Organisations
The Home Office is working with the voluntary and community
sector in order to effectively recruit and support volunteers
and in turn raise the level of volunteering across the
country.
The Home Office’s Active Community Unit (ACU)
instigated a consultation process with key representatives
from the volunteering sector. The key recommendations
to come out of this consultation process can be found
in the Recruiting and Supporting Volunteers document.
The key conclusions were:
- Evidence based commissioning – the Home Office’s
ACU has a central role in ensuring that data that
is gathered on volunteering is available to all those
who require it
- Consumer led volunteering – to ensure a consumer
focus, The Home Office via the ACU needs to influence
and educate a culture change and to facilitate the
sharing of good practise. Consumer based research
on what existing and potential volunteers want to
do and what they require to enable them to do it needs
to inform this and, the proposals for developing local
infrastructure
- Local Agenda – Government should prioritise
investment in, and work through, a modern, dynamic,
sustainable and accessible volunteering infrastructure
which starts with and is driven by local need, drawing
on strong support and advocacy at regional and national
level
- The Regional Dimension – regional representation
should be established which promotes volunteering
to regional government so that it becomes increasingly
aware of how the benefits of volunteering can be achieved
at regional and local level
- Campaign for Collaboration – the Home Office’s
ACU should lead a campaign to promote proactive collaboration
between Government Departments and the VCS to increase
the level of volunteering
- Recognise alternative routes into volunteering –
to evaluate a variety of mechanisms that can support
and capture information about informal local volunteering
Email enquiries should be entitled ‘Volunteering
and Community Participation’ and be sent to:
public_enquiry.acu@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk |
