of a clear willingness of

partners to adapt, change and develop as the

programme took its course. Regular partnership

meetings took place throughout the programme

through an overarching steering group.

Volunteering England still feels that thebenets of partnership working on Modernising

Volunteering continue to far outweigh any

potential disadvantages. Clearly the partnership

arrangements that were put in place crucially

enabled Volunteering England to reach different

audiences (such as NNVIA) and undertake pilot

activity in areas that it did not have particular

expertise, but which were new and emerging

areas of volunteering activity (such as Red

Foundation and social networking).

CSV, Red Foundation, and most of the pilots

at some stage in the process, all expressed

some concerns about Volunteering England

being overly formal, particularly in relation to

the accountability arrangements that were put

in place during Year Two of the programme.

However, it was also recognised that

Volunteering England had responsibilities

for signicant sums of public money and thereforethere was a need to ensure that this money was

spent wisely and properly accounted for.

Achieving a balance between the development

of effective partnership arrangements on the

one hand, and ensuring proper accountability

on the other, is a difcult balance to strike.

However, Volunteering England appears to have

achieved a good balance in the management of

partnership arrangements, which has enabled

very successful partnership outcomes.

2.3 Strand based workingWhilst it was recognised that there were

many potential themes, it was felt that the

four strands actually chosen to form the basis

of the Modernising Volunteering programme

were particularly important areas for

Volunteering England to explore. The fourthemes that were eventually agreed upon

arose partly because of the need to build on

the success of the work of the Volunteering

Hub4, partly because of the priorities of

Capacitybuilders and partly because of

Volunteering Englands awareness of gaps

and needs through the Institute for

Volunteering Research.

If the partnership was going to work then

it wasnt just a case of us sub-contracting

and then managing very tightly and rigidly

those pieces of work. It was (in the language

of the day) about co-producing some of

the products.

Dr Justin Davis Smith, Chief Executive,

Volunteering England

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4A predecessor of Modernising Volunteering National Support Services


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A three-stage delivery model was agreed

by all partners, which formed the basis of

all strand activity:

Year One research to understand what was

already known in each area of strand activity,

establish baseline positions and examine

options on the way forward in Year Two

Year Two pilot activity enabling arange of organisations, including grassroots

organisations, to set up and run exciting and

innovative projects

Year Three dissemination capture the

lessons and determine how they could best

be disseminated using a wide variety of

methods and networks.

It was felt to be particularly important for

Volunteering England to act as much more

than a funding intermediary and seek to add

real value through learning the lessons,

translating them and making them much

more widely available within all three sectors

and government.

An inherent challenge of a partnership

approach is in ensuring effective

accountability, management and controls

without formal contractual arrangements.

Programme activity in Year One was managed

through the agreed business plan5. In particular,

Year One activity included commissioning

research across all four strands of activity.

Three of the four Year One strand research

projects were subject to competitive tender and

the fourth was undertaken by one of the partners

(Red Foundation).

In this latter instance, Volunteering England

put accountability criteria in place, so that it

could be satised about the process, control

the release of funding and be in a position to

satisfy Capacitybuilders.During Year One, more formal accountability

arrangements were developed in order to

provide a foundation for the planning of

project and pilot work undertaken in Years

Two and Three of the programme. Monitoring

arrangements were also developed and put in

place so that the delivery outcomes from agreed

workplans could be assessed.

2.4 Delivery model 2.5 Management controlsand arrangements

I actually think thatthe programmewas

not just about getting money down to the

grassroots, although [that was] clearly part

of the ambitionit was much more about

running some pilot projects and helping thesector, the [volunteering] movement to learn

from what [other] organisations were doing.

Dr Justin Davis Smith, Chief Executive,

Volunteering England

The approach that we wanted to take

was one where we were effectively sub-

contracting the work, but that we wanted it tolook and feel much more like a partnership.

And of course the two different approaches

are not always easy to marry together.

Rob Jackson, Director of Development

and Innovation, Volunteering England

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5National Support Services (2008), Modernising Volunteering Business Plan


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A three-level planning system and process was

established as a basis for managing all activities

undertaken within the programme, which had

key deliverables at its heart.

At a strand level, annual workplans formed

the basis of planning activity and a foundation

of the accountability structure established

by Volunteering England. These workplans

detailed the outcomes, outputs and targets

for all strand activity. They also included

baselines, indicators and a section on whether

material collected could form the basis of case

studies. These plans often took at least two

or three meetings to reach agreement with

relevant partners. In the case of CSV and Red

Foundation these workplans formed the basis

of grant agreements/contacts.

The agreed strand level workplans then formedthe basis of an overall workplan, which was used

as an accountability document that governed the

relationship between Volunteering England and

Capacitybuilders. The workplans also provided

a clear process for managing and agreeing

changes in programme activity between

Volunteering England and Capacitybuilders

(for example, in relation to variations from the

original business plan). Such changes, inevitable

on an iterative programme of this nature, appearto have been managed very well through the use

of workplans.

At an individual project or pilot level, different

types of work planning documents were also

produced across the different strands of activity.

For example, within the Policy Action Community

Teams in the overcoming barriers strand

Model Engagement Plans were used as a basis

for work planning.

