Research Report Quality Volunteering at the British Red Cross

8/21/2019 Research Report Quality Volunteering at the British Red Cross

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QUALITY

VOLUNTEERING AT THE BRITISHRED CROSS

Full research report l Learning Organisation and Research team

One in a million: British Red Cross volunteers reach for the sky



Quality volunteering at the British Red Cross 1

QUALITY

VOLUNTEERING AT THE BRITISHRED CROSS

Sarah Joy, Researcher & Author, British Red Cross

Liz Hendry & Femi Nzegwu, Authors, British Red Cross



2 Quality volunteering at the British Red Cross




Acknowledgements

Special thanks to:

> All the staff, volunteers and beneficiaries who participated in the interviews and focus

groups, who responded to the surveys and completed the Area Mappings, who gave

up their time to share their views and experiences.

> Volunteering staff across the organisation – UKO, Territory and Area based staff

who provided lots of opportunities for discussion, invitations to meetings across the

country as well as general support and advice along the way.

> Rhianne Thomas (our project intern) for reviewing the vast quantity of internal research

sources related to volunteering and for supporting many aspects of the project during

her 3 month internship with us.

> The Learning Organisation and Research team. Alison McNulty and Joanna White for

their wisdom and technical support with the surveys. Sian Rowbotham and KimberleyRennick for their organisation skills and support throughout. Simon de Lacy–Leacy for

organising his creative collection and transmission of volunteer experiences at the

National Assembly via video booth.




Copyright © 2011

Any part of this publication may be

cited, translated into other languages or

adapted to meet local needs without prior

permission of the British Red Cross,

provided that the source is clearly stated.

This publication does not necessarily

represent the decisions or stated policy

of the British Red Cross.

ISBN 978-0-900228-11-7




Executive summary 7

1 Research aims & methodology 11

2 Volunteering in the UK: What does the external research say? 15

2.1 Patterns and profiles of volunteering in the UK 15

2.2 Approaches to volunteer management practice in the UK 21

3 Volunteering at the British Red Cross: What do we already know? 27

3.1 Our volunteer characteristics and profiles 27

3.2 A wealth of internal research on the volunteer experience 31

4 Research findings: Achieving quality volunteering 41

4.1 The beneficiary perspective 41

4.2 Volunteer motivations: Staying on and leaving 44

4.3 The 6 key elements and 3 enablers of quality volunteering at the

British Red Cross 44

5 Case studies of external practice: What are other organisations doing? 67

6 Conclusions and implications for the British Red Cross 75

7 Recommendations for future research 77

Appendices

A Technical Report 79

B Sample demographics: Volunteer achieved survey sample 81

C Research focus group discussions and interview templates 85

C1 Volunteer focus groups 85

C2 Staff focus groups 87

C3 Beneficiary individual interviews 89

D Survey questionnaires 90

D1 Current volunteers telephone survey 90

D2 Former volunteers telephone survey 97

D3 Staff online survey 98

E Comparing two models for managing volunteers 103

F External literature reading list 104

G Internal research projects 106

c o n t e n t s




List of figures and tables

Figure 1 Beneficiary, volunteer and organisation needs 12

Figure 2 Age profiles of British Red Cross volunteers compared to UK population 28

Figure 3 Distribution of British Red Crossvolunteers across the Territories 29

Figure 4 Distribution of British Red Cross volunteers across the UK, March 2011 29

Figure 5 Length of service of current British Red Cross volunteers 30

Figure 6 Important aspects of volunteering (Wales, 2010) 37

Figure 7 Quality volunteering at the British Red Cross (survey responses) 65

Table 1 Volunteering in England, 2001 to 2009–10 16

Table 2 Implications of a changing society on levels of volunteering 18

Table 3 Methodological challenges for the research 80

Table 4 Models of managing volunteers – “modern” versus “home–grown” 103

Table 5 Internal research projects related to volunteering 106

Note: A supplementary publication is available alongside this research report offering

insights on current volunteering practice from the Volunteer Advisers across the Areas.




“We want to make volunteering for usthe best experiencemoney can’t buy”Saving Lives, Changing Lives

Volunteering is a key enabling priority(EP5) in the British Red Cross Strategy2010–2015, Saving Lives, ChangingLives, and is fundamental to delivering

our goals and mission. In March 2010, the SeniorManagement Team commissioned an internalresearch study to determine the elements ofquality volunteering at the Red Cross with a viewto further developing our volunteer propositionand support systems.

The overall aim of this research study is to

define the elements of quality volunteering byexploring different perspectives of thevolunteering experience at the British Red Crossand subsequently identifying approaches thatbest support staff and volunteers to deliverBritish Red Cross’s business.

This study has enabled us to build on thesignificant pieces of work previously conductedand currently ongoing in volunteering teamsthroughout the British Red Cross. It has broughttogether the views of beneficiaries, volunteers

and staff in an attempt to identify the essentialelements which we need to focus on as anorganisation if we are to continue to enhance thequality of volunteering at the British Red Cross

Executive Summary




– that is, our capacity to respond effectively tothe needs of our beneficiaries while ensuring thatthe volunteering experience itself is positive,rewarding and maximising of the talents andskills people want to offer.

As of January 2011 there were nearly 33,000volunteers on the PeopleSoft database. Themajority are women (70%), white (77%), withan average age of 50, although nearly one–fifthare young volunteers (aged over 15 and under26). Across the Red Cross territories, the SouthEastern Territory has the most volunteers,followed by Wales & Western; Northern; ScotlandNorthern Ireland and the Isle of Man and thenUK Office.

The study identified six key elements andthree enabler elements of a quality Red Crossvolunteering model. The six key elements are:1. Recruiting, retaining and integrating

volunteers who are best suited to carryingout the work of the British Red Cross

2. Flexible deployment of volunteers – tailoredto their skills and responsive to Red Cross’delivery needs

3. Building supportive relationships betweenstaff and volunteers and amongst volunteers

4. Ensuring accessible developmentopportunities for volunteers to learn anddevelop their skills

5. Embracing diversity and creatingopportunities for engaging with a diverseworkforce

6. Achieving consistency in our standards toenable quality volunteering

The three enabler elements are:1. An accurate and up-to-date volunteer

knowledge base

2. Appropriate resourcing3. Creating more and better ways of sharing

learning and good practice relating tovolunteering

The diagram below provides a snapshot of howstaff and volunteers perceive themselves to be

QUALITY VOLUNTEERING AT THE BRITISH RED CROSS – SURVEY RESPONSES (FIGURE 7)

Note: Based on achieved samples of 344 current

volunteers and 159 staff.

1

2

3

4

5

1. Recruiting, retaining

& integrating volunteers

2. Flexible deployment

of volunteers

7. Appropriate

resourcing

3. Building supportive

relationships

6. Achieving

consistency

4. Accessible development

opportunities

5. Embracing diversity

Staff Volunteer




performing on 7 of the 9 quality elements. Ascan be seen we fare least well in the consistencyin our standards and best in embracing diversity.

Proposals for improving practice are includedthroughout the paper against each of thequality volunteering elements discussed. Thesecome directly from the ideas and suggestionsgiven by volunteers and staff during the research.

A review of the external literature alongside ourinternal findings suggests that we are in quite agood position at the British Red Cross.We havetaken a bold step to identify what it means forthe Red Cross to have a quality volunteeringoffer in place and we recognise the main areason which we should focus. However there remain

some strategic questions which we need to addressorganisationally. Below we list five of these forconsideration:

> Developing a clear British Red Cros vision/framework for volunteering. While volunteerinvolvement is fundamental to the work ofRed Cross, the mission is to ensure everyonegets the help they need in a crisis and hence,remain beneficiary focused. Are volunteerstherefore largely a means to an end, an end initself or both? Acknowledging and being clear

about the tensions in these underpinningphilosophies of volunteering will enable agreater understanding of the real implicationson volunteer support and management practice(e.g. addressing issues surrounding theselection of volunteers within a framework ofinclusion, supporting beneficiaries to becomevolunteers as appropriate, highlighting wideroutcomes from involving volunteers, investingin volunteers who might need a little moresupport to empower and enable them to carryout the work of the British Red Cross etc.)

> Understanding the potential impact on ourvolunteers, of becoming more market focused. The British Red Cross, like other voluntarysector organisations, is rapidly growing itsinvolvement in the world of contracts andcontracting. Venturing increasingly into theworld of contracting may have implicationsfor volunteering at the British Red Cross.In other words, what are the associatedchallenges and opportunities arising froma more market-approach to the Red Cross’business given that volunteers engage for

more ‘social’ reasons? How does the RedCross travel down the contract route withoutlosing the distinctive nature, independenceand ethos of voluntary sector service provision

– which is what our volunteers are herefor and are proud of – without alienatingvolunteers in the process? How well is theRed Cross placed to address these issuesproactively?

> Leading thought and contribution. The BritishRed Cross would appear to be in the upperpercentiles of leading thinking on definingwhat quality volunteering is in the voluntarysector. Is there an appetite for the Red Crossto become engaged and contribute to a wider

public/sector debate?

> Diversifying our workforce, knowledge baseand reach. Issues of diversity will have a majorimpact on both the quality and quantity ofvolunteering at the British Red Cross over thenext several years. Innovative approaches anda political will are needed to engage with newcommunities in terms of expanding bothour volunteer and beneficiary base. What isthe Red Cross’ aspiration for proactivelydiversifying its workforce and engaging withnew groups and communities in the future?

> Resourcing quality volunteering is notinsubstantial. Additional resources are calledfor to enable the outlined recommendedimprovements to take place as discussed. Someprioritisation of the elements identified may benecessary. However, there is a strategic relatedquestion that must be addressed – that is, towhat degree of quality volunteering is theBritish Red Cross aspiring – and what are theassociated resources required and in whichRed Cross is willing to invest in order to

realise this?




Volunteering is a key enabling priority(EP5) in the British Red Cross strategyfor 2010–2015, Saving Lives,Changing Lives, and is fundamental to

delivering our goals and mission. As part of thiscommitment, a strategic programme dedicatedto improving the volunteer proposition has beenestablished and activities have been developed tobuild on our good practice and move us closertowards our goal of attaining a qualityvolunteering experience.

In March 2010, the Senior Management Teamcommissioned an internal research study todetermine the elements of quality volunteeringat the British Red Cross with a view to furtherdeveloping our volunteer proposition andsupport systems.

Aims and outcomes

The overall aim of this research study is todefine the elements of quality volunteering byexploring different perspectives of the

volunteering experience at the British RedCross and subsequently identifying approachesthat best support staff and volunteers to deliverthe Red Cross’ business. The intended researchoutcomes are to develop:

1 Research aims & methodology




> An increased understanding of what qualityvolunteering means at the British Red Crossfrom the experiences and needs of volunteers,staff and beneficiaries.

> An enhanced sharing of internal (and external)good practice and learning to build upon and feed into the implementation of Saving Lives,Changing Lives.

> An understanding of some of the keyindicators for measuring progress towardsquality volunteering at the British Red Crossin the future.

In order to draw out the different perspectivesof the British Red Cross volunteer experience

and get a deeper understanding of what qualityvolunteering is, the research study was structuredaround three key dimensions: volunteer needs,beneficiary needs and organisational needs(see Figure 1).

The British Red Cross vision:

A world where everyone gets the help they need in a crisis

Beneficiary needs v volunteer needs v organisation needs? The triangle of our key stakeholdersis presented below. Ultimately we are here to serve our beneficiaries, and volunteers are our way of

meeting those needs. Without them we couldn’t function. So improving the volunteer experience

is vital so that volunteers can be more effective for our beneficiaries.

FIGURE 1 BENEFICIARY, VOLUNTEER AND ORGANISATION NEEDS

BENEFICIARY NEEDS

Ultimate aim to provide a good service to

people in crisis and hence, have satisfied

beneficiaries

VOLUNTEER NEEDS

Vital to provide a quality

volunteer experience so

that volunteers are happy

and effective in carrying

out British Red Cross

activity

ORGANISATION NEEDS

Striving to be an efficient

and effective learning

organisation working

towards the British Red

Cross vision




Methodology

A mixed–methods approach was employed forthe study. The following phases were scheduledto run over nine months from October 2010to June 2011:1. Scope project background to identify current

priorities and contexts2. Review of internal and external volunteering

related research 2.1 Internal data analysis and interpretation2.2 External literature review and models ofgood practice

3. Define Red Cross and other models orapproaches to volunteer management 3.1 Mapping of existing practice andprocesses in place across the twenty one

Areas3.2 External models in other nationalvolunteer led organisations

4. Identify staff needs and perspectives tocapture what managers feel is most effectiveand most challenging in their existingapproaches to volunteering. Thirteen stafffocus groups were carried out and an onlinesurvey of service co–ordinators was conductedto gather staff views. 159 responses werereceived yeilding a response rate of 40%.

5. Understand the key elements of volunteer

satisfaction/experiences to explore volunteerviews of current approaches and gain furtherinsight into how best to engage volunteerswithin the British Red Cross. Sixteenvolunteer focus groups were carried out

and a telephone survey of 456 volunteerswas conducted to gather volunteer views.

6. Explore the beneficiary experience.Semi–structured interviews with eighteenbeneficiaries were carried out to gather viewsfrom a range of different services – Refugeeservices, Health and Social Care, FireEmergency Support Services, as well asattendees on first aid courses.

The volunteer survey breakdown of responses by service was as follows: 26% Retail, 24% EFA,18% Fundraising, 10% Health & Social Careprojects (other than the services listed separately),8% Medical loan, 8% CBFA, 7% ER, 7% Carein the Home, 5% Transport & Escort, 4% FESS,3% Youth services, 3% Office admin volunteer,

2% Refugee Services, 1% ITMS. Please note thatvolunteers were able to tick multiple boxes if they volunteered for more than one part ofthe organisation.

Responses broken down by Territory were: 30% South Eastern, 23% Wales & Western,20% Scotland, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man,19% Northern, 3% UKO, 5% don’t know.

Further details of the data collection, researchmethodological challenges, survey sample

demographics as well as the focus grouptopic guides, interview templates and surveyquestionnaires can be found in Appendices A,B, C and D.




This section summarises the trends andfindings from the external literaturereview and starts to highlight some ofthe key questions that the British Red

Cross will need to consider in order to developa strong, relevant volunteer offer in the future.

2.1 Patterns and profiles

of volunteering in the UK

2.1.1 Volunteering – on the rise orin decline?Overall the evidence shows remarkablestability in the actual levels of volunteering overthe past twenty years. The latest CitizenshipSurvey results for England, 2009–10 report that40% of the adult population have volunteeredformally (within groups and organisations) atleast once in the last year, and 25% volunteerformally at least once a month. Trends from thissurvey show some small indications of growth

in volunteering in the early to mid–2000sfollowed by gentle decreases in the latter partof this decade.

2 Volunteering in the UK: What does theexternal research say?




TABLE 1 VOLUNTEERING IN ENGLAND, 2001

TO 2009 –10

At least

once a year

At least

once a month2001 39% 27%

2003 42% 28%

2005 44% 29%

2007-8 43% 27%

2008-9 41% 26%

2009-10 40% 25%

Source: Citizenship Survey, DCLG

It’s difficult to compare the above figures forEngland with Wales, Scotland and NorthernIreland, due to different survey collections andmethodologies having an impact on the resultsproduced. However, research indicates that levelsof volunteering appear to be highest in Englandand lowest in Northern Ireland.

Furthermore, different surveys in Englandoffer different results for volunteering activityestimates, although the trend showing stabilityin the levels of volunteering within the individual

sources is consistent. General household surveys(e.g. the British Household Panel Survey) havelower estimates to the more recent surveys thatset out specifically to explore volunteering (e.g.the Citizenship Survey and the National Surveyof Volunteering and Charitable Giving). Thesedifferences are attributed to the exact wordingof questions as well as the context being eithera fleeting question amongst many other topicsversus a focused survey designed to help peopleto recall more about their volunteering. TheThird Sector Research Centre advise that, dueto differences in survey results and the

uncertainties surrounding the definition ofvolunteering, it’s safer to refer to a range of20%–50% as the population estimate for annualvolunteering and 10%–30% for volunteering ona monthly basis (TSRC, 2010).

2.1.2 What about the effects ofthe recession?

Some discussions (based on anecdotal evidenceonly) have attributed a recent growth in

volunteering enquiries and applications to therecession. However, the evidence on this is notconclusive. On the contrary, the Institute forVolunteering Research (IVR), recently published

a think piece stating “claims that volunteeringflourished during the recession were prematureand overly optimistic and that in fact rates havedeclined” (Hill, 2011).

Examples of organisations experiencing growthfrom 2007 to 2008 come from YouthNet whoreported receiving more than double the numberof applications from potential volunteers with a132% increase, VSO who saw a 128% increasein enquiries for voluntary work, and Crisis whohad a 66% increase in people preparing tovolunteer in their Christmas centres. (NCVO,2009). Growth in the number of actualvolunteers arising from the enquiries in theseindividual examples is not stated. Hill suggeststhat “it may be that the beginnings of the

recession did see a boost in interest involunteering but that this interest was notconverted into people actually volunteering”.

It would be interesting to understand how andwhether organisations were able respond to thisincreased interest. What was their capacity todeal with such a surge in applications? Did thisresult in waiting lists for volunteering? How wasthis managed and hence, how did it impact on thevolunteer experience? The honest answer is thatwe don’t know very much about the impact of

the recession on volunteering.

2.1.3 Who is most likely to volunteer?

> Women are more likely to volunteer thanmen. However, the difference is not as markedas we might think 28% of women reportedvolunteering regularly (i.e. at least once amonth) compared to 23% of men in theCitizenship Survey for 2008–9. Note thatwomen were more likely than men to beinvolved in organisations related health and

social welfare, education, and older people.Men were more likely to get involved withgroups focusing on sport, exercise and politics.

> People aged between 35 to 49 and 65 to 74 are more likely to volunteer regularly (28%and 29% respectively) than the other agegroups. However, the relationship betweenage and likelihood of volunteering is complex.

