Volunteering and Paid Employment
Increasing volunteering opportunities need not – and should not – detract from efforts to increase employment opportunities.
Glasgow needs more jobs AND more volunteering. And we are determined to ensure people in Glasgow have as many opportunities to benefit from volunteering as elsewhere in the country – whether they’re already in paid employment, whether they’re retired, recovering from ill health, at school, college or university, or actively seeking jobs.
People Make Glasgow – people contribute to the city in different ways at different times. We need to support the growth of volunteering, just as we need to increase jobs.
When designing and developing appropriate volunteering opportunities, Charter signatory organisations should use a clear set of values, principles and processes to ensure they are not replacing paid staff posts with volunteering roles:
- Organisations can refer to the 2010 joint STUC/Volunteer Scotland “Charter for Strengthening Relations Between Paid Staff and Volunteers” which is available here for download (PDF document, 44kb), and Volunteer Glasgow will provide additional assistance on appropriate design of opportunities.
- Partners must be clear that open, transparent and thorough dialogue may be required by many public and third sector organisations to examine and determine whether specific, discrete tasks and roles that may have been undertaken previously by paid staff (as an element of a wider job description) are in fact appropriate nevertheless for people to undertake while volunteering – if designed correctly. Case studies are available e.g. the collaborative development work to increase the effectiveness of NHS Audiology Services and the Hear to Help outreach clinics provided by Action on Hearing Loss Scotland volunteers.