In relation to monitoring outcomes of projects,

a number of different mechanisms were used,

which were tailored to each area of strand

activity. For CSV and Red Foundation, monthly

management reports were completed detailing

progress on key deliverables in the annual

workplan. For the faith strand, a quarterly report

was submitted and an external consultant was

employed to assist with the collation of thesereports. For the SBESV strand, which was

managed by Volunteering England, weekly

reporting was undertaken.

The focus of outcome monitoring was on

the key deliverables included within the

annual workplans. Payments were made by

Volunteering England against such deliverables.

In addition, the Modernising Volunteering

Implementation Manager undertook a numberof site visits across all strands of activity in order

to better understand what was being delivered

and obtain a clearer insight into the nature of

project activity being undertaken.

From the evaluation eldwork undertaken it is

clear that some of the partners and individual

pilot projects found the outcome monitoring

and reporting arrangements put in place by

Volunteering England testing. For example,

a number of pilot projects did not receive

funding until they had achieved specied

outputs/outcomes. However, we consider that

clear, appropriate and effective management

arrangements have been put in place by

Volunteering England to both plan and monitor

project activity, which are felt to be necessary

for proper accountability.

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SBESV is a term used by Volunteering

England to describe a programme through

which employers support their staff

to volunteer and donate their time and

professional skills, or their wider employment /

life skills, to support the operation and growth

of voluntary and community organisations.

Westminster Volunteer Centre had run an

employer supported volunteering offer forover a decade that had grown to be self-

sustaining through membership fees charged

to employers for brokering their employees

into volunteer-involving organisations.

However, there was scepticism that Volunteer

Centres outside of London could create offers

that would generate income in the same

way. In this sense Volunteering England was

entering unchartered territory at the start of

the programme.

The Year One research on employer

supported volunteering (ESV)6 undertaken

by Corporate Citizenship7 was conducted

to gather feedback on the process and

practice of skills-based volunteering,

informing the pilot recommendations

for Year Two and beyond.

An important conclusion of the research was

that skills-based volunteering could benet a

much wider range of companies and voluntary

and community organisations across the UK,

but currently lacks the local leadership and

infrastructure to make it happen.

The report outlined the rationale for distributing

the Year Two Modernising Volunteering budget

to pilot projects run by local / regional

infrastructure brokers to increase capacity for

skills-based volunteering. It was felt that thisfunding would not only pay for a dedicated broker

to establish a scheme for skills-based matching,

but would also pay for a support structure to

provide all the pilots with expert consultancy

on how to develop the scheme.

The Year One research therefore laid the

groundwork for the establishment and running

of three SBESV pilots over the period April 2009

to August 2010 (all of Year Two and half of Year

Three of Modernising Volunteering).

The driver for this approach to SBESV was

a clear recognition on the part of Volunteering

England that Volunteer Centres could no longer

be so reliant on grants and government funding;

they would have to earn income from services

provided if they were to be sustainable in

the future.

3.1 Introduction 3.2 Year One research

3. Skills-based employer supportedvolunteering (SBESV)

the truth about pilots is you do all the

research you can, you make evidence based

decisions as much as possible, but you never

quite know whats going to happen its a

mixture of weighing up evidence, making

educated guesses, managing political

realities and taking some calculated risks.

Patrick Scott, Modernising Volunteering


15

6 Employer supported volunteering (ESV) is the term used by Volunteering England to describe all forms of volunteering carried out by

employees that are supported by their employer and includes activities such as team challenges.

7 A. Braybrooks and L. Carter (2009), Forging Sustainable Partnerships between Businesses and Communities, A Modernising Volunteering

Workstream Report, Volunteering England


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It is apparent that in the pilot phase of the

programme, Volunteering England was

keen to pilot a SBESV brokerage scheme in

different locations using a single model, for

a number of interrelated reasons:

It was recognised that there was a need to

develop a new model and approach ratherthan try to replicate other schemes. The basic

idea was to pull learning from a variety of

different models, instil best practice and apply

this in an original way

Given limited funding, it was felt to be

important to pilot the same model in three

different places to try to establish whether

the model worked in a robust and

comprehensive way

Volunteering England was also keen to

leverage in business funds and move towards

a culture where Volunteer Centres are selling

services rather than relying on one grant after

another. The thinking was that this goal would

be best served by using a new bespoke

SBESV model. Nationwide, as an important

funder of the scheme, also liked the idea

of leveraging in business money through

their investment.Although not explicitly stated in documentation

or interviews undertaken as part of the evaluation

programme, it does appear that the decision

to test only one ESV model through the local

Volunteer Centre infrastructure was inextricably

linked to a vision to create a self-sustaining

ESV network of Volunteer Centres across the

country. In this regard the pilots formed part of a

wider strategy for the development of a SBESV

infrastructure based within Volunteer Centres

throughout England.

Tenders for the pilots included a requirement

to employ a full-time Local Business Partnership

Coordinator (LBPC) and the tender included a

job description, so that Volunteer Centres knewexactly what they were applying for. A budget

of 35k per pilot was available and funding was

offered to the successful pilots in July 2009; they

then had until September to recruit an LBPC.

They would then operate for 12 months with full-

time LBPCs in post and pilot funding ceased at

the end of September 2010.

Shortlisting and interviews were undertaken by

the Modernising Volunteering Implementation

Manager, ESV consultant and the CEO of

Westminster Volunteer Centre. It is evident that

the selection process was both rigorous and

fair. Volunteering England wanted applicants

to demonstrate that they had considered the

commercial prospect and potential in their area

(employer base), how SBESV (particularly the

Coordinator) would t into the infrastructure of

the Volunteer Centre and how they would look

at sustainability moving forward.