> Black, white and mixed race groups havesimilar levels of volunteering (26%, 25%

and 23% respectively), higher than asian andchinese people (16% and13%). However, weneed to be careful that overall figures don’tcover up differences in volunteering within




ethnic groups. Lower levels of volunteeringare reported for people born outside the UK.

> Regional differences show that people in theSouth West and South East are most likelyto volunteer regularly (31% and 28%respectively) and people in London and theNorth West are least likely (both at 20%). Thetype of area also makes a difference, people inrural areas are more likely to volunteer thanthose in urban areas, and affluent areas seehigher levels of volunteering than deprivedareas.

> Employed people are more likely to volunteerthan unemployed people (although thedifference isn’t great for regular volunteering

– 27% compared to 24% respectively). Withinthe employed, people in higher managerial andprofessional occupations are more likely tovolunteer regularly than those in more routineoccupations.

> People with higher levels of education andqualifications are more likely to volunteer thanthose with lower or no qualifications (and thislatter group have become a key governmenttarget for volunteering in England).

As Rochester, Ellis–Paine and Howlett (2010)point out, there are lots of factors influencing thepropensity to volunteer so we should exercisecaution in making any broad generalisations fromthe above. Demographic characteristics have notbeen proved to be strong predictors explainingwhether someone will volunteer or not (Hurleyet al. 2008). Omoto and Snyder (2008) look at avariety of other factors that need to be consideredin looking at what it is about people, or thesituations they find themselves in that gets themstarted as volunteers. The factors they explorein this stage of their model of the ‘volunteering

process’ (the antecedents) are: helpful personality,motivation and social support.

2.1.4 How do people find out aboutopportunities to volunteer?

> Most volunteers find out about volunteeringopportunities through someone else alreadyinvolved in the group. Over half (56%) of theCitizenship Survey respondents in 2008–9 whovolunteered at least once a month found out

about it this way.

> Other common sources of information forabout a quarter (24%) of regular volunteers

were through school, college or university,highest for younger volunteers and thoseaged 35 to 49, and through word of mouth from someone not involved in the group.

> Just over 1 in 5 volunteers (22%) found outabout opportunities through having previouslyused the service of the group or organisation.

> Very few regular volunteers find out via theinternet or organisational website (6%),although this is higher amongst young peopleaged 16 to 25 (12% compared with between0% and 6% of people in older age groups).

Data source: Citizenship Survey, DCLG,2008–9.

2.1.5 A changing society

Society is changing and this is affecting theprofiles and preferences of our volunteers. Anageing population, changes in employmentpatterns, rising inequality, weaker connectionsto community, rising individualism,consumerism and the growth of the internet arejust a few of the societal changes to consider ifwe want to better understand the landscape for

volunteering now and into the future. (Rochester,Ellis–Paine and Howlett, 2010). These changesrepresent both opportunities and challenges forthe sector as the following table illustrates.




TABLE 2 IMPLICATIONS OF A CHANGING SOCIETY ON LEVELS OF VOLUNTEERING

Population

sub-groupImplication

Opportunity

or challenge?

Women Decreasing amount of time for women to devote to volunteering.

The growth of women in the labour market reduces their

availability to volunteer, historically women have been a large

source of time-rich, committed volunteers.

Challenge

Older people Growing numbers of active retired people who are recognised to

have a large contribution to make to volunteering (coupled with

the increasing age of retirement). More targeted efforts could be

made to attract, recruit and retain the active retired.

Opportunity

Younger people Longer periods of time spent in full time education by growing

numbers of young people creates the opportunity for collegesand universities to engage more young people as volunteers.

Opportunity

Minority ethnic

communities Tapping into the individual communities of cultural and religious

diversity which make up a community and can be a successful

source of voluntary action and volunteering.

Opportunity

Employees The workplace context and increasing role of the employer to

involve employees in volunteering. Perhaps the challenge is in

designing roles which are meaningful and applicable.

Opportunity

& challenge

Internet users The internet providing a big opportunity in terms of reaching

people but the challenge being how this is transformed intomeaningful volunteering for the organisation and for the

volunteer. Organisations need to consider the big reduction in

face to face contact that this entails.

Opportunity

& challenge

Content sourced and adapted from Volunteering and Society in the 21st

Century (Chapter 6: A Changing Society),Rochester, Ellis–Paine, Howlett, 2010




Implications of a changing society on the

nature of volunteering

We’ve briefly looked at how the numbers andprofiles of current and potential volunteers mightalter, so what are some of the consequences ofthis for changes in the nature of volunteering nowand into the future? We will outline four potentialgrowth areas below and look at some of the mainconsiderations for volunteer–involvingorganisations to take into account.

a) Towards shorter–term volunteering?

Although not necessarily an entirely newphenomenon, the literature discusses short–termor episodic volunteering as a different type ofengagement to the traditional, longer–servingvolunteer. It is seen as limited in time and scope

with more of an expectation for it to berewarding for the volunteer. Macduff (2005)identifies three different types of episodicvolunteers. There are one–off episodic volunteerswho might do a few hours on a single occasion(e.g. Red Cross week), there are interim episodicvolunteers who might volunteer regularly but fora time–limited period (e.g. interns), and there areoccasional episodic volunteers who might doshort bursts of volunteering at regular intervals(e.g. fundraising).

Considerations for volunteering organisations> Short–term volunteering gives organisationsa strong motivation to look at different roles,functions and services and see how episodicvolunteers fit, to maximise their creative designof volunteer opportunities for the differenttypes of episodic volunteer. For example, insome cases this might be geared towardsattracting people with specific skills to offer.

> Promoting episodic volunteering opportunitiesas a way of “testing the water”, if people havea good experience then they might be

persuaded to increase their involvement(Handy et al., 2006).

> Note that there is no conclusive evidence thatmanaging episodic volunteers needs a wholenew model (Handy et al, 2006). However,there is a need for volunteer–involvingorganisations to respond to the increasinglycommon mixture of volunteer styles andconsider whether bespoke or differentarrangements should be considered forrecruitment, induction, training, support

and supervision.

b) Towards employer–supported volunteering?

Employee engagement in volunteeringencompasses a multitude of activities, roles andarrangements in place. Similarly wide–ranging isthe extent to which the programme is seen tomeet the differing needs of the employee (e.g.gaining skills, understanding and experience), thecompany (e.g. staff satisfaction, building team–working) and/ or the community or voluntarysector organisation (e.g. volunteer capacity witha specific skill).

Considerations for volunteering organisations> Employee volunteering is an opportunity for

volunteer–involving organisations to tap intoa new source of volunteers with specificknowledge or skills. However, in practice,

creating a suitable match can be difficult,hence the growing number of “broker”agencies such as Business in the Communityor a local volunteer centre (Rochester, Ellis– Paine, Howlett, 2010).

> Attracting the right employer partners anddesigning meaningful volunteer roles for theiremployees could lead to a diversity ofopportunities for involvement.

c) Towards virtual volunteering?

Advances in new technology are constantlyopening up opportunities and ways for peopleto communicate and get involved. This hasthe potential to have a major impact onvolunteering in the future. Data reviewed byMurray and Harrison (2005) highlighted thatonline volunteers were engaged in all sorts ofactivities from desktop publishing and designingor maintaining websites to research, fundraising,policy development, training and direct servicedevelopment.

Considerations for volunteering organisations

> Virtual volunteering enables people tovolunteer from their own home reducingsome barriers (e.g. for people who havemobility problems).

> This is an opportunity for organisations tothink about meaningful and attractivevolunteer roles that can be carried out at adistance (e.g. an example of this from BritishRed Cross is retail volunteers selling goodson e–bay).

> Organisations will need to adjust and identifyappropriate methods of engagement, co–ordination and support for online volunteers,given the inevitable reduction in/ absence offace to face contact.




Note that while online recruitment is anattractive method of reaching people, it isrecognised as tending not to have as high astrike rate for turning volunteer enquirersor applications into active volunteers.

d) Towards transitional volunteering?

Transitional volunteering is about developingvolunteering opportunities for varying groupsof people to enable them to develop a range oftransferable skills which will open up new avenuesfor success and perhaps continued engagement involunteering.

There is at present very little external literaturein this area. Interestingly, some Areas andservices within the British Red Cross have been

increasingly working with back to work schemesand the probation services in what are sometimesreferred to as “third way” arrangements, a hybridbetween paid people and volunteers. There ismuch to learn from some Red Cross Areas suchas those in Wales who have been engaging ‘thirdway’ participants to gain experience, skills andoften to rebuild their self esteem and confidence.This in turn allows them to access employmentand other developmental opportunities. Thisapproach is seen, by some, as a real opportunityto attract and engage new ‘volunteers’

and improve diversity. However, as one staffmember highlighted in the research, there iscurrently little knowledge and support forworking with these organisations and greaterlearning is required.

Considerations for volunteering organisations> Organisations may need to consider whether

different volunteer support and managementpractices are necessary for this type ofvolunteering, and if so, what the implicationsof this will be for volunteer managers.

> A successful outcome of this type ofvolunteering is when volunteers move on (e.g.find paid work), which may well mean theystop volunteering. This notion of volunteeringto enable people to move on may be quite aculture shift for organisations that measure thesuccess of their volunteer programmes throughvolunteer retention and length of service.

2.1.6 How can volunteer–involvingorganisations respond?

The literature suggests that organisations are, andwill need to continue, to adapt their approachesto attracting and engaging volunteers in responseto changes in society. Some of the approaches putforward in the literature are:

> Better marketing strategies: A goodcommunications approach is seen as essentialand organisations serious about quality

volunteering need a strategy tailored todifferent segments of the potential market,e.g. younger volunteers and students, employeevolunteers etc (Evans and Saxton, 2005).




> Making users/ beneficiaries central to ourapproach: Exploring ways of increasing userinvolvement. For example in developingmonitoring and evaluation approaches andidentifying and tackling weaknesses in currentvolunteering structures that don’t focus onbeneficiary involvement. Volunteering England:

http://www.volunteering.org.uk/WhatWeDo/Local+and+Regional/Volunteer+Centre+Quality+Accreditation. Accessed 26 May 2011.

> A transformation of the volunteer request: It should be attractive and focused with a clearexplanation of the benefits to the volunteerand the organisation as well as how theorganisation will use their time effectively(Evans and Saxton, 2005).

> Renewing the image of volunteering:Public perceptions of volunteering (particularlyamongst those who don’t volunteer) need tobe changed. Breaking down stereotypes andpromoting volunteering as a means ofdeveloping mutual support and reciprocityrather than charity and dependency wouldhelp to eradicate some of the associatedbarriers to involvement in volunteering(Evans and Saxton, 2005).

>

Recognising that all volunteers are diverseand different: Developing a co–ordinated,inclusive and bespoke approach to making theconnections between potential volunteers andan organisation as well as making the activitydesirable to the volunteer (Zimmeck, 2001).

> Maintaining a healthy balance: Balancing thenumbers of volunteers being recruited andmanaged alongside the support that volunteersshould receive, always keeping primary theorganisation’s service user needs (Gale, 2011).http://www.volunteermanagers.org.uk/

quality–versus–quantity–balancing–see–saw Accessed 26 May 2011

> Overcoming the obstacles in volunteering: Exploring the practices of many volunteerinvolving organisations and keeping a checkon the increasingly excessive bureaucracy thathas appeared through the standardisation andprofessionalisation of the field of volunteermanagement (Rochester, Ellis–Paine, Howlett,2010).

There are different ways for organisations torespond to changes in society which will dependupon organisation culture as well as the capacityto drive forward change. Rochester, Ellis–Paineand Howlett (2010) suggest that organisations

should also consider changing practice andperceptions at the wider level of challengingthe values of our society through:

“…actively promoting some key values atthe expense of other societal norms. It wouldmean, for example, promoting solidarity andcooperation rather than individualism; the pursuitof well–being rather than material wealth andconsumption; and engagement in society as acitizen rather than as a consumer”.

2.2 Approaches to volunteer

management practice in the UK

2.2.1 Volunteer management: a briefhistory

Where are we now?

Over the past two decades, we have seenvolunteer work across the sector slowly becomemore structured and managed following the HRprinciples of managing paid staff. This isevidenced in the language and the checklists thathave crept in for developing effective volunteermanagement strategies alongside role descriptions,recruitment interviews, written policies, equal

opportunities monitoring amongst many otherprocedures and processes. Volunteer co–ordinatorsupport roles have been created in manyorganisations and more recent conversationshad around the professionalisation of the roleof a volunteer manager. Alongside this, the sectorhas developed its own quality standard forvolunteering called Investing in Volunteers (IiV),launched nationally in 2004.www.investinginvolunteers.org.uk

How did we get here?

There are a number of reasons why volunteer

management has evolved in this way:> The perception that volunteers want good

management. In the 1997 National Survey ofVolunteering 71% of volunteers said that theirvolunteering could be better organised,fuelling sector debate about what goodvolunteer management should look like andhow it should be developed. Ten years later,in the latest National Survey of Volunteering(Helping Out, 2007 by the Institute ofVolunteering Research), the figure was muchlower, with 31% of respondents reporting that

their volunteering could be better organised.

> External pressures on volunteer–involvingorganisations to demonstrate effectivenessand efficiency. We’ve seen a growing

http://www.volunteering.org.uk/WhatWeDo/Local+and+Regional/Volunteer+Centre+Quality+Accreditation



http://www.volunteermanagers.org.uk/quality-versus-quantity-balancing-see-saw


http://www.investinginvolunteers.org.uk/

http://www.investinginvolunteers.org.uk/









requirement across the sector for organisationsto be accountable to funders and prove theirworth. Funding bodies can insist thatorganisations collect data and show howvolunteers contribute to the work of theorganisation.

> The rise of contract funding in the sector. In

addition, where specific contract funding isreceived to provide services, a whole host ofother obligations may need to be put in placerelating to the co–ordination and managementof volunteers and to prove cost–effectivenessand reliability.

And where are we going?

The debate about whether volunteers should be

managed has been replaced with conversationsabout how volunteers should be managed andto what extent. Are we heading in the rightdirection? Or have we gone too far?

2.2.2 Models of volunteer management

So, what exactly is good practice in volunteermanagement? How many different models arethere? Can volunteer management practices beimplemented flexibly across different types of

organisation? These are just some of the questionsthat have been explored in the literature inseeking to understand further what methods aremost appropriate and effective for managingvolunteers.

How many different models?

Although the workplace model has gained muchacceptance in recent years, volunteer–involvingorganisations are diverse, volunteers are diverseand the roles they carry out are enormouslyvaried. It would therefore make sense to assumethat one size cannot fit all. So how many different

or alternative ways are there for thinking aboutvolunteer management?

This was the question at the centre of a reviewcarried out by Meta Zimmeck at the Institutefor Volunteering Research, published in 2001.She was surprised to find that “mountainshave produced molehills, and there are buttwo models... the “modern” and the “home–grown””. The modern management modelbeing the bureaucratic approach, most likelyin larger organisations with hierarchical

structures, in contrast to the home–grownmodel of a more collectivist–democratic approachwith less application of rules and procedures. SeeAppendix E for Zimmeck’s comparison of how

volunteers might be managed within each settingacross key elements of volunteer involvement.

Zimmeck looks at the challenges in theapplicability of each model although she doesn’tmake a case for general applicability of eithermodel on its own due to lack of robust evidence.Limitations of the modern model are seen in itslack of flexibility, that it’s a closed and self–perpetuating system (carrying on whether itproduces desired outcomes or not) and that it canalienate many volunteers in seeming to strive tomake volunteering “just like work”. Conversely,limitations of the “home–grown” model are thatit is considered messy and unwieldy (collectivedecision–making can be time–consuming anddifficult to sustain long–term), that the absence

of checks and monitoring can allow corruptionto creep in, and that unstructured access to powercan become elitist and exclusive, allowing thosein the inner circles to gain control.

However, Zimmeck concludes there isn’t asimple choice between two models of volunteermanagement but an “infinite range ofpossibilities from “bureaucratic” to “homegrown” and all sizes in between – as dictatedby the particular requirements of particularvolunteers, particular activities and particular

organisations”.

Rochester, Ellis–Paine and Howlett (2010) alsoargue that it isn’t black and white and thatattempting to simplify things will limit us. Weneed to take account of the diversity of roles andvolunteer preferences within one organisationthat may need very different management styles.Hence, organisations need to be able to respondto this need and, where necessary andappropriate, facilitate the management ofvolunteers in similar settings using differentapproaches. However, there is a note of caution

in that, a weakness of the “modern” model isits apparent inability to be flexible.

Another lens for looking at different modelsof volunteer management practice comes fromGoodall (2000) in his review of the literature ofthe voluntary sector and volunteer management.He highlights two main tendencies. The first isthe tendency to improve the management ofvolunteers by treating them in the same waysas paid staff. The second is the tendency to dothis by stressing their differences from paid staff,

which involves questioning the value of applyingthe workplace model to volunteers. His articlegoes on to apply this to the charity shop contextdeveloping discussion and debate around the




meaning of the word “professional” in thevoluntary sector in the context of staff andvolunteer workforces (relating to competence,efficiency and effectiveness). He highlights thebreadth and ambiguity of the term and howvolunteer management approaches can differ in

relation to the application of different meaningsof professionalism and its relationship tovoluntarism.

Overall, there is agreement in the externalliterature that there are advantages to adoptingcertain formal measures. Locke et al., (2003)reviewed the range of literature on volunteerretention which suggests that changes in personalcircumstances are, in fact, the biggest reason tocause people to leave volunteering. Alongsidethis, they also state that management which is“explicit, developmental, supportive and

appreciative” may encourage volunteers to stay.

Examples of specific features mentioned in theliterature include:> An application process which allows

volunteers and organisations to chooseone another

> Written policies outlining the role forvolunteers and what they can expect fromthe organisation (a statement about whatis involved)

> Some support available to volunteers withsupervisions to help review how volunteersare involved (a supervision might be anything

from a scheduled meeting to an informal chatover a cup of tea (Rochester, Ellis–Paine andHowlett 2010).

However, the literature emphasises that theimportant thing is for volunteers to have accessto support and not necessarily how the practicesare implemented.

2.2.3 What should volunteer–involvingorganisations consider?

> It’s a balancing act. Balancing the by–no–means compatible requirements of volunteers,volunteer–involving organisations, and theoperating environment. (Zimmeck, 2001)

> A clear vision for volunteering. What is thepurpose of the organisation and how arevolunteers involved? Are volunteers largelya means to an end or a core expression ofvalues? How does this play out in practice andwhat’s the effect on approaches to volunteermanagement?

> A shared understanding of how theorganisation operates. Exploring the role ofvolunteers – as owners, stakeholders or human

resources of the organisation? Has this roleevolved or changed over time, since theorganisation began, and what effects has thishad on volunteers, volunteer preferences andvolunteer management practices?

> Creative approaches to volunteer support.These can range from highly formal,professional and structured to highlyinformal. To what extent do volunteersand employees differ and how should theirmanagement reflect this difference?

> Think about the barriers. Consider the barriersto volunteering that are created by being tooprescriptive, too bureaucratic and tooinflexible. What lessons can we learn fromsmaller, less formal bodies that don’tnecessarily follow the “work–place model”of volunteer management?




2.2.4 Hybridity and encroachment:the changing face of volunteering

According to Ellis–Paine et al (2010) in recenttimes and across many countries, external forcesare increasingly shaping organisations and alsosometimes changing the nature of thatorganisation resulting in hybridity – aphenomenon in which third–sector organisationsbegin to take on characteristics of organisationsfrom other sectors. The growing role forvolunteers in the contractual delivery of publicservices is leading to more organisations adoptingmore managerial and bureaucratic processes andstructures within volunteering.

This has implications for how volunteers fare

within the organisations. The authors suggestthat there is potential for an erosion of the moresocial aspects of volunteer support, engagementand involvement leading to a displacement ofthe volunteer with major implications for theorganisation. In their opinion, the involvementof volunteers in an organisation does more thansupport an organisation in achieving its goals.It also makes a major statement about theorganisation’s values and ethos. There aretherefore major considerations to be madeby those organisations that find themselves

gravitating towards the model of“professionalisation of volunteering”.

2.2.5 Volunteer preferences: what dovolunteers want?

We suggested earlier that volunteers do wanttheir work to be organised and that supportivemanagement might encourage volunteers to stay.On the other hand, we are worried that toomuch bureaucracy puts up barriers to peoplegetting involved in volunteering.

Gaskin’s research (2003) tells us that volunteersactually want “a choice blend” and so thechallenge lies in ensuring volunteer managementpractices are flexible but organised, personal butprofessional, informal but efficient, offeringchoice but with a degree of control.

The distinction between “members” and“volunteers” has been made by Cameron’s (1999)study of church groups suggesting that membersof an association have a greater commitment

than other volunteers, expect to have a greatersay in the organisation, have a greater sense ofreciprocity and a better overview of theorganisation and its work.

Members are “less likely to identify with aparticular role and more likely to come tovolunteering with a history of attachment to acause, belief or organisation... they see themselvesas members who range over tasks, doing what isnecessary when it is needed” (Rochester,Ellis–Paine and Howlett, 2010).

Different volunteers will respond to differentmanagement approaches and some studiessuggest that the key to understanding whichapproaches suit different volunteers is tounderstand how volunteers view their roles. Meijsand Hoogstad (2001) make a distinction betweenthe management of members and managementfocused on volunteer service delivery programmes,and that members are much more likely to

respond to (and demand) involvement thatis not like the workplace model.

2.2.6 Who comes first? Bring in thebeneficiary focus

The volunteering literature explores volunteersand their experiences and recognises thatorganisations need to satisfy their volunteers andkeep them happy in order to encourage them tostay. There is less emphasis in the literature on the

purpose of the volunteering activity in achievingthe end outcome for the organisation.Organisations that are working with volunteers toprovide a service for a client will understandablyhave a focus on the needs of their service usersas the end outcome they are looking to achieve.Rochester, Ellis–Paine and Howlett (2010) doallude to the fact that such organisations “will notbe able to play the role of offering opportunitiesto ‘less productive’ volunteers and enable them tolearn how to make a contribution to the work.”

2.2.7 Towards defining qualityvolunteering

One of the original aims of the research wasto build a shared, common understanding ofwhat quality volunteering means for the BritishRed Cross. The external literature review hashighlighted a wealth of existing thinking relatedto volunteering as a whole, although there is asurprisingly scant amount of work which engagesdirectly with the notion of quality volunteering. 1

1 The European Commission has convened a working group on quality

volunteering, as part of the international year of volunteering, 2011. Themission of that working group is to: Work towards a common definition

of “quality volunteering”; Clarify the roles and responsibilities of the

organisers of volunteering in ensuring quality volunteering experiences;

Identify and disseminate good practice in the field of quality assurance

and quality assessment tools used by volunteer organisations.




Susan Ellis (2011) reflects on the questionof quality volunteering in her paper ine–volunteerism. She raises the question of whatquality means when applied to volunteering.> Thinking about what volunteers do, she

suggests that to achieve quality volunteeringwe need to assure that any volunteering hasa purpose.

> In terms of how well volunteers do it , she

suggests that to achieve quality volunteeringwe need to assure that every volunteer doesthe best job (however, questions are raisedaround how we measure this and who shouldasses it).

> And looking at the impact of volunteering , she

suggests that for quality volunteering we needto assure that the activity matters to someoneother than the volunteer (this raises widerconsiderations around the organisation ethosand whether volunteering is seen as anoutcome in itself).

She then goes on to suggest that perhaps ratherthan seeking to achieve quality volunteering, weshould be looking at strategic flexibility – thatencompasses a range of activities that all matterand allows volunteers to serve to the best of theirabilities, a mix of structured and less structuredsettings, long term and spontaneous commitmentsand leaving room for volunteer creativity inaddressing needs.




3.1 Our volunteer characteristicsand profiles

There were nearly 33,000 volunteers on thePeopleSoft database in January 2011. A largemajority (80% or 26,066) were classified asregular volunteers. A further 9% or 3,050 wereoccasional volunteers. The rest are either linkgroup volunteers (1464 or 5%) or contact groupvolunteers (1813 or 6%), largely those who havevolunteered in the past and want to stay intouch with the British Red Cross in some way

or another.2

Who are our volunteers?

> Gender: Seventy percent of Red Crossvolunteers are female and 30% are male(compared with 51% and 49% respectivelyin the UK population aged 15+).

> Age: The average age of a British Red Crossvolunteer is 50. However, nearly a fifth of allvolunteers are young volunteers (aged over15 and under 26) which is in line with the

2 Note that a review of Link groups is due to take place in 2013. Current

(PeopleSoft) definitions: Link group – Has explicitly requested to remain

“linked” to an area; Contact Group (elective) – Has explicitly requested

to be part of the contact group; Contact Group (passive) – No contact

made during audit process.

3 Volunteering at the British Red Cross:What do we already know?




proportion of the UK population over 15 inthis age group. There is a higher proportion ofolder volunteers (over 55) in the Red Cross at46% compared to the population estimate of33%. Hence, the Red Cross has fewervolunteers in the middle age groups between26 and 55, and in particular from 36 to 45with 11% of Red Cross volunteers falling inthis age group compared to 18% for the UKpopulation, aged 15+, as a whole (seeFigure 2).

> Ethnicity: Monitoring data shows that 4%of British Red Cross volunteers are Asian orAsian British, 3% Black or Black British, and1% reported a Mixed–race background.Comparative national data is 5%, 3% and

1% respectively (note these figures are thelatest 2007 mid–year estimates for Englandand Wales only). 77% of British Red Crossvolunteers are White, however data is notrecorded for 15% of volunteers.

FIGURE 2 AGE PROFILES OF BRITISH RED CROSS VOLUNTEERS COMPARED TO THE UK POPULATION

Source: UK population mid–year estimates for 2009 from the ONS for all persons aged 15+.

% Population

% British Red Cross

Volunteers

15–25 26–35 36–45 46–55 56–65 66–75 76 +

0

5

10

15

20

18%

19%

16%

12%

13%

14%

18% 18%

17%

11% 11%

10%9%

16%




Where are our volunteers?

> Of the four UK territories in the British RedCross, South Eastern has the most volunteerswith over a third of the total (35% or 11,450),followed by Wales and Western at just under aquarter (24% or 7,900). The NorthernTerritory has 6,900 volunteers and Scotland,Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man have5,950. In addition, nearly 200 volunteers arebased at UK Office. (See Figure 3) 3

> The map below (Figure 4) gives a visualrepresentation of the spread of British RedCross volunteers across the country. Ithighlights in red where there are high numbersof volunteers to orange and yellow and thengreen highlights gaps where there are no

volunteers. This is based on the volunteerhome postcode.

3 In terms of the Red Cross Areas, the highest number of volunteers

(recorded on PeopleSoft) are in Kent & Sussex, nearly 3,000, followed

by Cornwall, Devon, Dorset & Somerset (2,600), then Wales (2,300), and

then London (2,000). Figures are rounded.

35%

South Eastern

24%

Wales & Western

21%

Northern

18% Scotland, Northern

Ireland and the Isle of Man

1%

UKO Volunteers

FIGURE 3 DISTRIBUTION OF BRITISH RED

CROSS VOLUNTEERS ACROSS THE

TERRITORIES

FIGURE 4 DISTRIBUTION OF BRITISH RED

CROSS VOLUNTEERS ACROSS THE UK,

MARCH 2011




> Comparing population data with ourvolunteer data enables us to explore theproportion of the population volunteering forthe British Red Cross across Areas. The datahighlights an inverse relationship between thegeneral population size and the proportion ofthis population volunteering for the BritishRed Cross. So, the larger the population, thelower the proportion of the populationvolunteering for the Red Cross. From thisanalysis, the Areas with the highestproportion of the population volunteeringwere Mid Scotland and Argyll, and NorthernScotland and these proportions were 0.15%.

How long have they been with the British

Red Cross?

> Length of service for a volunteer at the BritishRed Cross is varied. While many volunteershave been with the organisation a long time,just under half (46%) of all current volunteershave been with the organisation for less thanthree years. Note that an audit of thePeopleSoft database was carried out a fewyears ago which may have resulted in a risein entries at this time. This might notnecessarily reflect the volunteers true startdate. (See Figure 5)

What do our volunteers do?

> First Aid services have the most volunteersat more than 9,000, followed by Health andSocial Care with nearly 8,000 (comprisingCare in the Home, Medical Loan, Transportand Escort, Therapeutic Care and SkinCamouflage). Retail has just over 6,500volunteers and Emergency Response over5,000. (note – figures for primary andsecondary roles only, at January 2011)

> Nearly a quarter (24%) of volunteers supportmore than one service within the British RedCross. Over 5,000 people (16%) volunteer fortwo services, First Aid and EmergencyResponse is a common combination. 1,700(5%) are involved in three services and nearly

1,000 volunteer for four services or more.

Volunteer profiling data breakdowns by Area areavailable online at http://gisdata/volunteer.html from the Geographic Information Systems Team,contact [email protected]

Data warning note: The data presented in thissection has painted the picture as recorded inPeopleSoft. Inevitably, the reality of any databaseis that it’s only as good as what is entered in andremoved and there has been, and still is, ongoing

0

5

10

15

20

Under

1 year

1–2 2–3 3–5 5–10 10 –15 15 –25 25 +

19%

17%

10%

12%

13%

11%

9%

8%

FIGURE 5 LENGTH OF SERVICE OF CURRENT

RED CROSS VOLUNTEERS

http://gisdata/volunteer.html





work across the organisation to audit the dataand achieve the best possible estimates of ourvolunteer numbers. See section 4.2.7 Having anaccurate and up to date volunteer knowledgebase, for further discussion of the researchfindings related to this.

3.2 A wealth of internal research

on the volunteer experience

3.2.1 Have Your Say survey

Carried out every 2 years (since 2005), the HaveYour Say survey aims to provide an opportunityfor volunteers to give their views and opinions

on volunteering for the British Red Cross. Ittherefore gathers vital information on areas wherethe Red Cross could do more to support staff andvolunteers in their roles. The response rate fromvolunteers in the latest survey (Autumn 2009) was14% (or 3,482 volunteers) and it was carried outby email and post. Some of the key findings arehighlighted below that relate to different aspectsof the volunteer experience.

Satisfaction

> Overall, 88% of responding volunteers agreed

that they were satisfied with the British RedCross as a charity to volunteer for . Acrossall volunteers, 61% agreed strongly and 27%agreed slightly with this.

> Refugee Services/ ITMS volunteers were mostlikely to be satisfied at 96% and First Aid andEmergency Response volunteers were leastlikely at 85%. Those who had beenvolunteering with the organisation for lessthan 1 year or 1–2 years were also more likelyto agree (95% and 91% respectively). Thismay reflect the different lengths of service

across the different services and activities.

> Overall, 96% of responding volunteers agreed(strongly or slightly) that their work gave thema sense of personal satisfaction. There waslittle variation in this overall finding across thedifferent services.

Support from manager

> Overall, 85% of responding volunteersagreed that their manager will usually act tohelp them solve problems. This was highest

amongst Retail volunteers at 91% andlowest amongst First Aid & EmergencyResponse volunteers at 79%.

> 78% of all responding volunteers agreedstrongly or slightly that their manager createsand supports opportunities for them to learnand develop their skills. This was felt mostin Retail and Refugee Services (both 83%)and least in First Aid & Emergency Response(74%). This leads to the discussion arounddevelopment opportunities below.

Developmental opportunities

> 83% of all responding volunteers agreed thatthe organisation is committed to providingappropriate training and development for itsworkforce. However, fewer (76%) agreed thatthere are good opportunities for personal and professional development within theorganisation.

> The Senior Management Team paper thatresponded to the survey results indicatedthat the above finding could imply careerdevelopment and training opportunities needto be clearer and better facilitated and thatactivities were planned to address this (withinSaving Lives, Changing Lives).

> The survey results may also indicate (alongside

a need for clearer information and access tocurrent opportunities) that existing

opportunities are not meeting the needs ofall volunteers, raising the question of whatopportunities these volunteers are seeking, andhow they align to the needs of the organisationand the interests of our beneficiaries.

Feeling valued

> 83% of all responding volunteers felt that thework they do is valued by the organisation.This was highest in Refugee Services/ ITMS(93%) and lowest in First Aid & EmergencyResponse (80%).

> 87% of all respondents felt that they were treated with respect by Red Cross staff andvolunteers, highest amongst Health and SocialCare, Refugee/ ITMS and Retail volunteers(93%, 92%, 91% respectively) and lowest inFirst Aid & Emergency Response (83%).

Communication

> 75% of all responding volunteers agreed thatthe Red Cross does an excellent job of keepingthem informed about matters that affect them.Refugee Services/ ITMS volunteers were most

likely to agree (85%) and First Aid &Emergency Response volunteers least likely(68%).




> The SMT response paper recommendedfurther investigation was required “to assesswhat works well for different groups andensure the best approach is taken to suit thedifferent audience needs”.

> An organisation wide internalcommunications review was carried outat the beginning of 2011, the findingsof which will raise and address specificcommunications issues in more detail.

3.2.2 A wealth of internal researchon volunteering

In addition to the Have Your Say survey, lots of

research has been (and is being) carried out locallyand nationally across the organisation gatheringvolunteer views on their volunteering. Some ofthese studies are broad and others focusspecifically on a certain group of volunteers (e.g.young volunteers) or a particular element of thevolunteer experience (e.g. recruitment, orrepresentation). We have collated and analysedover 70 sources of internal research and datarelated to volunteering. A list of these reports andprojects that can be accessed (e.g. on redroom orotherwise) is located in Appendix G.

The following 12 themes were identified from theinternal sources analysed relating to the focus ofrecent internal studies and their findings:

> Flexibility> Recognition & Appreciation> Motivation> Satisfaction> Representation> Engagement> Relationships> Training and accreditation

> Support> Internal links across services> External partnerships & links> Raising awareness of British Red Cross

services and volunteering opportunities

A summary of some of the findings, related eachof the themes, is provided below.

A. Flexibility

A number of recent research projects haveaddressed the issue of flexibility within the

volunteering experience at the British Red Cross.Findings suggest that the flexibility of volunteeropportunities is an increasingly important aspectof the quality volunteering experience, in terms of

volunteering schedules and training. Flexibleapproaches to volunteering allow people tocombine volunteering at the Red Cross with andtheir employment or education. Hence, a lot of

the recent reports focussing on young volunteers,in particular, highlight this aspect of the qualityvolunteering experience.

Timing

The timing of volunteer opportunities needs tobe flexible to suit the diverse volunteer populationat the British Red Cross.> 1 in 3 people (37%) found occasional

volunteering activities most appealing. Thesewere defined as opportunities available 5 timesa year (Attracting volunteers amongst the general public, 2006).

> Research suggests that young volunteerspreferred not to volunteer in the evenings.Those aged between 22 and 25 were also lesswilling to give up time during their holidaysto volunteer. 15 to 17 year olds also preferrednot to volunteer on weekdays, but duringweekends instead (Young people and theRed Cross – Here for good survey, 2010).

> With regard to young people, the Mystery

Shopping Survey. Responding to Young

People (2010) reported that volunteeringopportunities need to be accommodating inorder to take into account commitments byproviding flexible hours and training.




Volunteer choice at recruitment

Opportunities to experience a number of servicesand roles within the British Red Cross allowvolunteers to make an informed choice beforedeciding to contribute to a specific service.> In Wales, since 2009, volunteer recruitment

under a generic role model has enabled greaterchoice, allowing the volunteer to experience arange of services (Volunteer report South WestWales. Health & Social Care, 2010).

> In the most recent Mystery Shopping Survey.Responding to Young People (2010) only 35%of prospective youth volunteers felt they weregiven sufficiently flexible opportunities.

Short term versus long term opportunities

There are many different types of volunteeringopportunities available within the British RedCross. Some recent internal research has exploredwhether current styles of volunteering mightappeal to different groups of volunteers.> Regular long–term volunteering opportunities

do not seem to attract volunteers, especiallyyoung volunteers (Engaging with youngvolunteers in Mid Scotland and Argyll,understanding young person volunteer participation, 2010).

>

The organisation needs to design rolesand opportunities that fit the short termcommitment that people desire (Volunteerfundraiser recruitment survey, 2010) withthe possible aim of converting the enjoymentinto longer term roles (Attractingvolunteers, 2006).

B. Recognition and appreciation

A great deal of internal research has addressedthe issue of whether volunteers within the BritishRed Cross feel valued. Questions raised includewhether volunteers feel rewarded and recognised

by staff and beneficiaries. Appreciation seemsto be a key factor of quality volunteering –one which motivates and retains volunteers tocontinue fulfilling the priority of the Red Cross,to support their beneficiaries.

How do volunteers feel?

Whilst the majority of volunteers feel appreciatedfor their voluntary service, recognition is verypersonal. Some volunteers don’t necessarily wantrecognition and others do, but at different levels.> Overall, volunteers feel rewarded for the

work they do, with UKO having a highpercentage of young volunteers (76%), whofeel that their ideas are recognised (Young people and the Red Cross – Here for good

survey, 2010). Similar results are recorded inthe Volunteer satisfaction survey (Wales, 2010)with 70% of respondents feeling their workwas appreciated.

> The majority of volunteers (60%) prefer toreceive recognition at a local level. Nationalrecognition is increasingly attractive in 16–25age groups with 35% of respondentspreferring this level of recognition (Reviewof volunteer awards, 2007 ).

Issues for consideration

The following issues are specific aspects relatingto recognition and appreciation that have emergedfrom a few research projects:> Youth volunteers don’t always feel appreciated

by staff, 21% of young volunteers feel thatthe Red Cross prefers older volunteers (Young people and the Red Cross – Here for goodsurvey, 2010).

> Recognition was often felt to be lost underthe job title, for example, transport servicesdo a lot more than just drive (Making adifference through volunteering – the impactof volunteers who support and care for peopleat home, 2006).

>

Currently, recognition only occurs formallyafter five years of service. Recommendationssuggest that the organisation needs to beexploring other ideas in order to formallyrecognise less than five years service (Volunteer project, Lancs, Merseyside & GreaterManchester, 2011; Review of volunteerawards, 2007 ).

C. Motivation

In general, research relating to motivation hasfocused on determining the primary reasonsfor volunteering. Some studies have compared

these reasons across different groups by age andethnicity to see if motivations differ betweengroups of people. Having established the primarymotivations, recommendations suggest that thisinformation could be used to target people in theattraction and recruitment stage (Recruitment andinduction process in Northern Ireland, 2011).

Primary motivations

Many research studies cite the same primarymotivations, but there are lots of other factorsrelating to motivation that are also mentioned.

> Altruism and progression relating to career(for example accreditation and gaining newskills) were the two motivations mostfrequently cited by respondents throughout




the research (Young people and the RedCross – Here for good survey, 2010;Attracting volunteers amongst the general public, 2006; Refugee services – volunteerexperiences, London, 2009; Improving thevolunteer experience, Derby university studyfor Derbyshire, Notts & Cheshire, 2010).

> Other aspects linked to volunteer

motivation include flexibility of volunteeringhours, freedom (Making a difference throughvolunteering – the impact of volunteers whosupport and care for people at home, 2006)and access to events (Engaging with youngvolunteers in Mid Scotland and Argyll.Understanding young person volunteer participation, 2010).

Differences in motivations

> There were no significant differences inmotivation factors by ethnic group for youngvolunteers surveyed in 2010 (Young peopleand the Red Cross – Here for good survey,2010).

> Motivations of refugees to volunteer relatedto integration into society, gaining acceptancewithin a community and also as a protectivemechanism in order to escape negative

feelings (Refugee services – volunteerexperiences, 2009).

D. Satisfaction

There has been less research about thesatisfaction levels of volunteers, beneficiaries orstaff at the Red Cross. Satisfaction is undoubtedlya key factor linked to the quality volunteeringexperience, and it is affected by many stages ofthe volunteer planning and support lifecycle.Research shows that satisfaction levels ofvolunteers and staff are relatively positive, butthere was less research relating to the satisfaction

levels of beneficiaries.

Volunteer, staff and beneficiary satisfaction

> The overwhelming majority of youngvolunteers (90%) agree that their time withthe Red Cross is positive (Young people andthe Red Cross – Here for good survey, 2010).

> 86% of staff and 88% of volunteers statedthat they are satisfied with the Red Cross asa charity to work for. (Have Your Say Survey,2009).

> The Tell your story scheme, established inScotland, highlights how some services arenow capturing beneficiary satisfaction by

encouraging Red Cross service users to sharetheir experience, indicating aspects with whichthey are satisfied (Excellence Awards, 2010).

E. Representation

Lots of research has questioned whethervolunteers feel they have opportunities to voicetheir opinions and ideas in order to influence thewider organisation. There is specific focus on theimprovement of volunteer councils, which wereset up across areas to provide a forum fordiscussion and feedback.

Volunteer councils

Findings show that volunteer councils can be animportant resource to help ensure volunteers feelrepresented within the organisation. However

there are a number of issues to address in orderfor volunteer councils to achieve their potential.> A recent survey in Wales highlighted a lack

of awareness and information surroundingvolunteer councils. 23% of volunteers feelthey know very little about them (Volunteersatisfaction survey, Wales, 2010).

> Encouraging young people to engage. Just41% of respondents in the Young people andthe Red Cross – Here for good survey (2010)found volunteer councils accessible and

attractive. > One suggested way to improve young

volunteers’ participation in existing volunteerdecision–making structures is to increase thenumber of volunteer council meetings. Oralternatively to enable young people tocongregate each month and have theircollective voice heard (Youth representationand participation in decision making in theBritish Red Cross, 2007 ).

> However, in a research study conducted in

2010 by Derby University students for theRed Cross, the opportunity to influencedecision–making was seen as being one ofthe less important factors in a qualityvolunteering experience. The most importantfactor, from this research was relationshipswith peers and colleagues, followed byrelationship with manager and then learningand development opportunities (Improving thevolunteer experience, Derby university studyfor Derbyshire, Notts & Cheshire,2010).




F. Engagement

Volunteer engagement is a theme that runsthrough many of the internal research studieswhich look at how effectively volunteers caninteract and participate within the British RedCross structures and services. There are manycommunication channels in place across theorganisation, for example RedRoom andnewsletters, and a variety of research projectshave looked into the extent to which these

channels facilitate volunteer engagement.

RedRoom and the British Red Cross website

The internet is a key communication channel andRedRoom is an online intranet space enablingvolunteer engagement through access to news,research as well as various guidance and otherdocuments.> If people want to find out about

volunteering opportunities, they are oftenlikely to go online, so there is a need toensure that everything is updated and correcton the internet (Mystery Shopping Survey.

Responding to Young People, 2010). However, it was felt that there is still a needfor improvements to information availableonline (Mystery Shopping Survey. Respondingto Young People, 2010; Engaging Adults –Red Cross positioning, 2006).

> Online engagement enables extensive supportfrom abroad, increasing communication linksand awareness (Volunteers Week 2010 projectevaluation).

> Respondents often stated they had issues withaccessing RedRoom or did not know how toaccess the resources (Volunteer satisfactionsurvey, Wales, 2010).

Other communication channels

Despite the rise in the profile of RedRoom andwebsite communication, other communicationchannels still play an important role in facilitatingvolunteer engagement.> Communication channels, including Red Cross

Life, leaflets distributed to libraries and talkingto people in our shops, are also important tospread information about the Red Cross(Attracting volunteers amongst the general public, 2006; Volunteer satisfaction survey,Wales, 2010).

> A recommendation from the review ofvolunteer councils (2010) was that thenewsletter should contain features onvolunteer council activities and incredible

service volunteers to aid area communication(Review of volunteer councils, 2010).

Disengagement

Disengagement is an important issue relatingto the quality volunteering experience. It isimportant to address the reasons fordisengagement issues, such as the time volunteersmight have to wait before their CRB check comesback, in order to prevent low motivation anddissatisfaction among volunteers, potentiallyleading to low retention of volunteers.

>

The delay to volunteering commencement,due to external issues such as CRB checks,can be addressed by offering new volunteersopportunities to engage in British Red Crossactivities that don’t require a CRB whilst theyare waiting for clearance. This is importantfor the volunteer’s feeling of belonging to theorganisation in the early days (Volunteerreport South West Wales. Health & SocialCare, 2010).

G. Relationships

Communication is an emerging theme

throughout several research projects. It is a broadtopic that encompasses many different areas,including relationships. Research has attempted toexplore whether current relationships are effectiveat facilitating communication between allorganisational layers at the British Red Cross.

Communication cascades

Regular communication and relationships areperceived as being one of the most importantfactors in a quality volunteering experience(Volunteer satisfaction survey Wales, 2010;

Improving the volunteer experience, Derbyuniversity study for Derbyshire, Notts &Cheshire, 2010; After the floods: the lessonsfor recovery, 2008).




> Contact between volunteers and theirmanager was reported as being easy by 75%of respondents (Volunteer satisfaction survey,Wales, 2010).

> However, only 56% respondents felt they werekept well informed about important changesmade within the organisation (Volunteersatisfaction survey – Wales, 2010)

> Communication is the area that needs mostimprovement, particularly regarding the localcoordinators’ and volunteers’ relationship(Improving the volunteer experience, Derbyuniversity study for Derbyshire, Notts &Cheshire, 2010).

H. Training and accreditationTraining is an important aspect of the qualityvolunteering experience, as training opportunitiesenable volunteer development and relate tovolunteer recruitment and retention. There isminimum training required for most volunteerroles at the British Red Cross and some optionalor non–core training is also available. Researchfocused on the length of time it takes volunteersto become trained, accessibility and flexibility oftraining opportunities, and volunteer feedbackrelating to training.

Length of training

Developing the structure and improving theefficiency of the initial recruitment, inductionand training process, and reducing the time ittakes to become an active volunteer toapproximately three weeks is a target in theBritish Red Cross current strategy, SavingLives, Changing Lives. However, the length oftraining and frequency of training sessions seemto be inconsistent across the territories.> 69% of volunteers were active within six

weeks although this length of time varied

across the different services. 73% of Retailvolunteers were active in less than threeweeks but Health and Social Care andRefugee Services volunteers took slightlylonger, possibly due to checks and healthand safety factors (Volunteer recruitmentsurvey, 2011).

> In the volunteer experience developmentresearch undertaken in Hampshire, Surrey& the Isle of Wight (2011), some staffexpressed their issues with training were that

it covers too little and occurs infrequently.Recommendations in other research have alsoreferred to the need for more regular training(Volunteer recruitment survey, 2011).

Accessibility and flexibility

There are a number of factors to take intoconsideration when organising training. Beingflexible to suit the trainees’ schedules and holdingtraining in accessible places were all recognised asimportant issues to take into account. Evidence ofthis and some of the underlying issues have beenbrought out in recent internal research:> Location of training needs to be flexible to

prevent transport issues (Volunteer recruitmentsurvey, 2011).

> Having a clear training programme tiedin with recruitment days and the start ofvolunteering would ensure a maximumattendance of volunteers at training (Volunteerreport South West Wales. Health & Social

Care, 2010). > 87% of respondents to the Volunteer

satisfaction survey, Wales (2010) own acomputer at home. Hence, it was suggestedthat transforming training modules into onlinetraining modules would allow volunteers tobe flexible with training times.

> As part of training, and to prevent

disengagement, buddy systems are used tobring volunteers on board before completion

of core training (Volunteer experience –developmental research in Hampshire, Surrey& Isle of Wight, 2011).

Volunteer views on their training

A lot of research shows that volunteersseem to be happy with the training they havereceived and cite training as a key part of thevolunteering experience. However, training wasnot always portrayed in an enthusiastic light toprospective volunteers.> 68% of volunteers feel they have received

adequate training to support themselves in

their role (Volunteer satisfaction survey,Wales, 2010).

> The second most important aspect ofvolunteering is training (27% of respondents)(Volunteer satisfaction survey, Wales, 2010 –see Figure 6 below).

> When staff were contacted by potential youngvolunteers (as part of a research project), just36% of respondents reported that Red Crosscontacts were helpful and enthusiastic about

training opportunities (Mystery ShoppingSurvey. Responding to Young People, 2010).




I. Support

A large amount of internal research has addressedthe question of whether volunteers within theBritish Red Cross feel supported. Support is a keyaspect of good volunteer management.

Support to staff

Support to staff is often overlooked in researchrelating to the quality volunteering experience,but it is an integral part of the volunteer–staff–beneficiary triangle and without it, staff would notbe able to work and manage volunteers effectively.> Research also stressed the need to establish

a system of support to managers when a

volunteer decides to leave (Volunteer ExitPilot Report, 2009).

> A need to improve support given to volunteerswas highlighted in some research carried outin Wales. Offering the Volunteer ManagementProgramme for staff was identified as a steptowards addressing this (Volunteer SatisfactionSurvey, Wales, 2010).

Support to volunteers

Volunteers should feel that they can talk to or

liaise with service co–ordinators or volunteeradvisors within their area. Most volunteersgenerally do feel appropriately supported, butthere are a number of improvements still tobe made.

> The role of volunteer leaders needs to be

developed as it provides important supportand continuity when new staff members arerecruited to areas with high–turn over of staff(Volunteer Healthcheck Pilot, Derbyshire,Notts & Cheshire, 2010).

> There is concern that the role of VolunteerLeaders is not elected (Volunteer experience – development research, Hampshire, Surreyand Isle of Wight, 2011).

> Support to young people needs to beimproved, especially within volunteer councils,

by establishing a buddy system (Review ofvolunteer councils, 2010).

> Support to new volunteers was perceived

as being inconsistent (Diversity and ValuesProject: Diversity Review, 2004).

> Most volunteers feel supported (VolunteerHealthcheck Pilot, Derbyshire, Notts &Cheshire, 2010) with 60% of respondentsciting support levels as good or excellent(Volunteer satisfaction survey, Wales, 2010).

> Research highlighted that there is a finebalance between enabling managementprocesses to support volunteers in a robust

FIGURE 6 IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF VOLUNTEERING (WALES, 2010)

0 10 20 30 40 50

MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT

NOT ANSWERED

SOCIAL OUTINGS

REGULAR MEETINGS

TRAINING

REGULAR COMMUNICATIONS




and streamlined way, while taking into accountthat volunteers value the opportunity to usetheir own judgement within a clear framework(Making a difference through volunteering –the impact of volunteers who support andcare for people at home, 2006).

Support to beneficiaries

Ultimately, providing high quality beneficiarysupport is the principle aim of the British RedCross. It can be quite difficult to record andmeasure this, and most research undertakenabout the quality volunteering experience relates,not to beneficiaries, but to volunteers. However, aresearch study carried out in 2006 looked at theimpact of volunteers who support and care forpeople at home.

> Over 80% of service users feel that volunteersupport has improved their quality of life(Making a difference through volunteering – the impact of volunteers who support andcare for people at home, 2006).

> Two out of three volunteers emphasised thatthe most important contribution they give tothe beneficiaries is emotional or personalsupport – helping to reduce social isolation(Making a difference through volunteering – the impact of volunteers who support and

care for people at home, 2006).

J. Internal links across services

Links with other teams are essential to enablecorrect and appropriate signposting for volunteersand to promote good working relationships.> Research highlights the need to develop

signposting mechanisms to teams in othergeographical locations when volunteersrelocate or if there are no voluntaryopportunities in a particular area (HealthcheckPilot, Derbyshire, Notts & Cheshire, 2010;Volunteer experience – development research,

Hampshire, Surrey and Isle of Wight, 2010).

> It is recognised that ensuring the appropriateresponse to a situation, emergency orotherwise, relies on a developed partnershipbetween different service areas (After thefloods: the lessons for recovery, 2008).

> Volunteer bulletin boards were suggested

as a means to circulate information across services so that managers don’t have to

circulate information to such large numbers of

volunteers (Volunteer project, Lancs, Mersey-side & Greater Manchester, 2011).

K. External partnerships and links

Recent research has provided some insights intowhich types of external organisations the BritishRed Cross already has productive partnershipsand links, and explores areas where morerelationships could be fostered. There iswidespread recognition that the formation oflinks between the Red Cross and externalorganisations is a way of attracting volunteersby raising awareness of the opportunitiesavailable.

Schools and colleges

Schools and colleges are a valuable resource forthe British Red Cross, providing links with youngpeople and, through this, raising awareness ofvolunteering opportunities. School and college

communities are also places where word of mouthtravels fast, thereby spreading information aboutvolunteering within the organisation.> One in five young volunteers found out about

volunteering through school, work or college(Young people and the Red Cross – Here for good survey, 2010).

> Certain Retail services have established linkswith schools which provide a constant flowof young volunteers gaining experience andvolunteering in Red Cross shops (Engaging

with young volunteers in Mid Scotland andArgyll. Understanding young person volunteer participation, 2010).

Voluntary & community sector organisations

Contact with organisations that have links tospecific communities is valuable to promotevolunteering and widen participation amongstBritish Red Cross volunteers.> In order to improve diversity amongst

volunteers, initiating partnerships withspecific equality organisations could improverecruitment of volunteers from ethnic

minority backgrounds (Diversity and ValuesProject: Diversity review, 2004).

> Recommendations include improving thelinks with external organisations whichreward short term volunteering goals such asMillennium Volunteers’ Award and Duke ofEdinburgh Award (Young people and the RedCross – Here for good survey, 2010).

L. Raising awareness of British Red Cross

services and volunteering opportunities

Considerable amounts of research havelooked into the general public’s awarenessof the British Red Cross and the volunteeringopportunities available. Specific issues were




whether some services were better knownthan others and whether perceptions of theorganisation differed across areas. Overall theRed Cross is well known, but awareness of allthe services it offers is not always consistent.

Profile of the British Red Cross

The British Red Cross has a high profile and astrong positive image (Engaging adults – RedCross positioning, 2006). However, researchindicates that improvements could be made todispel misconceptions surrounding the BritishRed Cross.> There is a public perception that the

British Red Cross is solely an internationalorganisation, and that its primary role isproviding international aid. People have

much less knowledge of the work the RedCross does within the UK (Engaging adults – Red Cross positioning, 2006; Re–engagingwith First Aid trainers, 2007 ).

