The Rights Stuff

For the last fifteen and half years I have worked in the volunteering field and have been privileged to be involved in many developments that have made the volunteering movement stronger – Millennium Volunteers, The Russell Commission, The Commission On The Future Of Volunteering etc.. The latest challenge of my career is my work to support the Volunteer Rights Inquiry. Not only is the work they are doing addressing some important questions for the volunteering movement but it also forces me to see the issues from both a professional and personal perspective because I’ve been a volunteer since about 1989.

In all my volunteering – from developing a time management system for GCSE students at school to being a trustee, school governor and being an editorial board member for an online journal – I’ve found myself well treated & supported and have been able to make the difference I wanted to make without having my time wasted. But that isn’t the case for everyone and the Volunteer Rights Inquiry has been formed to explore why this is and see what can be done about it.

At their first meeting in November the Volunteer Rights Inquiry they agreed that there were three key issues that need addressing:

1. Clarify the rights and protections that already exist for volunteers and dispel some of the myths (especially around employment law and volunteers) that interfere with good management.

2. Getting it right first time: promoting good practice in the management and governance of volunteering.

3. Making amends: exploring different models of redress when things go wrong.

From my perspective as both a volunteer and someone with an employment career in the volunteering movement, these are three critical issues and I think the Inquiry has put its finger on the main areas of tension when it comes to the treatment, rights and means for redress for volunteers.

First, it is vitally important that the distinctive nature of volunteering from employment is recognised and protected. In recent years volunteer engagement has become more like employee engagement, with all the associated bureaucracy and faff. Some say this is volunteer management becoming more professional, but I disagree. Volunteering is different from paid work, that’s why I do it myself rather than just put in more and more hours at work. Professional volunteer management, in my view, recognises this and keeps the bureaucracy and formality to a minimum (at least for the volunteers) whilst harnessing the skills and abilities of volunteers to meet organisational aims & needs.

Some argue that the way round the issue is legislating for the rights of volunteers, in effect putting in place a similar legislative framework for volunteering as exists for paid employment. Yes, this would solve some problems but we’d be foolish to think it wouldn’t open different cans of worms, not least brining about the very shift in volunteering towards employment that I have already argued needs to be safeguarded against.

Secondly, good practice. It is quite right that the Volunteer Rights Inquiry is seeking to put prevention before cure but I think the key here is not simply to point volunteer managers to the sources of good and best practice but to ensure they are adequately supported and resourced to apply it in their organisation’s work. Having knowledge of good practice is one thing, applying it properly is another.

For it isn’t, in my opinion, volunteer managers that need targeting but the management and trustees of volunteer involving organisations who all too often pay scant regard to effective volunteer engagement. Without proper focus, support and resourcing for volunteer involvement organisations risk problems occurring and risk failing to have the appropriate arrangements in place to resolve these early enough before they escalate into major issues.

And finally, making amends. This is the big gap and perhaps the biggest challenge facing the Volunteer Rights Inquiry and the volunteering movement who will be called to act when the Inquiry reports in 2010. As we have seen in recent coverage by the sector press, when good practice isn’t applied and things do go wrong there is nowhere for volunteers to turn. Many remain committed to their organisations and don’t want to drag them to employment tribunals or through the courts pursuing breaches of human rights. They simply want the dignity and respect they feel they deserve to have someone independent come along, look at the situation that developed, recommend changes to avoid it happening again and, if appropriate, encourage contrition by relevant parties. If it was me, that’s what I’d want.

Of course how we do that, who does it, how its funded, what principles are applied and how they get applied consistently and fairly across a movement as big and diverse as volunteering are not easy questions to answer. But answer them we must. Whether we like it or not, this issue is here to stay and we cannot sweep it under the carpet and hope it goes away? Why, two reasons:

1. If we fail to address the concerns and problems of volunteers then we face the very real possibility of external regulation of volunteer engagement and all the bureaucracy this entails. This is exactly the challenge the fundraising field faced a couple of years ago. In light of negative press about fundraising practice, government included powers in the 2006 Charity Act that allow for it to impose state regulation of fundraising if the current self-regulatory scheme being run by the Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB) fails to resolve the issues. The volunteering movement therefore needs to be proactive, learn from this and get its house in order before the heavy hand of state regulation gets involved.
   
   
2. Even more importantly, if we don’t address the problems we have then we risk damaging not just our organisation’s reputation but that of the wider volunteering movement. It is my contention that volunteers who have a bad experience often don’t just think that reflects negatively on the volunteer involving organisation concerned but also on the whole volunteering movement. In other words, ‘if that organisation didn’t want or value me then maybe they’re all like that’. This places a huge responsibility on all of us working with volunteers (whether we’re paid or not) to recognise our place in the wider movement and take steps to protect volunteering and not just volunteering with our organisation.

So, whether your employed in the volunteering movement or you are a volunteer (or both!) the Volunteer Rights Inquiry is an important initiative that will, like others before it, help shape the future. Whether that is for the better or worse is down to you so get involved and have your say.

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To share your thoughts on the issues with the Volunteer Rights Inquiry, please fill in the form at

http://www.volunteering.org.uk/WhatWeDo/Policy/Volunteer+Rights+Inquiry/Volunteer+Rights+Inquiry.htm

You can also tell the Inquiry what you think by uploading a video to Volunteering England’s YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/VolunteeringEngland

Finally, the Volunteer Rights Inquiry also have the facility to hear from people via Twitter. Please tweet your thoughts followed by #VRInquiry. You may also want to follow Volunteering England: http://twitter.com/VolunteeringEng