Darlington, Exeter, and Oxfordshire Volunteer

Centres were subsequently selected, who

went on to recruit LBPCs by the end of the

September 2009.

One of the main initial targets that LBPCs were

working towards was a launch event for the pilots.

This was achieved for all three areas during

October / November 2009.

3.3 Skills-based employer supported volunteeringpilot activity

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The membership pricing structure was agreed

when all LBPCs were in post and Volunteering

England went to considerable lengths to secure

the agreement of all pilots on the pricing structure.

From a Volunteering England perspective, it was

felt that a shared and consistent approach to

pricing was critical to any future network roll out.

A difcult balance had to be struck in terms of

developing a pricing structure that was as high aspossible in terms of generating income, but also

one that the three pilots could actually deliver on

(i.e. that businesses would sign up to).

As of October 2010, there are 18 partners across

the three ESV pilot locations, with the majority

being small to medium sized enterprises. The

pilots have proven that the SBESV model works

in a range of locations outside London.

All pilots revealed that very few employers have

turned down the opportunity to become involved

in SBESV because of any kind of objection

in principle. In fact the position appears to be

the contrary, with employers being extremely

supportive of the scheme. It is felt to be

particularly signicant in this context that the three

pilot schemes have been able to attract a wide

range of businesses of different sizes across very

different sectors of activity.

Case study: Morgan Cole Solicitors

The company had a staff volunteering policy which was not used in a widespread way and, whereit was used, it was not aligned with the business interests of the company. A decision was made to

promote the scheme within the company and align it to the sectors in which the company works,

mainly: health, education, energy and insurance. The company wanted to use their volunteering to

support gaining a reputation and knowledge in these sectors.

The company has a client that provides support for people with learning disabilities and has come

up with a list of opportunities for staff to volunteer for that client. But the company also wants to

work with businesses and other charities in other sectors that are not existing clients. Our staff

put something into the sector and gain sector knowledge and hopefully are better able to serve the

clients that we then have.

Morgan Cole has been working with the Local Business Partnership Coordinator in Oxfordshire

Volunteer Centre since April 2010 to re-launch the volunteering programme in the company. They

have now created a skills bank of those employees that are interested. The company identied that

it was early days in the project and, whilst the Local Business Partnership Coordinator had great

connections, due to their specic brief, most of the volunteer opportunities so far have been gained

from him working with Morgan Cole and their existing clients.

By the end of the year the company would want to know: how many hours their staff had

volunteered, that they had cemented their relationship with clients by gaining sector knowledge

and that they had motivated their staff.

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The prospects for sustainability in the short term

appear to rest on two main factors:

Conversion of the pipeline of employers

interested in the scheme into fee

paying members

The use of other opportunities in each area

to supplement income.

What is clear from the interviews with allthree LBPCs is a determination to nd a way

that each ESV pilot can be sustainable in some

shape or form8.

With respect to Darlington and Exeter, it appears

that more fundamental change particularly the

possibility of extending the catchment area may

be needed before nancial sustainability could

be achieved. In this regard we consider that

Oxfordshire probably represents the lowest level

at which a nancially self-sustaining purely ESV

brokerage scheme could be established in terms

of the number of employers within a catchment

area. Larger catchment areas may also need to

involve a number of Volunteer Centres working

together.

There is also a potentially signicant capacity

issue associated with the future viability of the

SBESV schemes in each pilot area, which up

to the present time has largely been untested.This capacity issue essentially revolves around

the ability of the infrastructure to cope with a

signicant increase in demand for volunteering

opportunities brought about by an increase in

membership of between 20 and 30 partners9. As

more members join, more services need to be

provided, thus reducing the time the LBPC has to

sell the scheme to new members.

However, whilst this position represents a real

challenge to the SBESV team, it should not

detract from the achievements of what we

consider to be an exemplar in pilot activity.

In particular:

The purpose of the pilot activity and what

it was trying to achieve was clear and

well documented

The support provided to all three Local

Business Partnership Coordinators throughout

the pilot has been rst class

The overall strand activity was extremely

well managed

Communication and networking amongst

the SBESV team has been excellent

There has been a high level of

professionalism, commitment and dedicationto making the SBESV pilots a success

The activity has generated added value to the

operation of the Volunteer Centres. The

evidence indicates that the introduction

of SBESV has had a very positive impact

on Volunteer Centres in terms of prole and

relations with the business community

generally and linkages with other work

undertaken through Volunteer Centres

The generation of independently earned

income which is not tied to government or

funding organisations. This is regarded as

being fundamentally important and relates to

Volunteering Englands primary driver behind

the SBESV model, which was to effect a

cultural change amongst Volunteer Centres

to one where they are selling services

and reducing reliance on grants and

government funding8 Sustainability in this sense does not mean nancial self-sustainability for an SBESV scheme, but rather looking at other complementary

income sources and activities that would enable such a scheme to continue.

9Based on the evidence from pilots, between 20 and 30 partners would be required to enable the three pilot schemes to be nancially

self-sufcient. Each Volunteer Centre pursued a stretch target of securing ten new paying partners by September 2010 to support the move

away from reliance on grant funding.