> Research highlighted that the misconceptionof the British Red Cross as a Christianorganisation may make recruitment fromnon-Christian communities more difficult(Diversity involving Muslim youth, 2010).

This may link to suggestions that informationis lacking about the work of the Movementand fundamental principles (Recruitment andinduction process, Northern Ireland, 2011).

Specific service profiles

Some Red Cross services have a higher profileamong the general public compared to othersand recommendations from research indicatethat increased advertising and publicity for theseservices would be beneficial (Making a differencethrough volunteering, 2006; Engaging Adults,2006).> Fundraising and First Aid services are

recognised by two in three members of thegeneral public (Attracting volunteers amongstthe general public, 2006).

> Willingness to volunteer in a particularservice does not necessarily correlate withawareness of that service. Despite high interestfrom respondents to provide home assistance,there was low awareness of the British RedCross providing this service (Attractingvolunteers amongst the general public, 2006).




4.1 The beneficiary perspective

An important component of this study was thebeneficiary perspective – in effect the raison d’êtreof the British Red Cross. The study sought outbeneficiary views on the quality of volunteering(as users of this resource) at the Red Cross andestablished the degree to which being supportedby a volunteer or staff member mattered to theRed Cross’ beneficiaries.

Nine out of ten staff are confident that we

provide consistently good quality support to ourbeneficiaries, but over a third (36%) report thatwe don’t engage beneficiaries sufficiently. In otherwords, we do not ask our beneficiaries enoughabout their opinions in shaping and deliveringour services.

We interviewed 18 beneficiaries, who had accesseda number of different services run by the BritishRed Cross, including Refugee Services, FireEmergency Support Services (FESS), Care in theHome support and First Aid courses to ask them

about their experiences and views on Red Crossvolunteers. Below we summarise beneficiaryviews.

4 Research findings: Achieving qualityvolunteering




4.1.1 Beneficiary views on volunteerled services

The majority of interviewees were aware that theBritish Red Cross service that they had accessedwas delivered by volunteers as opposed to paidstaff but said it didn’t matter to them whetherthey received services from a volunteer or a staffmember as long as the individual was competentat their job.

Some interviewees were aware of this becauseof an existing knowledge of the Movement,particularly in the case of refugee services wherebeneficiaries were familiar with the Red Cross intheir home countries.

“For me, yes I thought they were [volunteers].They should be because in a lot of Red Cross[National Societies] there are a lot of peoplewho volunteer because there are a lot of peoplewho are in need. There are a lot of very good people out there who come to volunteer at theRed Cross because they have seen all the thingswhich are not very good to other humans.”Beneficiary, Refugee Services

One respondent was aware of the Red Cross’use of volunteers through their work in the fire

service.

Others had only become aware of the fact thatRed Cross services are delivered by volunteerssince becoming beneficiaries of Red Crosssupport. In such cases, their contact with theRed Cross had often come through a third party,such as hospital referrals.

Of those interviewees that said it did matter tothem who delivered their service or providedsupport, the main reason advanced was that theythought it was a strength of the service to be run

by volunteers. Reasons for this included the factthat people were giving up their time for free andwere motivated by a desire to help people. Veryfew interviewees said that they thought there weredrawbacks of using volunteers to deliver services.One interviewee suggested that volunteers mightbe more likely to let you down. Anotherinterviewee felt that the State not the Red Crossshould be responsible for providing supportoffered through FESS service.

4.1.2 Meaningful relationships

The feedback on Red Cross support andservices was extremely positive, with interviewees

highlighting the cheerfulness, willingness and a‘can do approach’ of the volunteers they had beenin contact with as characteristics they particularlyvalued.

“I think [the volunteer] was very kind.Marvellous. She seemed as though she couldn’tdo enough for you if you wanted it doing. Shewas a very nice person.” Beneficiary, Care inthe Home

“They’re great. I have one [volunteer] who Iconsider the regular one... there are odd timeshe’s not available but someone else is, and he’sa darling as well... They all are. You have tohave a certain temperament to be a volunteer.”Beneficiary, Care in the Home

“The tutor was very good...at talking to peopleabout their personal circumstances, situationsthey might be in.” Beneficiary, CommunityBased First Aid Participant

“...everything they do is done with ease.Whether they are trained beforehand I reallydon’t know. Perhaps it appears so to me butI hadn’t thought about it before! But they areall considerate. I’ve not come across anybodywho’s grumpy or anything, because they’re

there to help.” Beneficiary, Care in the Home

A strong theme that emerged from the interviewswith beneficiaries that accessed regular support




from the Red Cross was the importance of therelationships they had developed with their RedCross volunteers and the bonds they had created.‘Getting on well’, having somebody to look outfor you and building a sense of trust were allhighlighted as important aspects of the beneficiary /volunteer relationship. Several interviewees saidthey viewed their volunteers as friends.

One beneficiary said that although her volunteerwas due to stop visiting in an official Red Crosscapacity:

“..She’s still going to come around on her ownbasis, as a friend. She has another job I think.”Beneficiary, Care in the Home

Another interviewee reflected:

“You consider them as friends. They are – theyare friends. They’re there to help you, and helpyou they do.” Beneficiary, Care in the Home

Feeling able to contact the volunteer directlyor the British Red Cross between visits if extrasupport was required was also welcomed byseveral interviewees.

4.1.3 Expectations of British Red Crossvolunteers

The majority of interviewees said the RedCross service had either met or exceeded theirexpectations. Several people spoke about the rolethe British Red Cross had played in filling a gapor providing support that other organisations orsocial networks were not able to:

“You can’t think clearly when everyone [e.g.neighbours] is trying to sit you down and giveyou a cup of tea. It is all well meaning but you

can’t think clearly already and it distracts youfrom thinking about what you need to. So theRed Cross provided a safe place to think.”Beneficiary, FESS

“They leave you with information, the factthey instantly saw the damage and got in touchwith people, they started the ball rolling… myinsurance had just lapsed 5 days ago. You’rein a state of shock. They look at the problem;they take the problem out of your hands and put you in touch with people that can help.”

Beneficiary, FESS

One interviewee said they had they had expectedless from the first aid trainer who had facilitated

their course because they were not a paid staffmember and had been surprised by the volunteer’sprofessionalism and knowledge as a result.However, they did say that the trainer had notbeen able to answer all the participant questions(although he had checked the answers and gotback to them later as promised) and that if theyhad been a paid staff member they may haveexpected them to have all the answers to hand.

Many interviewees had no prior expectationsabout what support from the British Red Cross,with one interviewee commenting “...I tooknothing for granted.”

4.1.4 Motivation and hope for the future

A few interviewees mentioned that the experienceof coming into contact with the Red Cross hadmade them think about volunteering themselvesor motivated them to become a volunteer. Oneinterviewee who had accessed refugee servicesupport and gone on to become a Red Crossvolunteer said that the tough experience theyhad had as an asylum seeker and the help theyreceived had motivated them to help others inthat situation.

Finally, several interviewees spoke poignantlyabout the difference that Red Cross volunteershad made in their lives. The diversity of servicesaccessed by the interviewees meant that the natureand length of support ranged from a few hourscontact to longer term support from the BritishRed Cross. Re–occurring themes included hope,support and a growing confidence. As oneattendee on a first aid course reflected:

“...I had an instance where I had to do CPRfor real (person died) and I said oh I won’t dofirst aid ever again. And he (trainer) gave me

confidence to do it, I probably would now.”Beneficiary, Community Based First Aid courseparticipant

Reflections from other British Red Crossbeneficiaries:

“...All this confidence is from Red Cross.They build my hope. They build myconfidence. They build my ability to still go on.” Beneficiary, Refugee Services

“...just having some company, someone to talkto, made a difference. Not being able to getout, it was someone to talk to.” Beneficiary,Care in the Home




“...I would miss her [the volunteer], we’vecreated a bond. It gets lonely on your own allday.” Beneficiary, Care in the Home

“I feel better equipped to deal with some ofthe situations that might happen in the futurewith the person I care for.” Beneficiary,Community Based First Aid course participant

4.2 Volunteer motivations:

Staying on and leaving

Why volunteers volunteer

In this section we touch briefly on the researchfindings around volunteer motivations at British

Red Cross. Reasons for volunteering at the RedCross are varied and often very personal, as arereasons for leaving. We asked volunteers whatwere the benefits they got from volunteering forthe British Red Cross.

The top 3 things most commonly mentionedby volunteers were:> Satisfaction of helping people> Developing skills and experiences> Meeting new people & making friends

Other gains mentioned include:> Building confidence> Keeping the mind active> Giving a sense of purpose (or structure) to life> Doing something worthwhile (and linked to

the fact the Red Cross is highly regarded)

We asked volunteers how strongly they feltconnected to the organisation in terms of thelocal centre or place where they volunteer, theservice or activity that they are doing, thenational organisation of the Red Cross, andthe international movement.

> 92% of volunteers felt very or quite stronglyconnected to the service or activity they aredoing

> 86% felt very or quite strongly connected tothe local centre of place where they volunteer

> 63% of volunteers felt very or stronglyconnected to the national organisation of theBritish Red Cross

> 52% felt very or strongly connected to the

International Movement of Red Cross andRed Crescent Societies

Younger volunteers felt more connected than oldervolunteers to their local centre. Feeling connectedto the International Movement of Red Cross andRed Crescent Societies was more likely amongstfemales (55%) than males (45%), and as ageincreased, so did strength of feeling ofconnection with the International Movementof Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Why volunteers leave

456 volunteers in our survey completed a fullinterview. Of these 344 were current volunteersand 112 were former volunteers (25%).

We asked the 112 leavers identified4 in thevolunteer survey what their main reasons werefor stopping volunteering. Personal reasons (such

as a change in family circumstances), and healthreasons were the most commonly reported, bothcited by 1 in 5 volunteers (21%). This wasfollowed by volunteers reporting that they just nolonger had the time to volunteer (13%), or thatthey took up paid employment (13%), or thatthey moved out of the area (12%).

7% of all leavers said that they stopped due tobeing dissatisfied with their experience ofvolunteering. Dissatisfaction stemmed from avariety of mostly unrelated reasons – including

differing role expectations, differences withstaff, volunteering pressures.

4.3 The 6 key elements and 3

enablers of quality volunteering

at the British Red Cross

The study identified six key elements and threeenablers of a quality Red Cross volunteeringmodel. The six key elements are:1. Recruiting, retaining and integrating

volunteers that are best suited to carrying outthe work of the British Red Cross

2. Flexible deployment of volunteers – tailoredto their skills and responsive to Red Crossdelivery needs

3. Building supportive relationships between staffand volunteers and amongst volunteers

4. Ensuring accessible development opportunitiesfor volunteers to learn and develop their skills

5. Embracing diversity and creating opportunitiesfor engaging with a diverse workforce

6. Achieving consistency in our standards to

enable quality volunteering

4 42% of the former volunteers had left in the past year, 25% left 1–2 years

ago, 12% left 3–5 years ago, 14% left 6–10 years ago and 6% left 11

years or more ago.




The three enabler elements are:1. An accurate and up to date volunteer

knowledge base2. Appropriate resourcing3. Creating more and better ways of sharing


In the section which follows we outline foreach element the successes, challenges andrecommendations for building on good practiceas identified by volunteers, staff andbeneficiaries.

4.3.1 Recruiting, retaining andintegrating volunteers that are best suitedto carrying out the work of the BritishRed Cross

Volunteers and staff identified the need forhaving efficient and timely recruitment processeswhich include forward planning, having clearlyidentified mutual expectations upfront,selection of the most suitable volunteers to deliverRed Cross’ business guided by our fundamentalprinciples and values, and ensuring volunteers arequickly integrated into the context and content oftheir work, as well as being made aware of RedCross expectations, values and the Fundamentalprinciples.

Successes and good practice

Four main successes were identified underthis theme:

> We are good at attracting volunteers. Staffand volunteers felt this was largely due to therecognisable name and brand of the RedCross was as well as the variety of attractiveopportunities and worthwhile volunteer roleson offer.5 This was summed up by onevolunteer adviser:

“The Red Cross is in a very fortunate positionof really not having to try very hard to recruitnew volunteers.”

It was, however, noted that there areexceptions. Fundraising staff reported thatsome of their roles were difficult to attractvolunteers into. As one member of staffcommented “nobody really has a passion for

collecting with a bucket in supermarkets”.Location also had an influence, as well asspecific depots within some services that arequieter or where the work can be a bit isolatedand so not as enjoyable for volunteers.

> The current focus in the strategy, SavingLives, Changing Lives, on speeding up therecruitment process was largely welcomedand considered as necessary. As one staffmember summed this up:

“There is a lot of focus on [recruitment] aboutspeeding it up and making it better. Peoplenow take it seriously and respond quicklyto enquiries and move through the processquicker.” Staff member

> Some Areas and services can provide earlyopportunities for volunteers to observe,shadow or buddy up with other volunteers/ staff. This is proving especially valuable inenabling volunteers to become active earlyon in their recruitment journey.

“With Event First Aid I went out as anobserver and in hindsight I learned moredoing that and going through the courseslowly. The observing was critical.” Volunteer

> The majority of volunteers and staff agreedthat clear information is provided to newvolunteers when they start volunteering withregard to:> the expectations of volunteers in their roles

(88% volunteers:82% staff)

5 However, note that the recognisable name was not felt to be specifical ly

linked to publicity campaigns. On the contrary, the lack of generalawareness of British Red Cross services was a frustration raised by

many volunteers. General public awareness of what British Red Cross

does was perceived as low & volunteers expressed a need to shout

more about what we do.




> any compulsory training requirements(85% volunteers:74% staff)

> the types of volunteer opportunitiesavailable (83% volunteers:79% staff)

> the recruitment process (83%volunteers:70% staff)

Challenges to overcome

The main challenges identified by staff andvolunteers were:> Speeding up the recruitment process, while

very welcome and necessary, was identifiedas quite challenging in practice. Some staffand volunteers reported that it is stillearly days:

> Staff in many Areas reported havingvery lengthy, disjointed recruitmentprocesses with too much bureaucracy/paperwork. Maintaining contact withvolunteers while everything getsprocessed was felt to be difficult.

> There was a strong call for therecruitment paperwork to be simplified.Staff felt frustrated at how out of date thecurrent forms are and expressed a strongdesire to condense the information into

fewer forms. > There was notably a lot of developmental

work going on by staff in the Areas toimplement new, slicker recruitmentprocesses in order to comply with the newnational target of recruiting in three weeks.However, differing Area volunteer supportinfrastructures was reported as a challengeto achieving this.

> Retention in the early stages from beingrecruited to the initial training and early

deployment stages was reported by somestaff as challenging.

> There was agreement on the difficulty ofkeeping volunteers interested while they are‘hanging around’ either waiting for trainingor waiting for the CRB checks to come back.

“We had an influx of 40 volunteers froma recruitment drive and after the time–

consuming process we only got 6 whostayed with us.” Staff member

> Two thirds of volunteers surveyed (66%)agreed that they were keen to do more in the

period between being recruited and waitingfor the CRB and reference checks to come in.

> There was also a perception that somevolunteers opportunistically access trainingto boost their CVs, not because they want toimprove their skills to support the Red Cross.High attrition rates mean that rathersignificant staff time can go into recruitmentwith minimal outcomes.

“We’ve had volunteers who just do it for thefirst aid qualification because it looks good ontheir CV. They’re on our list as volunteers butyou don’t hear anything from them, they justdisappear after they get their qualification.” Staff member

“It’s a mixture. We’ve had volunteers comethrough who have had misunderstanding ofwhat’s expected of them. They haven’t realisedhow much they will be expected to go out onevents. They want to be trained in first aidand they don’t realise that they’re expected atevents. Sometimes it’s not explained so well.”Volunteer Chair

> The study identified divided staff opinionsand confidence around selecting volunteers:>

Some staff felt torn between the need torecruit as many volunteers as possible whopresent for recruitment (i.e. a non–selectiveapproach) and the need to select volunteers




who are best suited to the identified areasof work and who with training can be sup-ported to deliver a quality service – in otherwords, introducing some selection criteria.

“I feel that I should not say no. I don’t feelyou can turn them away because they’re avolunteer and you should find them somethingto do.” Staff member

> For some there was felt to be an unspokenassumption that managers know how torecruit and select volunteers.

“This is an area we could improve on. I’m notsure we are confident enough to say we don’tneed you and how we deal with that. That

might be the reason why volunteers don’t stayor why we have problems later on.”Staff member

> Furthermore, some staff reported thatcertain services have a culture of the morehands on deck the better. So a supportedshift in culture might be needed in order tounderstand the consequences and benefitsof selecting our volunteers alongsideguidance on when it is appropriate to sayno as well as tips on how to do this

effectively.

> Volunteer planning appears to be reactiverather than proactive and done on what wasdescribed as a fairly ad hoc basis by individualservices when the need arises:> Strategic long–term planning ahead for

volunteering was something staff felt wasa big challenge across the organisationalthough the extent to which they felt thisaffected the day to day delivery of theirservice varied.

> Staff reflected largely on the shorter–termplanning that they needed to do to keeptheir services up and running. The ability tocarry out this more operational short–termplanning was perceived as very differentaccording to the nature of the service,summarised below (based on reflectionsfrom service co–ordinators andmanagers on the operational needsin delivering services):

1. Services needing a steady flow of regular

volunteers: Planning was generally notseen as an issue although constantmonitoring needed to ensure the service hadenough capacity to run well. Staff described

being organised as the most importantfactor and knowing when gaps might arisein order to be able to recruit and train intime to fill these.

2. Contracted services or services with cleartargets and needs: Planning was seen asessential and often requiring a targetedrecruitment campaign for specific contracts.Staff in such services reported that they canplan effectively due to the clear knowledgeof what is needed and in which locations,hence providing the ability to break theservice down into the number of hours andvolunteers needed to deliver the work.

However, the following situations were

reported as potentially challenging by somevolunteer advisers:

“Running contracted work with volunteerswith no contingency of staff shouldvolunteers decide they do not wish to dosomething”.

“Thinking things through, i.e. bidding forvolunteer delivered contracts and then notbeing able to fulfil them due to ‘not seeingthe bigger picture’.”

