Agenda item

Context:

To introduce the Draft Volunteering Strategy 2016-19

          Key Issues:

Monmouthshire ACTS is the draft version of our Volunteering Strategy, we feel it’s a strong starting point, leading a different way of thinking about how ‘we’ – our staff teams and communities can support and enable volunteering and social action in Monmouthshire.

Our belief is that through the Volunteering Strategy and associated Delivery Plan we can ‘professionalise’ and improve our ‘volunteering offer’ which focusses on our four stage model of support for volunteers.

 Plan – Looking at how, where, when, and why we involve volunteers.

 Recruit – Providing clear, consistent guidance to ensure safe and supportive recruitment of volunteers.

 Manage – Providing volunteers with all of the tools, information, support and recognition they require.

 Develop – Challenging volunteers to learn new or build existing skills, motivating and enabling impact. Understanding Monmouthshire’s rich social capital and local activism we feel our approach will contribute to our core purpose as an organisation – to deliver sustainable and resilient communities – working together with our communities towards shared outcomes that matter to our county.

This strategy aims to bring together departments and projects involving volunteers from across the council, also the third sector and community together with a shared vision. It is worth noting that we already have ‘pockets of brilliance’ across Monmouthshire, with some volunteering activities and programmes achieving great outcomes already. Whilst other volunteering programmes are emerging, it is imperative to share best practice and learning to provide a clear consistent offer to our volunteers in Monmouthshire. This is where the Volunteering Network plays a vital role engaging and supporting our Volunteer coordinators.

Our people both staff and volunteers must be enabled with the right tools to operate at their best in what is a permanent state of transition and this is not an easy ‘measurable’ task. The aim is for this strategy to make a key contribution to embedding good volunteering standards and practices across the county, raising the level of support for volunteers is key. Our goal is to support talent development both within and outside of our organisation and to engage all the people with whom we can create value.

Monmouthshire ACTS gives the story of our ambitious evolution – formed as a direct result of the People and Organisational Development Strategy – it describes our journey through the various necessary stages of growth and development. Lessons learned from mapping, consultation and rapid prototyping gives us the confidence and evidence base to scale our volunteering model up across the county.

Monmouthshire ACTS outlines measures that will allow us to capture information and importantly measure impact. They are not all quantitative methods, we have found success qualitative methods which can convey emotion for example through recent video interviews. The positive impact was publicised and as such more volunteers have expressed an interest in engaging with us.

The strategy is importantly built upon a number of key themes and priorities. These describe the ethos of our work. The five key principles we promote are: -

Support - Excellent support, management and training for volunteers is essential for wellbeing and retention.

Choice - Volunteering is a free choice made by an individual to offer their time and support, there is no contractual agreement but the volunteer does have rights and responsibilities.

Equality - Volunteering should be open to all, welcoming and supporting diversity to promote equality.

Recognition – Volunteers offer their time without financial gain to contribute to personal, organisational, economic or community benefit but should receive appropriate and timely recognition.

Participation - Volunteering is a way in which individuals can participate and shape the activities of their community.

The strategy is intentionally draft at this stage. Approval and release of the draft strategy will result in a programme of communication and engagement being undertaken with staff and communities over coming weeks such as to seek feedback and ideas on all aspects of the strategy. A final strategy will be brought back to Cabinet for approval before the end of the calendar year.

Member Scrutiny:

Members felt that the report could have been condensed and felt strongly that volunteers should be imbedded, not exploited, with a member giving the example of volunteer drivers not being reimbursed their expenses in the past.

The need for adequate basic training and ongoing support was deemed essential.

Members sought reassurance that all volunteers are scrutinised and stressed that safeguarding is paramount. We were advised of the safe recruitment policy & toolkit which makes it clear to all volunteers what is required from them from a safeguarding point of view.