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The pricing structure adopted by the three

pilots has clearly worked across all three pilot

areas in that different sized employers in

different sectors of activity have been prepared

to pay the appropriate membership fee.

However, there may need to be more exibility

around the edges to accommodate different

circumstances without prejudicing the integrity

of the scheme

It is generating capacity as far as volunteers

are concerned and enhancing skills in the

voluntary sector

Pilots have been able to attract small to

medium enterprises, particularly in Exeter

and Oxford.

All three pilots and Westminster are now members

of what is branded the Time & Talents Network.

This represents a considerable achievement of

the pilot scheme. Clearly the development of such

a network would have been virtually impossible

if Volunteering England decided to pilot different

ESV models.

Volunteering England, in partnership with pilots,

identied a number of benets in creating a

national network:

Presenting a stronger business offer

Providing a wider core of good practice

and resources

Enabling Volunteer Centres that are struggling

with capacity and under-resourced ESV

brokerage activity to be able to connect up

with each other

Providing consistent support for large

national employers.

The Time & Talents Network appears to be key

to the future development of SBESV. Whilst there

is unlikely to be the funding available to provide

the kind of support received by the pilots under

Modernising Volunteering in the future, there

is clearly a need for Volunteering England to

coordinate, manage, market and be the face of

what would hopefully be a developing network.

The pilot activity has undoubtedly generated

valuable Intellectual Property, which Volunteering

England intends to encapsulate and license under

a social enterprise franchising approach. This

would recreate all aspects of the ESV model and

associated resources for successful applicants to

use, subject to a thorough assessment of viability

and preconditions.

However, further research may be needed to

examine whether criteria could be establishedin relation to the size and prole of the employer

base in any potential SBESV area. The other

factor that would also need to be considered

is competition. Whilst there is little evidence

of ESV competition in the pilot areas this may

not be the case in larger cities. This is an

important consideration in relation to the next

roll out of SBESV.

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Within the Big Society, SBESV is potentially

considered to be a massively important area

of work and the model developed as a result

of this pilot activity is one that is clearly

capable of bringing in private sector support

for volunteering.

From a standing start, Volunteering England

has successfully piloted three SBESV schemes

through Volunteer Centres in different locations

in England using a single model. This was

developed and rened during the period of the

pilot activity into valuable Intellectual Property.

In doing this, there is now a much more robust

SBESV model that can be replicated in other

areas, which could enable other Volunteer

Centres to hit the ground running. In particular,

the outcomes of the pilots hold out a realistic

prospect that Volunteer Centres will be able to

operate SBESV schemes on a self-sustaining

basis by income generated through membership

of the Time & Talents network.

3.4 Conclusions

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4. Faith-based volunteering

The overall goal of this strand of Modernising

Volunteering was to pilot six innovative

projects involving young people using a

faith-based volunteering and support model.

The model revolved around a series of Action

Learning Workshops (ALWs), the aim of

which was to draw on the principles of action

learning to:

Support key project members to deliver

better project outcomes through the provision

of live personal and professional

development opportunities

Build key project members capacity by

sharing experiences and drawing on the

support of colleagues in order to be able to

think and act with new insights

Provide an opportunity to build networks that

will be useful over the year and beyond

Integrate the learning into the mainstream

work of the organisations involved.

Volunteering England was also keen to

ensure that projects delivered value for

money and maximised opportunities for

sustaining good practice once funding for

specic projects nished.

The faith-based volunteering and support

model comprised a network of the following

pilot projects:

Derby Inter-Faith Youth Forum, led by

Multi-Faith Centre Derby

The aim of the project was to establish a

youth forum, based at Multi-Faith Centre

Derby, engaging students and the local

community of Derby. The project sought to

create a sustainable Inter-faith Youth Forum

as a catalyst to volunteering among young

people of faith in Derby.

Engage, led by the UK Islamic

Mission, Bradford

The aim of the project was to develop

leadership skills in young people, male

and female, aged 16 25 from Pakistani

Muslim backgrounds, in order to carry out

volunteering that met needs within the local

community. The project sought to see how

the partnership between a voluntary and

community sector organisation and a mosque

would work. This was identied as a new

departure for mosques.

Interfaith Leadership Initiative (ILI), led by

the Jewish Volunteer Network, London

The pilot project was developed by the Jewish

Volunteer Network, Interfaith Action and theThree Faiths Forum as a regional partnership

project for London. The aim of the project

was to empower and support 12 young

people from Christian, Jewish and Muslim

faith backgrounds to come together through

an inter-faith youth committee responsible

for designing, organising and leading three

volunteer events/programmes for their peers

(aged 16-25).

Passion, based in Shepshed, Leicestershire

The aim of the project was to work with young

people and young parents between the ages

of 16 and 25 and undertake volunteering

activities, thereby developing community

cohesion through shared experience.

4.1 Introduction

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Y4U, led by the Ash-Shifa Trust, Oxfordshire

This project targeted young people

from Muslim Pakistani heritage in the

Banbury area in Oxfordshire and provided

them with a weekly youth club service

together with participation in the UK Youth

Awards programme.

Faithful Volunteers, led by the Volunteer

Network Centre, Newham in London

The aim of the project was to work in

partnership with three faith organisations in

order to develop and implement a programme

of support that can be used as a model for

others in the sector. This work included the

production of a good practice guide and

the organisation of a conference aimed at

bringing faith groups and wider third sector

organisations together.