Longer–term planning was noted as moredifficult as there is not always much priorwarning of the contracts that come out, andthe outcome of the work we do bid for isn’talways known that far in advance.

3. Services needing lots of volunteers on acontinual rolling basis: Planning was seenas more problematic and challenging. Theseservices weren’t always necessarily drivenby specific targets.

Improving practiceParticipants identified the following main areasfor improvement:> Better linkages (between the Area

volunteering team, service coordinators,Learning & Development) for joint planningon recruitment and initial training:> While this joining up is taking place, due

to the fact that a lot of the volunteeringteams or staff supporting volunteering inthe Areas are relatively newly formed, thestructures, responsibilities, relationships

and support processes are also still verymuch being developed. It is recognised thatthis takes time to create, nurture and embed




across large Areas and with varied waysof working between services and activities.

> Volunteering needs to be planned andmonitored and refreshed as needed. Thereis a need to ensure that:

“…volunteering factors are considered whena new service is being planned or a service isbeing changed, developed or withdrawn.”Volunteer Adviser

> Clear setting of expectations upfront. Thedata suggests a need to ensure, as part of theinduction process, that the expectations fromstaff and volunteers of each other in theirrespective roles are clearly spelt out and

understood:

“It’s about striking that balance between ourneeds and what they would like to do, andworking out how that fits together… andensuring this is understood by all.”Staff member

> Smarter, better and faster integration of newvolunteers into their volunteering experienceand ethos:> 72% of staff felt volunteers’ time and skills

could be better used in the period betweenbeing recruited and waiting for CRB andreference checks (and, as noted earlier, 66%of volunteers were keen to be engagedduring this period).

> This recommendation is also linked to the

need to clearly define mutual expectations.Volunteers need to quickly enter into thespirit and routine of their work in thecontext of the British Red Cross’ ethos.The roles of volunteers and staff in jointlyidentifying possible ways forward are

captured in the quote which follows:

“Maybe we would bring in experiencedvolunteers as mentors (available, willing, ableand on–side) in that earlier part. It would bea role they are trained to do and with whichthey would be clear.” Staff member

4.3.2 Flexible deployment of volunteers:tailored to their skills and responsive toour delivery needs

Volunteers and staff identified the need for flexibledeployment to maximise opportunities to supportour beneficiary base. This includes recognising

volunteers’ existing skills and providingopportunities for their use, where appropriate, inorder to optimise the deployment of these skills.


The British Red Cross was seen to be doing wellin two main areas:> In many Areas there is a concerted effort to

make the most of our current volunteers.There were a number of good examples(particularly from Retail) demonstratinghow knowing the skills and interests of ourvolunteers keeps them engaged and works tothe benefit of the organisation. Staff notedthat this is an easier accomplishment forsome services, particularly those operating insmaller teams who are, as a result, more able

to easily engage with their volunteers.

“Sometimes with a volunteer they bring theirown skills and bring something completelynew and different, and a breath of fresh air tothe shop and you can hone in on that and it’smaybe not something you’ve thought aboutbefore but you suddenly see something insomebody and there’s a whole new avenue.”Staff member

> The British Red Cross has a major

opportunity to re–engage with and bringback former volunteers:> Nearly two–thirds (64%) of former

volunteers surveyed said they wouldconsider volunteering for the BritishRed Cross at some point in the future.

> Some staff spoke of this potential inthe group discussions and saw realadvantage in ensuring the door was leftopen to volunteers when they stoppedvolunteering to enable them to comeback when their circumstances change.

“To reactivate a lapsed volunteer would bea lot faster and easier than it is to bring ina brand new person. Being able to engagewith previous volunteers is a fantasticopportunity for us in term of economiesof scale and resources.” Staff member


Staff and volunteers identified the following issuesas needing focus:> Deploying volunteer skills effectively across the

British Red Cross. This doesn’t happen withease in all services:> Over one–third of volunteers surveyed felt

that they have skills and experience they




are not currently using in their roles thatthey could contribute to the organisation.This was more likely to be felt by malevolunteers, younger volunteers and those inEvent First Aid (EFA), Community BasedFirst Aid (CBFA) and Emergency Response(ER). It was less likely to be reported byRetail volunteers.

“We need to recognise that people come with alot of competencies and skills. And we shouldbe able to better recognise that.” OperationsDirector

> Low use of APEL (Accreditation of Prior andExperiential Learning). Some volunteers don’trequire training in some subject areas because

they come with the necessary skills. Thisshould, but does not always, enable quickdeployment. As one volunteer trainerremarked:

“We’ve tended not to do it [APEL], becausewith the amount of paperwork it can be easierto do the course. But that’s not the rightattitude to take.” EFA Volunteer Trainer

> A need to ensure training is relevant andnecessary. Over one quarter of volunteers

(28%) agree that some of the training theywere required to undertake was not reallynecessary (Retail volunteers were more likelyto agree with this; EFA volunteers were leastlikely to agree).

> Limited coordination across services. The datasuggests a potential appetite for volunteeringacross services:> Over a third (37%) of volunteers (who

only volunteer for one service) reportedthat they might be interested involunteering for more than one service.However, the information isn’t alwaysknown about. 30% (of all respondingvolunteers) were not aware of othervolunteering opportunities at the BritishRed Cross.

“I find co–ordination in the [local area]is great but where it falls down is talkingbetween the services.” Volunteer Chair

> Staff were keen to tap into a range ofvolunteers when needed but barriers wereperceived to be in place and they did notalways know how to go about tapping intothis group.

“There are other services that we don’t knowabout with people that may, in an emergency,come and help us.” Staff member

Improving practice

To improve practice four main areas were

identified, relating directly to the challengesoutlined above:> Developing our mechanisms for capturing

volunteers’ skills. The need to have a goodcentralised, up–to–date and accessibleknowledge and information on ourvolunteers (which they wish to share with theorganisation) is clearly indicated in this study.

> Increasing the use of APEL. Staff andvolunteer recruiters and trainers need anenhanced understanding of the processesand responsibilities associated with APEL.

> Increasing the flexibility and knowledgeof deployment opportunities across services:> The majority of staff (87%) believe that

volunteers should be free to move from onerole to another if they wish to. This wasseen as an important way of optimising theskills available to us as an organisation atany point in time and for any arising need,as indicated in the following quote:

“Volunteering that can be responsive to

whatever the need happens to be on that particular Tuesday morning in which ever geographical patch I need it. Not tied up intoservice boxes as we have it at the moment.”Operations Director




> Providing clarity on our organisationalposition on deployment (and communicatingthis accurately):> Over a quarter of the volunteers surveyed

(28%) did not feel that they could movefrom one role to another and felt limited toone specific service/part of the organisation.

> Having a bank of deployable volunteers

from right across our services wouldcertainly enhance our capacity to respondwhere the need is indicated; there is alsoa corresponding appetite among somevolunteers as the following quote indicates:

I’m a new volunteer and I want to get first aidexperience, but down the line I would like to

get involved in other things but I don’t knowhow to work towards getting involved inthat.” Volunteer

4.3.3 Building supportive relationshipsbetween staff and volunteers and amongstvolunteers

The need to build supportive relationshipsemerged as one of the most significant elementsfor quality volunteering at the Red Cross. Staff

and volunteers felt it was crucial to have access tosupport when needed, that they feel recognised,appreciated and valued in their work, and thatwe have effective mechanisms to enable volunteers

to express their views, feel heard, responded toand represented. Effective engagement, freeflowing information and overall goodcommunication were clearly highlighted by all inthis study as prerequisites for quality volunteering.


The British Red Cross’ strengths in this regardwere perceived to be as follows:> The overwhelming majority of volunteers feel

trusted to do their work.> 97% of volunteers felt they were trusted

to carry out their role effectively

> 81% of staff agreed that they trustvolunteers to carry out their role effectively

> Being valued was important to volunteers andthe majority felt that they were valued by staff:> 90% of volunteers in the survey reported

feeling valued by staff. The importance ofthis was highlighted by one volunteer in thefollowing quote:

“Red Cross staff look after volunteers. If youweren’t getting recognised then some peoplewould not want to do it, but you do getrecognised.” V ounteer

Note that where this was not felt to be present,it seemed to relate to low engagement and thenon–visibility of some managers (see sectionon engagement under challenges).




> Almost all staff (99%) reported that theyvalue the work of Red Cross volunteers,and 85% of staff said they felt valued byvolunteers.

> Note also that 29% of volunteers felt thatstaff seemed more valued than volunteers inthe organisation, and this was more likelyto be felt by longer serving volunteers. Atthe same time, over a quarter (26%) of stafffelt that volunteers seem more valued thanstaff in the organisation.

> Feeling appreciated by our beneficiaries.Many volunteers stressed that helping ourbeneficiaries and seeing their appreciationwas “second to none”.

“I love it because you get so many peoplecoming in and they are so grateful.” Volunteer

“I get great satisfaction seeing the gratitude on passenger’s faces – a big smile. They praise theservice because they didn’t realise we providethe service.” Volunteer

There’s nothing to beat the feeling when wecan finally get a tracer message back or helpa destitute refugee.” Volunteer

Significant levels of positive feedbackwere received from beneficiaries on theirappreciation for the support provided(see previous section 4.1).

> The majority of volunteers felt they hadaccess to support for their volunteering:> 89% of volunteers felt that they can access

support when they need it. > The data suggests the support may come

from various sources (both staff and

volunteers) and may not necessarily beformally structured. (Over a quarter ofvolunteers reported not receiving feedbackon their performance).

> Support received from fellow volunteerswas seen as very important.

“It comes back to that family sense, you do getto make friends and we’re all in the same boatand that kind of camaraderie is supportive. Iknow if I had a bad experience [the volunteer

leader] is there and all the other volunteersare there to talk about it.” Volunteer

> A range of methods to motivate and buildrelationships with volunteers were reported bystaff including getting to know your volunteersas individuals, bringing volunteers together forcoffee mornings or informal meetings, sharingmanagement information and creating specificsupport roles for volunteers to support othervolunteers.

> The new volunteer representations guidancepublished early in 2011 was welcomed bysome chairs as progressive and helpful.Specific focus group discussions were held withvolunteer chairs and many examples of goodpractice were highlighted. Some of theseexperiences are noted below:> Relationships between operations

directors and chairs were seen as key.Some chairs reported that being invited tothe AMTs worked very well to hear firsthand what is happening, what is working,what are the challenges and what is beingplanned. (Note that other chairs feel theyhave to push to get invited to their AMTsor are restricted if they work full time.)

> Some volunteer chairs or council memberswere invited to sit on interview panels forstaff posts which was welcomed. (Note that

others reported that they weren’t alwayseven told when new staff had joined.)

> Some proactive chairs saw the need topromote the council more to volunteersand reported various methods of doing soas well as getting involved in actions andactivities where needed:

– Spending a day with different SMs toget an idea of what all volunteers do, inorder to be able to better represent them

– Ringing joiners after a few months towelcome them and tell them about the

council – Carrying out volunteer audits and exit

interviews to get a more accurate graspof volunteer numbers and a betterunderstanding of volunteer retention.


Volunteers and staff identified the following areasfor focus:> Engaging with volunteers well was reported

as a challenge by some staff and volunteers:> This was most prominent in services with

large numbers of volunteers




“There is an issue with the number of staff.There is a lot of work to be done by very few people, so everything is quite manic.”Volunteer

> Geography and the size of some of theAreas or regions that staff cover was alsoconsidered by some staff and volunteers tobe a barrier to engaging with volunteers,especially where managers are spread thinlyacross an Area and were therefore unableto provide bespoke support.

“Our problem wasn’t with the line managerherself but with the system. She didn’t havetime to get round all of the areas in the timeallocated, so we never saw her.” Volunteer

“The geography and sheer size of the area[is a challenge] along with the demographics,especially the rurality of much of [the area].”Volunteer Adviser.

> A volunteer chair highlighted what theysaw to be a link between poor or lowengagement and feeling valued.

“I think we lack support and managementand I’m not sure how to improve it. I think

we need to engage with people. We are losing people because we are not engaging with them.After 6 months they say no one contacted me.They don’t feel respected or valued or theylose interest.” Volunteer Chair

> It would appear from the data thatwhile volunteers may feel valued in theirindividual relationships with theirimmediate manager, their relationships orengagement with senior managers may bequite different. The seeming contradictionbetween feeling trusted and not feeling

engaged was aptly captured by onevolunteer (talking about seniormanagement):

“No one for three to four years has contactedus…don’t seem to care or not…It would benice if there was a bit more appreciation. They give you the keys to lock up so they must trustyou.” Volunteer

> Consultation was reported by somevolunteers as being variable which sometimes

led to volunteer frustration. This was alsolinked to good engagement:> Many volunteers (4 out of 10) reported

that they would like more opportunities

to express their views. In the groupdiscussions, many volunteers reportednot really knowing or understanding therole of the volunteer council.

> Volunteer councils also expressed some

dissatisfaction at being consulted whenthings have already been decided. Widerconsultation was called for when makingdecisions on matters that affect volunteers,in particular when making commitmentsto deliver volunteer–run services. The needto involve people at the conceptualisationstage was prominent.

“I was on the volunteer council for five yearsand stopped as I had enough. I don’t thinkit does anything from my experience, exceptorganise two meetings per year. We were either

told what had already been decided or told itwas not our business. We had problemsand we felt that if we were not involved asa volunteer council in dealing with this, thenwhat are we for?” Volunteer

> Barriers to the transfer/flow of information –staff and volunteers felt that the free–flow ofinformation does not always happen readily:> Particularly related to services with large

numbers of volunteers, such as EFA,for example, the data suggests an

ineffectiveness of the cascade system insharing information. In these cases, staff aredependent on lead volunteers and have littlecontrol over what is disseminated to the




larger volunteer body as this quoteillustrates:

“I’m supposed to have 200 volunteers butI’m only allowed to communicate with 8 ofthem and those 8 people choose what theydisseminate out. Which is why I can’t get 7first aiders for a Saturday afternoon.”Staff member

> In some instances, volunteer leaderswere seen to act as gatekeepers to theirvolunteers. Staff and volunteers mentionedthe limitations of this volunteer model,clearly not working for some services andin need of some expansive thinking.

“A lot of leaders keep their group close to theirchest. Use them for their events. Transparencyis important in communicating direct to eachvolunteer. Cascade systems break down assoon as one person doesn’t pass on theinformation.” Staff member

“Leadership of volunteers who run groups isvery variable. First impressions can be crucialin volunteers deciding to stay or go. Poorleadership can result in losing volunteers.”Volunteer

> The centre structure was recognisedas essential for the co–ordination andsupport of volunteers (particularly in EFA),for passing on communication messages,keeping volunteers in the loop and feelingvalued as well as a route to training andsupport sessions. Hence, the data clearlyemphasises that good information mustflow right across the board and that thisis critically dependent on the relationshipsbetween staff and volunteer leaders. It alsodepends on having leaders who have good

communication skills and are working inalignment with staff.

> Dealing with inappropriate behaviour:> This was seen as a most challenging

and sensitive area by staff, especiallyregarding what to do when behaviour isless than ideal, as the following quotesillustrate:

“We are scared of managing volunteersbecause they have given up their free time

to be there. If they are behavinginappropriately we should not be scaredtosay to you are not fit for the role.”Staff member

“We are not tough enough with some poorbehaviour, really risky to the organisation.”Staff member

> Disciplinary procedures were reportedto be extremely time–consuming andbecause of this discouraging to staff topursue. Furthermore, nearly a third of allstaff (30%) agreed that the managementstructures at the Red Cross are notsupportive of staff who challengeinappropriate behaviour from volunteers.

> Some staff did note that things wereimproving where volunteering teams in theAreas were able to offer at least some levelof support (and a critical sounding board)

in carrying out CICs (Complaints, Issuesand Concerns) although more support inthis aspect would be appreciated.

“Volunteer managers are often quite unsureabout certain things and need more guidanceon things like de–selection.” Staff member

> Resistance to change was something both staffand volunteers noted as a huge obstacle tobuilding stronger teams and moving forwardtogether:>

Staff reported finding it very difficult tohandle problems that arise from negativeattitudes towards the changes thathappened a long time ago as well asinstigating changes to the way we dothings today.

“The problems I deal with stem fromorganisational changes 10 years ago… we haveso much going on, dealing with problems overa decade old and they have not been resolved.”Staff member

“We have some people who are doingfantastic work, I can’t say a negative wordabout what they are doing out there in the fieldbecause they are brilliant, but their attitude tothe organisation and changes within it aredetrimental to the organisation as a whole andthe lack of respect for management. When I’mtrying to instigate changes, and I’m fullysupportive of the changes that are coming,I get a huge amount of negative backlash andactual abuse. I’ve been vilified for bringing inchanges.” Staff member

> Some lead volunteers expressed concernabout not being allowed to do certain rolesthat they perceived to be the preserve of




staff. They felt there had been a growingdivide between staff and volunteer roles,resulting in them feeling pushed out.

“I loved doing the co–ordination ofvolunteers… I’d do the risk assessments,contacts. Nowadays I’m not allowed to doany of that – I’m not sure what my duty is.”Volunteer

Another volunteer reflected on this challenge:

“I can see both sides of it – I understand thefrustrations. The organisation is so big and wehave a duty of care, so have to know what is going on and who is doing what – it is a dif-ficult balance. I’m hoping the balance will get

better. These things take a long time.”Volunteer

> The current recognition and awards systemwas seen to place too much emphasis on lengthof service over and beyond the content andimpact of the individual’s contributions. Somestaff felt it needed reviewing:

“The system is geared up to support the oneswho have been here a long time….It is aboutsupporting those who have been here a long

time rather than being fresh and dynamic andmarketing towards the young generation, whoare our future.” Staff member

Improving practice

Areas for improving practice were identified asfollows:> Developing leadership and coaching skills for

staff and lead volunteers:> More than half of volunteer leaders (59%)

felt that for volunteer managers, leadershipand coaching skills were more importantthan supervisory and management skills.

