Priceless Economics: Government must act
In 2015, we were focused on achieving legacies from the 2012 Olympics and 2014 Commonwealth Games. And in December that year, the Bank of England estimated the value of all forms of volunteering to the economy was between £50-£100 billion.
But where are we now?
Yesterday’s release of Scottish Household Survey 2023 data has confirmed what we’ve been seeing in Glasgow. It tells us that, “over a third of a million people (335,340) have stopped volunteering formally in Scotland since before the Covid-19 pandemic, and over 138,000 [have stopped volunteering between] 2022 to 2023” (Volunteer Scotland).
And the negative impact of that is being felt particularly badly in the third and public sector organisations that:
- Serve children and young people, or that provide health, wellbeing and disability services, and/or
- Work in the communities struggling most as a consequence of the pandemic, the cost-of-living and mental health crises.
At Volunteer Glasgow, we work to make it easier for people to volunteer – with a particular focus on inclusion. We know all too well the complex factors that impact positively and negatively on our national, shared vision of, “a Scotland where everyone can volunteer, more often, and throughout their lives*.”
What do we need our Governments to do?
Both the UK and Scottish Governments have key roles to play with local authorities to achieve that vision of Volunteering for All*.
From both Governments:
- We need a balanced economy to ensure working age people have time to do other things than simply devoting all our energies to putting food on the table and paying bills. In order to really have a choice to volunteer, people need the time to do so. There is a huge range of appropriate, priceless roles across virtually every sector of the economy and society that need people’s help. And which provide a host of health and employability benefits to volunteers themselves.
- Investing in those volunteering activities and services for the prevention of acute needs is crucial for public service reform. Early intervention and prevention is better – and cheaper – than ‘cure’.
- We also need social security systems that enable volunteering rather than discouraging it. The UK Government needs to protect people’s freedom to volunteer by ending the rule requiring all DWP welfare benefits claimants to declare their volunteering. It should also publish clear guidance on Volunteering and Work Capability Assessments. And it should extend the Access to Work scheme to volunteering in order to increase disabled claimants’ employability.
- UK Government Ministers are using pejorative terms like, “economically inactive”. But many people that are being labelled that way, do, in fact, make a massive contribution to society and the economy. People are volunteering and/or providing unpaid care for family and friends. And they are paying for goods and services. Labels and language are important. They indicate your values and principles. Ministers need to get it right.
- We should be extending the right to request reasonable paid leave for those working-age people who volunteer as charity trustees. (Currently, the only people volunteering that have such a right, are school governors in England & Wales and Children’s Panel members in Scotland.)
From the Scottish Government:
- We need a budget decision that rules out the option of introducing fees for disclosures and PVG checks for people volunteering to work with children and vulnerable adults. This option would impose extra costs of over £800,000 on the very charities that are struggling most to recruit volunteers.
- Renewed investment in – and refinement of – young people’s volunteering programmes. By 2017, those programmes had successfully achieved a legacy from the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. But young people’s participation in volunteering has fallen dramatically since 2017.
- Part of the role of TSI Volunteer Centres across Scotland, such as Volunteer Glasgow, is to promote and administer the Scottish Government’s Saltire Awards for young people. But our broader role is to make it easier for everyone in the local area to volunteer. Since 2011, the value of the Government’s grant support towards TSIs’ core costs has reduced in real terms by c40%. The Government needs to reverse this disinvestment.
We have very significant capability across Scotland for delivering our shared Volunteering for All vision and outcomes. But we need our UK and Scottish Governments to help provide leadership and stewardship of complex systems. They need to make the key policy decisions, interventions and investments that only they can make.
Get the most from Volunteer Glasgow
If your group or organisation needs people to volunteer to support your work:
- Use our free opportunity advertising services.
- See the other services we offer to help you find and manage people for volunteering roles
- Read our latest news including how your organisation can benefit from Glasgow 850 birthday celebrations and how to book a stall at the Volunteering Fair.
* “Volunteering is key to us achieving our shared ambition of a fairer and more prosperous country with equality of opportunity for all – a country where everyone has the chance to participate and make a difference.
“Volunteering is at the heart of everything that we do as a Government, and is the golden thread running through all of our policies and contributing right across the National Outcomes in the National Performance Framework.”
– Scottish Government, 2019: Volunteering for All