The projects funded as pilots therefore

comprised a varied mix of different types of faith-

based organisations, different faith and inter-faith

projects and, in the case of Passion, an example

of a faith-based organisation implementing non

faith-based youth outreach and engagement

activities. The rst ve of the above projects

were led by faith-based organisations with

the sixth led by Volunteer Network Centre in

Newham, an infrastructure agency.

The main aims of all the projects were to:

Develop leadership amongst young people

aged 16 25

Increase the quantity and quality of youth

engagement from faith-based communities

specically to create over 800 new

volunteering opportunities

Tackle division and promote communityand cross-faith cohesion.

4.2 Year One researchOne of the key motivations for

commissioning the Year One research

undertaken by De Montfort University was

to gain a much better understanding of

what was going on in terms of faith groups

and volunteering. In this respect, Year

One was about building knowledge of the

faith landscape, making connections with

different faith groups through the research

and identifying key recommendations in the

faith-based volunteering area, some of which

could then be tackled in Year Two.

In terms of providing a much clearer

understanding of the faith landscape and faith

volunteering, it clearly achieved this goal.It is also clear that a number of the pilot

projects sought to address some of the key

recommendations of the report.

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As part of the Volunteering England support

model for faith-based projects, ALWs were

provided for key members of the faith

pilots. In relation to the support provided

to the strand, the Modernising Volunteering

Implementation Manager commented:

Dare to Change were tasked with overseeing the

development and implementation of ALWs during

the pilot phase of the project. Generally, feedback

on the ALWs has been very positive, with these

workshops identied as being well structured,organised and useful. It is clear from feedback

that a number of participants acknowledged

the benets of these workshops in relation to

enhancing their own skills base.

In some cases the workshops were clearly critical

in terms of supporting a change in direction,

or addressing key issues confronted by pilot

projects. The project lead for the Passion

project underlined the benets of learning and

sharing experiences with others within the faith

strand as part of the workshops. The project

leader commented:

It is clear that the ALWs were an integral aspect

of the capacity building of pilot projects and

this also included a specic focus on impact

assessment which was led by the Institute for

Volunteering Research. The emphasis placed on

impact assessment at the ALWs was geared to a

recognised need to develop capacity in relation to

these skills within each participating project.

It was commented further:

4.3 Faith-based volunteering pilot activity

23

Building in a support structure around initial

impact assessment training and Action

Learning Workshops at rst sight can seem

potentially problematic it involves an

investment of time and is more costly than

simply funding six pilots. But the overall value

of a programme of work with such a support

structure is, we would argue, much higher and

well worth the investment. When problems

occur they can be tackled head on and

action taken early on as opposed to seeing

problems emerge in a nal evaluation onlynd its too late to do anything about them.

Patrick Scott, Modernising Volunteering


With the stuff with young parents I knew

that I was going to have the opportunity to

get together with people and say that Im

really having trouble... To actually sit down

with people; that was very useful, sharing

experiences and we went for a re-launch

that came from one of the Action Learning

Workshops. I basically took up a couple of

hours of that learning workshop and they

were all happy to commit that time...and I

came away and put together a re-launch.

I didnt feel as isolated

Thats what I gained the most from the Action

Learning Workshops, it was just the ability

to step back, be encouraged and hear about

what was going on in other peoples projects.

Mads Morgan, Project Leader, Passion


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Overall, the support provided to the pilot projects

was identied as good and useful.

ALWs were also integral to the Share it Forward

concept developed during the programme,

which sought to ensure that other organisations

beneted from their knowledge and expertise

developing over time10. The Multi-Faith Centre

Derby took responsibility for the delivery of the

Year Three workplan for the faith strand and the

overall aim is to develop Share it Forward as a

method for volunteering within the faith strand,

becoming a model for future developments and

creating a sustainable strategy in the process.

24

Case study: Phil Brind-Surch, project volunteer

Phil had been undertaking some charity work over the summer of 2009 and wanted to start

getting more seriously involved in youth work. He started looking at relevant qualications and

became aware of an NVQ in Youth Work that was running in Nottingham, which he subsequently

enrolled on. Phil was aware of the work that Mads Morgan (Project Leader, Passion) was

undertaking and requested that he work with Passion as a volunteer, partly because Phil needed

a placement associated with his college course, but also because he wanted to gain more

experience in youth work.

Phil became involved in the faith strand activity at the beginning in October 2009 at an introductory

session on impact assessment in Birmingham and has subsequently been involved in every ActionLearning Workshop.

In my previous job role I was working under someone and I was told you need to do x,y and z

and I would go off and do them...Because I, with Amanda, have really opened this Youth Forum

project, its been an eye opener for me. When I stepped into the Youth Forum project I thought I

would phone a couple of young people, organise a meeting and I genuinely did think that was how

easy it would be. Its been a massive eye opener and I feel I have gained a whole host of skills

directly through this project communicating with young people, both in a group and one-to-one

situation, people skills and administrative skills.

Working with Passion has really helped Phil with his course. It has provided him with a wealth

of experience, knowledge and skills in working with young people. It has also provided him witha huge range of material for case studies. Phil believes the Youth Forum has travelled a huge

distance in a relatively short space of time.

In terms of what Phil has gained from his experience working with the Forum he commented:

The progression through this [Passion] has been massive and its through projects like the Youth

Forum and in seeking and nding funding for the recording studios have given me real help... a

great and wholesome experience really.