“The more we take an employment typeapproach to managing volunteers, the lesssuccessful we are.” Operations Director

> Staff acknowledged that volunteers have awide range of different needs and desiresregarding development and that sometimesunpicking these required a certain skills

“There’s a skill in recognising the potentialin people, which I think is quite hard and

that’s about training us to listen and findout what makes them tick and they go ona journey.” Staff member

> Providing specific guidance and training forstaff and volunteers regarding support tovolunteers and relationship building:> Nearly half of all staff (43%) reported that

they would like more support in their roleof managing volunteers.

> Staff expressed a need for support in keyareas including: conflict management,managing culture change, dealing withinappropriate behaviour and de–selection,counselling skills (mentioned in retail inparticular as they take on a range ofindividuals with varying support needs).

> Developing a more explicit and supportedpathway to becoming a volunteer leader:

> Over a third of volunteers (34%) notcurrently leaders reported being interestedin becoming a leader in the future. Thisappetite increased with age.

> Staff and volunteers wanted clearvolunteer role descriptions, clear guidanceand expectations regarding roles with atransparent selection process for peopleinterested in the role, as well as propertraining, skills development and overallsupport.

“It’s about getting the right people to bethat person [volunteer leader] to supportand motivate people.” Staff member

> Almost half of volunteer leaders (49%)surveyed expressed an interest inundertaking a professionally accreditedtraining course in volunteer management.

> Greater engagement and involvement ofinterested volunteers in staff forums. Thereis demonstrable good practice in some Areas

regarding the engagement and involvement ofvolunteers in staff forums such as AreaManagement Teams (AMTs). The findingsfrom this study suggest that greaterinteraction between volunteers (who wishto do so) and staff (including those not directlymanaging or working with the volunteers) isdesirable and should become more of thenorm at the Red Cross, thereby contributingto a break down of perceived differencesand organisational preferences.




4.3.4 Ensuring accessible developmentopportunities for volunteers to learn anddevelop their skills

Staff and volunteers highlighted the importanceof having a range of development opportunitiesto suit individual volunteer and organisationalneeds and ensuring that these opportunities areaccessible to all volunteers who want andneed them.


> Training and skills development within the RedCross were seen to be very successful and wereperceived as a real benefit of volunteering atthe British Red Cross. The quality of training

was rated highly – 91% of volunteers reportedthat the training they have received has beenof good quality.

“Training springs to mind... that is somethingthe Red Cross is very hot on.” Volunteer

“Excellent training, fantastic trainers, passionate about their roles and teach ina fun way.” Volunteer

“I think we provide top rate training in

everything from presentation skills tofacilitation skills to first aid, obviously, andmanhandling. I think we’ve got amazingtraining on offer to be honest.” Staff member


The study identified three challenges in thistheme area:

>

Accessibility of training courses. Accessingtraining was not always possible, and this wasseen to be due to a number of factors. Forexample, the co–ordination/communicationof training taking place; a limited numbersof trainers (and a lack of trainer courses toincrease this pool); certain restrictions onrunning courses; and course timings not beingsuitable for some volunteers.

> A need for greater clarity on how to progressas a volunteer:> Nearly half of all responding volunteers

(49%) wanted more information on howto progress as a volunteer.

> Over half (54%) of volunteers agreed thatgaining accreditation through volunteeringwas important to them. Younger volunteersand volunteers in EFA and ER were mostlikely to feel this way.

> Staff also observed that a potential futurechallenge for the organisation lies in theincreasing need for specialist skills in our work

and from our volunteers and thinking aheadin terms of how we sustain and support that.What are the implications on supporting andmanaging these more specialised volunteers?




As the quote below stresses: “There is a trend ... that we are increasingly

needing a resource that is more knowledgeableand skilled than it used to be. ER competen-cies is an example of that. We used to just haveFirst Aiders, now we need people who havedeeper levels of first aid training and arguablyambulance skills. CQC will bring more skillrequirements. Care in the Home are talkingabout volunteers doing personal care whichwill mean some volunteers need to be skilledand regulated. Refugee services are, in somecases, looking at OISC level 1 in order to dothe casework. That level of competency thatwe now seek will bring other demands in howwe sustain and support that.” OperationsDirector.

Improving practice

Five main areas for improving practice werehighlighted:> Having a phased programme of volunteer

training with a route–map to illustrate to thevolunteer how they can progress:> Where training can be lengthy and complex

(e.g. EFA), some staff reported looking intosplitting this up into phases. For example,having a first step training to become asupport volunteer with all of the core

induction and basic first aid training. Thiswould also serve to reduce a worry thatsome volunteers are only coming for thetraining, by ensuring that they deliversomething before moving on.

“They can help at certain events and go tocentre meetings. But once they show they arecommitted they can ask to progress to beingan EFA volunteer.” Staff member

> Some volunteers were very keen on theidea of a training route–map which takes

volunteers through all of the differenttrainings. It would help to set expectationsand timelines of when you might progressto this or that training.

“With a route–map it also helps managevolunteer expectations. They know what theycan work towards and what they can’t gotowards, and that will give a lot of volunteerssatisfaction” Volunteer Leader

> Conducting an Area mapping exercise in

order to understand whether current trainingcapacity is meeting our organisational needs.Staff and volunteers suggested increasing thenumber of active volunteer trainers to have

available appropriate numbers of trainers tomatch demand. The use of APEL as onemeans through which to do this was cited.

> More innovative ways of planning,coordinating and marketing of courses tomaximise take–up across a wider (cross–county/Area) geography. Specificallymentioned was the need for forward planningwith a view to better co–ordination of trainingacross the services, counties and centres.

> Expanding and thinking about what gooddevelopment opportunities are and makingthem accessible and attractive. The datasuggests a need for the organisation toexpand its definition (and therefore offer) of

development opportunities to include morenon–training events and activities such asRed100.

> Focusing on specific areas of development.Specific training mentioned by some volun-teers as areas for their development includedcomputer/IT skills (especially for volunteerleaders), manual handling and customerservice skills for retail, and skills on how topart ways with beneficiaries for some serviceroles, particularly in the context of contracts

with termination dates.

4.3.5 Embracing diversity and creatingopportunities for engaging with a diverseworkforce

Quality volunteering means that the Red Crossdevelops the capability to cast its volunteering netas widely and inclusively as possible in order toensure that it is attracting, recruiting and retainingvolunteers from traditionally untappedcommunities/groups; and that within the context

of the Red Cross’ own requirements, it finds theright roles and provides the appropriate supportto suit differing volunteering styles, preferencesand needs.


The study identified three organisationalsuccesses:> A significant increase in young volunteers.

Nearly a fifth (19%) of Red Cross volunteersare aged between 15 and 25. This was notedto be due to recent successful campaigns and

initiatives.

> Recognition of the value of externalpartners in attracting volunteers and seizing




opportunities to diversify our volunteer baseas well as for fundraising and generaloutreach work. External partners includeschools, local community groups (e.g.surestart), adult learning groups etc. It was

noted that this does demand time to build upthe good partnership relationships:> Specific examples of successful work or

ideas included: – Fundraising – building relationships

with community groups particularly intimes of emergency appeals, to groups thatare linked to the area/ country where thedisaster is happening to empower them totake action on that specific appeal and infuture fundraising.

– CBFA – working in partnership toattract potentially vulnerable groups.

– Retail – one shop manager had anidea (that they were following up) to putposters up in Red Cross charity shops indifferent languages to reach out to localcommunities where relevant.

> The vast majority of volunteers (97%)reported that, on the whole, volunteerswere happy to work alongside a diverse groupof people and a significant proportion of staff(88%) agreed with this too (that volunteerswere happy to work alongside a diverse group

of people). The majority of volunteers andstaff also agreed that volunteers respect thefundamental principles in their behaviour(97% v 87%).


Staff and volunteers highlighted the followingissues as challenging:> Accommodating different types and needs

of volunteers and styles of volunteering:> Staff acknowledged the desirability of

being able to respond flexibly to differingvolunteering needs and capitalise on theopportunities these may present. However,staff also pointed out the challenges relatingto our internal culture and the shifts inattitude required to work in these flexibleand creative ways.

“Where people have different needs, amountsof time and reasons for volunteering, we needto see how we can deploy them to our

advantage as well as theirs.” Staff member

> Some staff highlighted that the face ofvolunteering is changing and that we needto adapt to the new world. For example,the British Red Cross need to find moreways of embracing short-term volunteeringopportunities, which benefit both thevolunteer and the Red Cross, rather thanbeing reluctant to take on prospective shortterm volunteers, for example, studentsbecause they may move quickly. This could

demand a particular type of creativity andflexibility (e.g. adapting roles to suit shorterterm opportunities) as well as a shift inattitude from the way the Red Cross hasworked in the past with a strong focus onthe long serving volunteer.

“If we’ve got student volunteers comingforward... for a limited time, it’s aboutmaking sure they go to the right service...we need to make sure they’re directed in away that is beneficial to us and them. We needto get something back from them or it’s not

worth our time.” Staff member

> Ensuring inclusive volunteering opportunitiesand training:> Nearly a quarter of volunteers (24%) and

over a third of staff (36%) agreed that thereare barriers to engaging volunteers from awide range of backgrounds.

> Some staff members reported not feelingequipped to find roles and provide thesupport that some volunteers might need.

“Sometimes it’s us that’s not equipped…we’ve got to be able to accommodate [people] in anappropriate way, and put them in the right




service with the right support and I think thatshould be totally feasible.” Staff member

> Capacity to support volunteers to recogniseinappropriate behaviour and address it, bothin working alongside other volunteers andwith our beneficiaries:> Examples were given of: an asylum seeker given a clothes voucher

to use in one of our retail shops and beingspoken to in a most derogatory manner bythe person at the shop; a transgendersurvey respondent feeling excluded fromsome teams, citing a need for a moreaccepting culture.

> Expanding our reach into groups new to

Red Cross. Not many areas or staff reportedspecifically looking to expand our reach intonew communities or different groups.Commenting on a seeming lack of drive toexpand our reach, one volunteer lead said, “…we rely on the same things we always have.”Perhaps this is, in part, due to the fact thatthese routes seem to work well and theperception that we don’t need to work hardto attract volunteers.

Improving practice

Three main areas of improvement werehighlighted:

> Heightened organisational recognition andcommunication to teams that different stylesof volunteering can meet our organisationalneeds. Also a greater encouragement of teamsto accommodate these accordingly, e.g.convergent or short–term volunteers.

> A clearer understanding of our diversityprofile and aims with regard to volunteers andbeneficiaries. Specifically, the data identifiesthe need to know where we are, as well whatwe are striving for, with regards to ourdiversity profile and overall agenda. Some ofthe pertinent questions raised in the study in-clude: are we tapping into need within a morediverse range of communities than we tradi-tionally have? Do we have a volunteer

or beneficiary base reflective of the diversityin local populations? Do we have the necessarystrategic direction and thinking with regard toexpanding reach, tapping into new ‘marketsof need’, staff and volunteer expertise?

> Recognition of the need to utilise targetedrecruitment methods (e.g. partnershipworking in diverse communities) and othermeans of expanding our reach; alsodrawing on the lessons learnt from oursuccessful campaign to increase the profile

of young volunteers at Red Cross.




4.3.6 Achieving consistency in ourstandards to enable quality volunteering

The data from this study indicates a needfor much greater consistency across ourvolunteering procedures and practice. Staff andvolunteers wanted flexibility within a frameworkof greater consistency; and a healthy balancebetween levels of autonomy in implementationand direction and expectations from management.


Areas in which the Red Cross was seen to havebeen successful include:> A welcome focus on volunteering in the

strategy (as strategic priority EP5). This wasrecognised by some staff as the first time

volunteering has been given this level ofstrategic prominence. This was appreciatedand there was an anticipation of positivedevelopments to come.

“I’m glad that EP5 has broughtvolunteering to the forefront, I’m pleasedwe are now discussing things and action willbe taken.” Staff member

> Continuing improvements in the provision ofclear guidance on how to support volunteers.

Substantial numbers of staff (61% of thosesurveyed) and volunteers (75%) agreed thatthey have had clear guidance on how to bestsupport volunteers.


Suggested challenging areas of focus include:> Inconsistent practices in certain aspects of

volunteering. Some of the key areas citedinclude the induction process, trainingrequirements and availability, working acrossservices, relationships between staff andvolunteer councils. e.g invitations to attend

AMTs and other team meetings are patchyand vary according to Area.

One member of staff gave their views: “Where we fall down is the inconsistency of

the induction. The materials are there but theability to deliver it in terms of resources, orsomeone to deliver it or how often we deliverit and how that’s co–ordinated. Inconsistencybetween services and across the area. It is notcentralised at all so different factors come into play.” Staff member

> Inconsistent volunteer support staffinginfrastructures:

> These structures were seen to beinconsistent across Areas both in terms ofwhat the Area volunteering teams do aswell as who they support. For example,not all staff have access to a volunteerrecruitment support officer (or equivalent).

> In addition, volunteer adviser roles androle descriptions varied with differentresponsibilities and priorities in differentAreas. Looking at what works best wassuggested and some staff felt that the morethe role can concentrate on one thing thebetter. The following comment illustratesvaried staffing arrangements:

“I worry about the staffing structure. One

minute you have this staff structure and thatis the same in every area and now it’s up toareas whether they have volunteer advisers ornot. Across the organisation, this whole tieris inconsistent... talking about volunteeringexcellence frameworks where some areasdon’t have volunteering advisers or supportmanagers... I think it’s an outrageous situationfor an organisation that calls itself avolunteering organisation to be in.”Volunteer Chair

>

Some fundraising and retail staff report thatthe volunteer team support in their Areasare restricted to the operational services,and not available for fundraising and retailstaff to draw upon.

> Clarity of minimum expectations andparameters for the implementation of EP5 atArea level to enable consistent application ofthe strategy across the Areas. Staff sometimesfelt there was some confusion with regard tothe implementation of EP5 workstreams,especially regarding minimum national

standards and expectations of Areas laidout by the national volunteering team.

“One of the good things that has come outof the new vol reps guidance is that there’sclear accountability. It’s clear what our roleis in supporting that and doing that. But inother ways it is blurred. Where we have to provide a resource to recruit retail andfundraising volunteers but we don’t haveany accountability or responsibility for them[due to matrix management structures]”

Operations Director

“In terms of the theory, we seem to be going inthe right direction. But the jury is out in terms




of how that develops into local practice. Ifthere is too much autonomy then you can takeit or leave it locally, we will have inconsistencyand it will go belly up.” Volunteer Chair

> A disconnect between policy and practice forsome Areas. While a lot of national initiativesmight be viewed as theoretically positive, theimplementation of these initiatives was notalways quick or easy, or in some cases,possible. Some volunteers expressed theirfrustration because of this disconnect:

“Area teams should not gazump nationalinstructions.” Volunteer

“I want to make an observation about

implementation. You get an edict from staffheadquarters saying the policy change will take place on a certain date. The Ops Director willsay I don’t have a budget to implement thischange. So there is slippage. The informationhas gone out to the volunteer base as quicklyas it has gone out to the Ops Director. So thevolunteers start asking where is my new kitetc. There is no sensible lead in arrangementfrom national headquarters.” Volunteer Chair.

> More clarity of national volunteering

infrastructure roles – 56% of staff agreedthat the difference between the role of the UKOffice volunteering team and the role of theArea or Territory volunteering teams are notclear. The following discussion illustrates thedegree of confusion even at more senior levelsof management:

“It does come back to accountability andresponsibility. And we need this in terms ofthe UKO vol team – what is their role? Isometimes get very confused as to what theyare there for. Then we have Territory vol

support roles – who are actually very usefulbecause they’re giving us that interpretationand advice linked to the policy [but noteverybody has those].” Operations Director #1

“The Volunteering department are a policybranch and not an executive branch in termsof making decisions about volunteeringoutcomes.” Operations Director #2

“….I’m not sure I have that clarity.”Operations Director #3

Improving practice

The focus for practice improvement revolvedaround three main themes:

> Introducing clear, standard, generic trainingand knowledge for all volunteers. Staffwanted a clear steer on a core set of trainingrequirements for volunteers and competenciesonto which specialist skills could be addedas required. Over three–quarters (78%) ofsurveyed volunteers agreed that they shouldbe trained in common core skills and onlyundertake extra training when it is needed fortheir specific role:

“…we need a broader generic to say this iswhat a RC volunteer looks like and these arethe things they can do. We used to have thisages ago. And then if you want to dospecialist refugee work then you can trainin that.” Operations Director

“It would change that culture of a volunteerwho can never make the induction if you can’tmove forward until you’ve done it... theemphasis has always been on getting theservice training done for them to deliver theservice. It has improved but that’s part of thekey.” Staff member

> Provision of clear national direction regardingthe definitions, parameters and minimumexpectations of the areas in EP5 based on

sound consultation. Staff wanted a clearsteer with regard to their roles in theimplementation of EP5 workstreams. Somecalled for more clarity around key practiceguidelines such as the measurement ofrecruitment targets, selection criteria forvolunteers, minimum training competencies,




and standards for building and maintainingeffective support systems for volunteers.

> Provision of clear definitions of roles atall levels regarding responsibility andaccountability. The data from both focusgroups and the survey indicate the need toreview definitions and communicationaround these, particularly with roles.

The enablers of quality

volunteering at British Red

Cross

The research also identified certain factors that

staff and volunteers felt were critical in theprocess of enabling quality volunteering. We’vetermed these the enablers of quality volunteering.

To recap, the three enabler elements are:1. An accurate and up to date volunteer

knowledge base2. Appropriate resourcing3. Creating more and better ways of sharing


Further detail on each of these enabler elementsis provided below.

4.3.7 Having an accurate and up to datevolunteer knowledge base

Knowing who our volunteers are, as well asinformation on their skills and interests so wecan match these against the Red Cross’ centralpurpose to provide support to people in crisis, iscritical in enabling the many initiatives outlinedin this report.


Success areas identified were:> A recognition of the need for accurate

data which needs urgent attention. Staff andvolunteers were fully aware of the importance/necessity of having good information on ourvolunteers.

> A recognition of the potential of PeopleSoftas a technology and the need to optimise itsuse within the Red Cross.