As a result of participation in the Passion project Phil is being funded to undertake a degree in

youth work at Nottingham University, but will continue his involvement with Passion.

10The concept of Share it Forward was being developed at the time the eldwork for the evaluation was being undertaken and is

scheduled to be implemented during the last six months of Year Three. Multi-Faith Centre Derby is currently in the process of identifying a

national host organisation and other key partners who will resource this initiative.


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The four in-depth evaluations undertaken on

the faith and volunteering pilots on the Interfaith

Leadership Initiative, Engage, Passion and

Faithful Volunteers reect that a range of project

aims have been achieved, particularly

in relation to leadership and engagement.

Four of the original 12 participants in the

Interfaith Leadership Initiative project are now

fully engaged in the inter-faith and volunteering

worlds and are also encouraging others from

their communities to follow the example that they

have set. One is the Executive Director of an

International development organisation, working

specically in the eld; another group of four

students and young professionals had heavy

involvement with various aspects of the running

of the project and are now currently working

within the inter-faith sector.

The Engage project has successfully established

two youth committees within a mosque one

male and one female. These committees have

successfully planned and implemented a number

of projects/events. One of the key achievements

of the project was identied as the involvement

of female participants as volunteers, which

exceeded all expectations. Previously there

was little participation by females in mosque

structures. The project target to empower femalesthrough participation within the mosque structures

has proved successful.

In terms of tangible outcomes, the Passion

project has had mixed successes. While the

establishment of a young parents group has

proved problematic, the Youth Forum has been a

signicant success. The Forum currently consists

of quite a large group (20-25 people), including

a high percentage of NEETs (people not in

education, employment or training) and meets

regularly with the local police, council and other

agencies to pass on a range of information about

what young people want. Forum meetings are

minuted and sent round to schools and people

involved in local community groups.

The Forum has already achieved positiveoutcomes with the Town Council, and is seeing

tangible outcomes from its work. For example,

the Council has now committed money to the

purchase of outdoor play equipment for young

people (not children) and Passion has also been

able to secure match funding for this.

Volunteer Network Centre Newham completed

Faithful Volunteers at the end of March 2010.

In relation to the three strands of activity

undertaken by the Faithful Volunteers project:

The Lets Connect conference was

implemented, exceeding its target of fty

delegates attending

A Lets Connect with Faith resource guide

for Volunteer Centres addressing how they

can connect with faith organisations was

successfully produced

That, I am proud to say, is probably the

greatest achievement of this project...to be

able to convince the elders that not only

do young people have a lot to bring to the

table when it comes to managing or running

an organisation of this type, but female

participants also have great added value that

they can bring.

Faisal Riaz, Project Leader, Engage

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The outcomes of the work undertaken to help

support three partner organisations was

identied as less successful. Because the

organisations did not know each other well

enough at the outset of the project, developing

partnerships proved time-consuming and the

capacity of the three small charities to take on

a management role was limited. These issues

were also compounded by staff changes.

A number of projects identied the progression

of participating volunteers on to new opportunities

as benecial. For example, as a result of

participation on the Engage project, one

volunteer now wants to pursue a degree course

to become a youth worker, one young person

wants to enrol to become a police ofcer and

another volunteer has gone on to work for

social services.

It is also clear that the faith strand has resulted

in signicant levels of successful inter-faith

working. For example, in relation to the Interfaith

Leadership Initiative, 17 major inter-faith

organisations were brought together as part of the

Summer Interfaith Volunteering Fair.

A number of steps were taken by some projects

to ensure volunteer recognition for the work

undertaken as part of the project. For example,

the Engage project appears to have been

particularly effective in enabling volunteers to get

references through appropriate bodies relating

to work undertaken (such as West Yorkshire

Police) and recognition through vftyawards via a

structured link up with Volunteer Centre Bradford.

A number of lessons from the pilot projects

have direct implications for the implementation

of the Share it Forward model. Although the

detailed approaches to sustaining future activity

vary between projects, one of the critical factors

common to a number of these projects is the

development of a core group of committed

young volunteers as part of the pilot project.

For instance, in relation to the Engage project,

there are six or seven young males and six

or seven young females drawn from the two

volunteer cohorts that will carry on over the next

year, forming a critical part of the sustainability

element of the project.

The involvement of groups of volunteers that

require commitment over an extended period

is always likely to be a challenge. It is therefore

essential to carefully plan volunteering roles

that take account of personal circumstances

and commitments and, where possible,tailor volunteer roles to accommodate such

commitments. Models for volunteering that

are exible enough to allow for a turnover

of volunteers are likely to be much easier to

manage. The Interfaith Leadership Initiative,

for example, experienced difculties in keeping

the commitment of 12 volunteers over the course

of the project, with those that stuck with it being

identied as a very coherent group and critical to

sustaining future activity.

...I felt that not only was there a real sense

of purpose and excitement of what they

were achieving, there was also a sensitive

passion for learning about each other that

also took place. This specic and possibly

unique networking event brought together

many young volunteers working for inter-faith

agencies and their reward and ours from their

efforts will be substantial.

Edmund Rosen, Regional Development

Manager, Jewish Volunteering Network

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4.4 ConclusionsALWs represent an innovative approach to

live capacity building during the faith-based

pilot project implementation phase that is

particularly appropriate to the development

of leadership roles amongst young people.

There is evidence that ALWs have enhanced

the skills base of those participating,

especially in relation to impact assessment,

and that the ALWS have also enabledparticipants to address key issues during the

pilot programme.

Outcomes from the in-depth reviews of four

pilot projects indicate that a range of project

aims have been achieved, notably in relation to

leadership, inter-faith working and engagement.

All of the faith projects exhibited a high degree

of involvement of young people in leadership

roles and it is also clear that projects have been

successful in engaging young people through the

development of volunteering opportunities.

The recruitment of new volunteers has been

good. Together, all pilots have created 1,072

new volunteering opportunities exceeding

their 800 target.

All pilot projects have developed a plan for

sustaining activity in Year Three as part of the

Share it Forward model. Good progress appears

to have been made in the development and

implementation of the Share it Forward concept

by Multi-Faith Centre Derby, which included

a positive response from a meeting of ten

potential national partners in September 2010.

The success of these developments appears to

be crucial to the sustainability of these faith-based

activities and the new concepts that have been

developed as part of the programme.

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This section of the report details the

outcomes of evaluation work undertaken

in relation to two of the three work areas

covered under the new forms of volunteering

and management strand, namely:

The role of social network services in

supporting volunteering, which included:

- Delivery of nine training seminars in2009 and nine training seminars in 2010

across England for staff of volunteering

support services and volunteer managers

on the use of social network services to

support volunteering

- A social networking pilot at Volunteer

Centre Brighton and Hove using a

variety of social network platforms to

communicate with volunteers and

volunteer managers

- The production of Guidance Notes on

social networking with information,

advice, specic tips and considerations

for volunteering support services

Developing the role of Volunteering

Champions, which involved a pilot scheme

at Warwickshire County Council that included

the process of recruiting, inducting and

training Volunteering Champions, along withthe production of resources for future rollout.

The third work area, which related to improving

the support of volunteer-led volunteering, was

not included within the terms of reference of the

evaluation exercise.

5.2.1 Year One research

fresh thinkingwas produced by Red

Foundation as part of the Year One

Modernising Volunteering research and sought

to explore new forms of volunteer engagement

and support for those that work withvolunteers11. Part of the fresh thinkingreport

specically focussed on the role of social

network services in supporting volunteering.

The report, which was well written and

structured, covered a dynamic area of social

activity and related this back to volunteering in a

relevant and meaningful way in order to highlight

its potential for use and development within the

sector. In this context, the report stated that:

In many ways, the report is pioneering and

provided a convincing case for investmentin further pilot work, not least because it

concluded that the voluntary and community

sector and volunteering movement were not

currently capitalising on the potential interactive

communication opportunities available. In

addition, the report also highlighted the lack

of knowledge about the use of social network

services within the volunteering movement. In

this regard the report laid rm foundations for

the Year Two and Three pilot activities.

5. New forms of volunteeringand management

5.1 Introduction 5.2 The role of socialnetwork services insupporting volunteering

The sheer numbers of people that actively

engage with these [social] networks on a

daily basis offer signicant opportunities for

recruitment and their apparent ease of use

offers opportunities for volunteer managers

and other staff to easily network with each

other and provide peer support.

28

11Red Foundation (2009), fresh thinking: An exploration of: the role of social network services in supporting volunteering; improving the

support for volunteer led volunteering; developing the role of Volunteering Champions


29/5229

5.2.2 Pilot activity social

networking training

The social networking training delivered to

over 340 delegates across all nine regions

of England as part of the Year Two and Year

Three Modernising Volunteering programme

has gone a long way in raising awareness

about the use of social networks to support

volunteering activity.

All of the available evidence indicates that the

training has been effective and well received.

97 per cent of attendees in Year Three

thought that the trainers / facilitators style and

performance was either good or excellent. 93

per cent of attendees also felt that their learning

objectives were either mostly or fully met. Given

that most attendees were seeking to increase

their understanding of social media it is clear

that the training has been successful in meeting

its objectives.

There is also evidence that behaviour in relation

to the use of social networking has changed as

a result of attendance at the workshop events.

The follow-up survey to the Year Two training

indicated an increase in social networking one

month after the training event, although sample

sizes were relatively small. The delegatesattending Year Three indicated that they felt much

more condent that they would be able to use

social networks in their organisations as a result

of attending the training.

However, it is difcult at this stage to assess the

actual impact of the social networking training

activity undertaken, either in encouraging the use

of social networking within volunteer-involving

organisations, or more specically in relation to

the recruitment of volunteers.

Red Foundation recognises that it is the extent to

which those who have been trained then go on

to use social networking that is the key aspect of

any overall impact assessment and that there is a

need for further research in this area. At present,

evidence around the extent to which individuals

attending social networking training have then

gone onto actively establish social networks

is limited. In this regard, Red Foundation istaking part in the overall dissemination tour as

part of Year Three, which will seek to involve

the same organisations that participated in the

social networking training. It is hoped that this

will provide a means to more effectively assess

whether these organisations have subsequently

gone on to undertake social networking activities

at work as a result of the training undertaken.

I attended the training in order to gain an

insight into how they [social networking]

could be applied to my organisation which

I certainly did. I am currently continuing

my research into the use of this media and

preparing a set of recommendations for my

organisation to start using Facebook, Twitter

and blogging. This looks set to be heavilyinformed by the Fresh Training seminar.

Attendee from Sustain


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Volunteer Centre Brighton and Hove pilot

The Volunteer Centre Brighton and Hove pilot,

which took place over a six-month period

to March 2010, was well-run and produced

worthwhile outputs in the form of a detailed case

study and toolkit. However, it is difcult at this

stage to determine what impact these outputs

have had on the wider volunteering support

sector. In other Volunteer Centres, resources arerequired to undertake social networking activity

and nding the time to get involved is likely to be

a challenge, particularly for small organisations.

Volunteer Centre Brighton and Hove was

undoubtedly fortunate in having a volunteer who

could be relied on to effectively deliver the pilot

over a six-month period. Not all volunteering

support organisations will have access to such

a valuable resource and in this regard, the

capacity of other Volunteer Centres without

a valuable volunteer resource at hand to

establish and maintain different social network

pilots merits further research.

The impact of the pilot locally is clear. Sceptical

attitudes of staff in relation to the benets of social

networking have been altered. Volunteer Centre

Brighton and Hove is now using social networking

as a tool and able to be much more responsive

to organisations than it was previously. Theorganisation can get information out about events

and opportunities, immediately in an efcient way.

It has also changed the way that Volunteer

Centre Brighton and Hove now works and it

will continue to maintain and develop social

networks as an integral part of organisational

activity and infrastructure. It is also going to

be integral to the review of Volunteer Centre

Brighton and Hove and written into its business

plan for sustaining the work of the Centre. Inaddition, Volunteer Centre Brighton and Hove

is looking to increasingly build the brokerage

element matching volunteering opportunities

with potential volunteers into what it is doing.

The pilot has also revealed the potential of

social networking in terms of reaching different

audiences, networking and being responsive

to both individuals and organisations for the

wider sector.

Whilst there are certainly clear signs that the

social networking undertaken by Volunteer

Centre Brighton and Hove is starting to have

an impact on reaching a different audience

and in terms of brokerage activity, there is still

some way to go before a business case could

be made.

Its really opened my eyes up to social

networking...Its fair to say that I have been

converted...I just feel a lot more comfortable

now about using the social networking.

Alison Marino, Manager,

Volunteer Centre Brighton and Hove

We are reaching more people now and

we are enabling people to volunteer with a

much swifter turnaround than we ever were

before. What I cant tell you is how many

people who would never have volunteered

before are now volunteering because of the

social networking.

Dave Adams, Pilot Worker and Volunteer,

Volunteer Centre Brighton and Hove


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5.2.3 Conclusions on social networking

All project activity has been well managed,

delivered effectively and has been well

received. Overall, the activity undertaken

on the role of social network services in

supporting volunteering represents ground-

breaking work and paves the way for the

further development of these activities within

the volunteering support community.

With increased awareness of the benets

of social networking amongst volunteering

support providers and the development of

i-volunteer12, it is considered that volunteering

support organisations will increasingly turn

to social networking as a means of more

effectively communicating with volunteers

and potential volunteers.

The speed at which these developmentstake place is dependent on effective impact

assessment and the development of a more

robust business case for the use of social

networking within volunteering support.

However, there is clearly an opportunity for the

sector to grasp the potential of social networking

and really embed its use within the sector,

thereby keeping volunteering at the forefront

of emerging interactive communication.

5.3 Developing the role ofVolunteering Champions

One of the recommendations of the

Commission on the Future of Volunteering

in the Manifesto for Change13 was that

local volunteer champions could play a

potentially powerful role in raising the prole

of volunteering at a strategic level (such as

with local authorities). However, although

the role does exist in the sector there is no

consensus about what it is set up to do, who

does it and what support is needed.

The purpose of this area of activity was to

explore the Volunteering Champion concept

through the Year One research and then use

pilot activity in Year Two to examine a range

of issues around Volunteering Champions in a

practical work-based setting, creating a range

of good practice resources that could be appliedby other stakeholders interested in developing

Volunteering Champion schemes.

5.3.1 Year One research

The fresh thinkingreport explored the

Volunteering Champion concept and the

development of the role of Volunteering

Champions with examples of some schemes

currently in operation. Examples included: peer-

led recruitment and support for organisations;

championing volunteering at senior and

governance levels within organisations; and

championing volunteering at a strategic level.

However, the report indicates that there is little

evidence of widespread adoption of any of

these. It went on to look at what the volunteering

movement would want from Volunteering

Champion schemes and raised areas that need

further consideration.

31

12 i-volunteer was established by Red Foundation as a bespoke website exclusively for those interested in volunteering in December 2009.

13The Commission on the Future of Volunteering (2008), Report of the Commission on the Future of Volunteering - Manifesto for Change.

The Commission on the Future of Volunteering was an independent body set up to develop a long-term vision for volunteering in England.

The Commission reported in January 2008.


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5.3.2 Pilot activity

Volunteering Champions

An open tender was undertaken for the selection

of the pilots and Warwickshire County Council

was chosen through a proper selection process

as the strongest candidate. It was chosen as

a pilot because of the powerful role it performs

as a public body at a strategic level within

Warwickshire. It was also felt that there is aneed to think radically about the involvement of

citizens in the public service (active citizens /

volunteers / paid employees and their respective

roles and responsibilities) and that the pilot

would provide an opportunity to explore s

Documents

1291825521 VE NSS Eval Report F