Challenges

A number of challenges were identified aroundthis theme:

> A patchy knowledge of our true volunteernumbers:> Fundamental for moving forward is the

need to clean up our volunteer numbers.Staff in some services reported having lots

of volunteers on the books but not reallyknowing which ones were active.

“We have so many volunteers on paperwhich doesn’t mean anything because weneed willing, active, trained volunteers.”

Staff member

“I think the organisation is petrified of losingnumbers of volunteers but if someone’s notreally doing anything then… they’re not reallya volunteer.” Staff member

> Volunteers drifting away. Staff reportedthat too often they don’t know whenvolunteers leave.

“Biggest problem is that around 50% of thetime we don’t even know if a volunteer’s left.Often they just seem to disappear.”Staff member

But as another staff member acknowledged,that’s because “we’re not keeping an eye on

them to ask if there’s any reason why you’renot coming.” Staff member

> Our survey sample for this study wasdrawn from the PeopleSoft database. 25%of responding volunteers in our achievedsample had stopped volunteering (and someof these had left more than 11 years ago).Two deceased people were also identifiedout of the initial sample of 3000.

> Using PeopleSoft to full potential. There wasan acknowledgement from a number of staff

that PeopleSoft is a good tool. However, staffreported some frustration because it was feltthat PeopleSoft is not used at all to its fullcapacity or potential (at a national level).One member of staff noted:

“There is a disconnect between people incharge of the database and operational useof data on volunteers.” Staff member

In another respondent’s words:

“It feels like we have this fantastic car parkedon the driveway. We have the keys but wedon’t know how to drive it!” Staff member




> Adopting an effective and efficient system forupdating the database in order to maintain anaccurate picture. Having centralised updatedinformation in a timely manner presented areal challenge to staff. In extreme cases, staffrecounted very difficult situations when theyhad attempted to contact people only to betold they had died. Frustrations with dataaccuracy can result in some staff resorting tobuild their own databases in an attempt tomaintain semi–accurate local data capturedin this quote:

“People have their own databases, and none ofus should have databases really… the problemis that you end up inputting information fromone database to another database. You’re

creating databases of databases, when we dohave access to PeopleSoft.” Staff member

Improving practice

Five opportunities for practice developmentwere noted:> Identifying responsibility and accountability

for maintaining the database. Assigningresponsibility/accountability for oversightof this work emerged as a real need. Somestaff and volunteers suggested this could beachievable working in partnership with

volunteer councils. It was noted that thispractice is occurring in some areas and thepractice needs to spread.

> Engaging volunteers and volunteer councilsin the specific role of helping keep track ofour volunteer numbers and gaining a betterunderstanding of reasons for retention andattrition through collecting volunteers’views. This was also reported as alreadyhappening in some Areas.

> Introducing a workable mechanism for

keeping in touch with leavers and leaving thedoor open for them to return whenever theychoose:> As noted previously, in our recent survey of

leavers, nearly two thirds (64%) of formerRed Cross volunteers said that they wouldconsider volunteering for the Red Cross atsome point in the future. What is needed isa method for their easy re–engagement ifand when they choose to do so.

> In addition, facilitating volunteers to easily

transfer between Areas if they are movingout of the Area was something mentionedby both staff and volunteers as somethingto develop as standard. 12% of former

volunteers surveyed reported that theystopped volunteering because they hadmoved out of the Area.

“I think we need to look into that. People arenot encouraged to stay in the Red Cross whileat university. It’s silly to shut the door on aRed Cross member because they have movedaway from home.” Volunteer.

> Enabling the effective use of PeopleSoft.Staff and volunteers expressed the need toenhance staff capacity and technical skillsat the national level to maximise the use of allthe features of this software in order torespond more effectively and efficiently tothe organisation’s demands of it.6 It was also

suggested that the greater the accuracy ofdata generated by the system, the greater theconfidence levels of staff and volunteers to useand own both the data as well as the system.

> The provision of regular standard PeopleSoftdata on volunteers to all the Areas to enablea better understanding of our volunteer baseand encourage wider use of this informationboth operationally and strategically (i.e. sentout centrally every month/ quarter to volunteeradvisers):>

This would alleviate concerns that Areasare not getting the same information towork and plan from. Everybody isseemingly scrambling around for the samethings, hence ordering and sending thekey information out centrally would savecapacity in this task. Requests for data oncurrent volunteers as well as joiners andleavers related to our strategic prioritiesand measurement targets – there’s a needto know what Areas are being measuredon and for them to have access to thatdata where it is available.

> This work could be done in conjunctionwith the Geographical InformationSystems team who have already done

6 While different in nature BTCV have a database/ online Management

Information system that records, in real time, volunteering activity the

length and breadth of the UK – over their range of geographically

dispersed projects. Paper available at http://www.ivr.org.uk/NR/

rdonlyres/D218CE98–0A49–41BD–B8C4–20B681120430/0/

MilesSibleyFrombeancountingtobehaviouranalysis.pdf

BTCV claim towards the end of this short paper that what sets their

tool apart from others is the emphasis on activity. While thousands of

volunteer records lie dormant for much of the time, when a volunteer

does something the system records it and then correlates it with the

previous volunteering activity of that person. So they can see at any time:

> How many volunteers are “out with us” (i.e. active on projects)> Who they are (socio–economic data)

> Where they are (locations change daily)

> What they are doing (fluctuations in work type)




some volunteer profiling and made Areabreakdowns available online at http://gisdata/volunteer.html

4.3.8 Appropriate resourcing

Resourcing emerged as another powerfulenabler of quality volunteering at the Red Cross.Volunteers and staff alike acknowledged the needfor proper resourcing in line with addressing themany challenges highlighted and growing areas ofgood practice. As one participant put it:

“It’s not just guidance that we need, it’smaking sure that it [volunteering] is resourced.You can have all the guidance in the world but

actually unless it’s resourced… there needs tobe an infrastructure.” Operations Director


A key area of good practice was identified underthe resourcing theme as:> The extra capacity made available through

the Area volunteering teams. Some Areas havevolunteer support staff that focus on recruitingvolunteers. Many service staff who workclosely with these teams find them to beextremely valuable in providing the capacity

and focused resource for recruitment activity.Staff stressed that recruitment was often verytime–consuming and that more support in thisregard would bring greater efficiencies to theentire process. In addition, as mentioned

previously, the extra support provided bywthe Area volunteering teams in dealing withinappropriate behaviour and CICs was seenas very helpful.


Two important challenges were identified bystaff and volunteers.> Staff capacity. Staff reported that limited

capacity meant that they were limited in thedegree to which they could plan for, reflectand engage with volunteers: > For many staff their focus was on

keeping the business running rather thanstrategically planning for the provision ofvolunteer support to meet real andanticipated beneficiary needs; or indeed

providing the type of volunteer supportrequired to enhance the volunteeringexperience for volunteers.

> It is worth noting that 72% of staffreported not having enough volunteersto carry out their work effectively.

> Some staff called for guidance on our

standards for supporting volunteers,including volunteer:staff ratios. Bespokesupport was considered not possible for

some service support models. Particularlyfor staff with lots of volunteers on theirbooks. So what do we want regarding ourstandards of supporting volunteers in suchinstances and what is a reasonable numberof volunteers to support (for a certain levelof activity)? In the words of oneparticipant:

“People need to be given the time to do what’snecessary if we are to use volunteers, otherwiseit becomes a bit of an annoyance and a bolt– on, which isn’t how it should be. It’s a capacity

question.” Staff member

> Resourcing volunteer leaders. Significantnumbers of staff and volunteers alike felt

the resourcing of volunteer leads needs tobe increased. In addition, over a quarter ofvolunteer leaders (29%) and a fifth of staff(20%) felt that the organisation does notcommit adequate resources to supportingvolunteering:

“Volunteer chairs… we have huge expectations

on what they do and we send them 600 emailsa week but we don’t actually provide themwith laptops. It’s just nonsense.” OperationsDirector.








Improving practice

Three main areas through which to improvepractice were identified:> Effective deployment of volunteers to fill staff

capacity gaps. Where appropriate, it was felt

that volunteers could be used more effectivelyand more widely (beyond their specificservices) as previously discussed. An examplewas given of volunteers in one Territory whofelt frustrated by:

“…the lack of admin resources … so the officeclosed – yet volunteers have previously offeredto help out.” Volunteer

> Increasing the number of volunteer leadersand equipping them with resource, supportand training. As previously discussed, staff

and volunteers highlighted the need to createopportunities to enable more volunteers tobecome leaders and to support them withthe necessary resources to help realiseorganisational goals, working ininnovative ways.

> A review of resource allocation to enablesustainable quality volunteering:> Some staff were interested to see the

organisation develop an enhancedunderstanding of how much money goes

into supporting volunteering – that is, theamount of resource/ support against thenumber of volunteers by Area. Thefollowing quote illustrates:

“There’s an interesting equation there interms of the amount of resource in the Areaagainst the number of volunteers we’ve got(agreement). In my case I have a VA full time,14 hours of admin support for that VA and 10hours of membership training provided. Andif this SIF bid goes through I might have aservice co–ordinator I need to work out howI’m going to use. Look at the number ofvolunteers we’ve got and how much thatworks out at in terms of pounds and pence.”Operations Director

> A volunteer costing project in Yorkshirewas recently carried out to explore all ofthe costs associates with bringingvolunteers on board. This included the

costs of induction and initial training,materials and uniform (where relevant),and other associated costs and wasbroken down for each service in that Area.The analysis also looked at the first yearcosts versus second and subsequent yearcosts. For further information contactTanya Greenwell ([email protected]).

4.3.9 Creating more and better ways

of sharing learning and good practicerelating to volunteering

Throughout this study the data has revealedinnovative and good practice occurring in someAreas and in pockets throughout the organisation.In many focus groups staff, volunteers andbeneficiaries spoke directly about their learningfrom interacting with colleagues. Providing astructured way through which volunteeringstakeholders are able to share the many goodpractices identified in the survey is an importantenabler of the goal of quality volunteering at the

Red Cross.

Improving practice

Two very specific ways of improving practice inthis regard are identified:> Providing a structured way of being able to

share learning related to volunteering – thiscould be formal or informal – but structuredforums are needed for this to occur. As onevolunteer adviser put it:

“...that would be really good, if all co–

ordinators got together and started talkingabout how they cope with managingvolunteers, and what issues come out, because probably there’s a lot of common things and it

mailto:[email protected]







would be of good benefit to do something likethat. Sharing good practice, yes, definitely.”

> Mapping the current opportunities for thistype of sharing and creating new avenues forstaff and volunteers. This was seen as a wayto build on existing working structures forsharing learning and creating newopportunities where these do not exist.

4.3.10 Towards achieving greater qualityvolunteering: where we are according tovolunteers and staff…

An objective of this study was to identify thosefeatures that would enable us to track our

ongoing journey towards the goal of qualityvolunteering at the Red Cross. To do this it wasnecessary to establish how the Red Cross fares,according to volunteers and staff, on each of

these features, thereby establishing a baselineagainst which we may want to track ourprogress subsequently.> We took each of the identified elements of

volunteering, plotted the mean responses (outof a possible maximum of 5) on a radar chartto illustrate where the Red Cross currentlyfeatures on this scale. As can be seen from Fig7, ‘embracing diversity’ appears to be the areaof greatest achievement amongst respondents,& ‘consistency in our standards’ the lowest.

> Staff and volunteers do not differ appreciably.Generally, volunteers are more optimistic intheir scoring of the Red Cross’ performancein all categories apart from ‘flexibledeployment of volunteers’ where staff

perceptions of our achievement in this areaexceed those of volunteers.

FIGURE 7 QUALITY VOLUNTEERING AT THE BRITISH RED CROSS (SURVEY RESPONSES)

Responses to statements categorised as features of quality volunteering, displayed as a mean of 1–5

with 5 being strongly agree. Only 7 of the 9 elements have quantifiable data and are therefore included

in the diagram. Based on achieved samples of 344 current volunteers and 159 staff.

1

2

3

4

5

1. Recruiting, retaining

& integrating volunteers

2. Flexible deployment

of volunteers

7. Appropriate

resourcing

3. Building supportive

relationships

6. Achieving

consistency

4. Accessible development

opportunities

5. Embracing diversity

Staff

Volunteer




Seven organisational case studieswere reviewed as part of this study:Macmillan, Home–Start Nottingham,Cancer Research UK, Volunteer Centre

Broxtowe, Marie Curie, Crisis and WWF. Asummary of their key successes, challenges andtheir perspectives on future development ispresented individually below.

Macmillan

Macmillan Cancer Support works to improvethe lives of people affected by cancer byproviding practical, medical and financial supportand pushing for better cancer care. They haveapproximately 15,000 volunteers and 3,000staff members. The following information wasgathered via a telephone interview with withKaren Smith, Volunteering Adviser – EastMidlands & Northern England.

Top 3 successes

> A good structure in place. It’s becoming more

important to offer a professional volunteerexperience, so having a structure for this isnecessary.

5 Case studies of external practice:What are other organisations doing?




> Attractive roles on offer. Recruitment issuccessful in that there’s lots of interest inthe roles on offer so attracting volunteers iseasy (particularly for intern positions – seedevelopments below).

> Building good teams (of staff and volunteers).Very good and important to make volunteersfeel part of the team and not an “add on”.Macmillan do this through involvingvolunteers in the development of projects(from the pilot stages), ensuring volunteerssit on steering groups and are able toinfluence policy. Also training is mixed – staffand volunteers being trained at the same time.Integrating staff and volunteers (as much aspossible) has been recognised as important to

the organisation in achieving their goals – toenable Macmillan to reach the number ofpeople with cancer.

Top 3 challenges

> Providing a bespoke approach. Understandinghow to make things work for everyone –recognising that one size doesn’t fit all but thatit’s not possible to offer a completely bespokeapproach to all volunteers. So how to createthat quality experience is a challenge.

>

Satisfying all volunteer wants. Volunteers seemto be wanting more, e.g. training and gettingsomething out of their volunteering.Macmillan acknowledging and recognising thechallenge to ensure they are able to deliver thatfor volunteers.

> Training logistics. Accessibility e.g. in differentparts of the country. Lots of training happensin central London and certain courses go to theregions where needed but otherwise this is alittle ad–hoc and means that volunteers mighthave to travel for training.

Developments working towards

> Expanding Macmillan’s work. Looking at whatMacmillan does and where they can involvevolunteers more, i.e. recruiting more and morevolunteers to do the extra things they want todo as traditionally volunteers have been moreinvolved in admin and fundraising roles.

> Developing more of a role in service delivery.

Looking to expand Macmillan’s servicedelivery roles (currently do this but in

partnership with other organisations who offerthe service delivery element). If this is to entailoffering more services out in the communitythen there is potential to involve volunteers in

e.g. buddying and befriending and practicalsupport roles.

> Expanding the popular intern scheme. Theintern scheme is very popular and so lookingto expand on this and make it more inclusive.Ensuring this is not just targeting universitygraduates but could attract people looking fora career change or people looking to returnto work.

> Flexible volunteering. Looking at moreflexibility of volunteer roles (as with staff),e.g. developing roles that can be doneworking from home

> Motivation for specific volunteer groups.

Exploring how to keep volunteers motivatedin some of the more difficult roles such asthose that are more distant or more ad–hoc.

> Developing senior volunteer roles. Looking atwhat more can be done on the developmentside for volunteers who have been with theorganisation a long time, e.g. more seniorroles or slightly more “involved” roles.

Home–Start Nottingham

Home–Start UK works to help increase theconfidence and independence of families byvisiting families in their own homes to offersupport, friendship and practical assistance.Last year 16,000 volunteers helped families copewith post–natal illness, isolation, bereavement,disability and domestic violence. An interviewwas carried out with the Home-Start Nottinghamscheme manager, working with approximately100 local volunteers.

Top 4 successes

> Quality of support. The level of supportvolunteers receive is very high and very goodquality. The average length of time a volunteerstays is currently about 5 years. Guidance fromHome–Start UK on the number of volunteers afull time staff member can support effectivelyis 20 to 30.

> Good communication between volunteers

and their service co–ordinator. Volunteers areassigned a named co–ordinator which workswell as they are generally very good at keeping

in touch with their co–ordinator forsupervisions and phone calls. If a co–ordinatorcan’t get hold of a volunteer within 3 weeksthen they do write to them as they need to




know what’s going on with their family.Volunteers also all have the home phonenumbers of all staff in case of an emergency.Volunteers receive a newsletter 3 times a yearand any other mailings if there are specificupdates to tell them (e.g. the recentredundancies). They are looking to moveto more email communication in the futurebut will keep all of the other communicationroutes (not replace them).

> Careful, honest recruitment and interviewprocess. Home-Start Nottingham are lookingfor compatibility and commitment from thevolunteer to offer what is needed. Volunteersdo need to be parents themselves or haveparenting experience, and it is important to

match volunteers to families. Volunteers oftenneed to go into some potentially difficultsituations with children in families where thereare signs of neglect and domestic violence.They need to make sure the volunteers areright and ready for that and can show the levelof understanding needed. This is done througha very intense and frank interview processwhich makes the person think about theimplications of working in this way whichenables a degree of reflection and hence,self–selection. This means Home–Start

Nottingham doesn’t really end up having toturn a lot of people away. When they do turn

people away, they can signpost or sometimessay that the position is perhaps not right forthe individual at the moment (and recommendthat they come back at a future date). Theyalso emphasise that a one year commitmentafter the training is minimum. This is done totry to sift out volunteers who are just lookingto do it for their purposes or for the training(e.g. some students).

> Setting expectations. Volunteers know whatthey have signed up to through the volunteeragreement and also careful explanation ofthis throughout the training. Volunteers mustcomplete the Preparation as well as keep adiary of activities for Monitoring andEvaluation purposes. Confidentiality is core

to the service and needs to be understood byboth the families and volunteers.

Top 2 challenges

> Diversity. The Nottingham scheme currentlyhas 6 men out of 100 which is consideredencouraging while noted as a challenge.Representation from BME groups wasreported as particularly low and they havetried to look into this in the past. While themajority of families being supported inNottingham are predominantly White

British, some referrals are coming throughfor families of different backgrounds.




> Bringing volunteers together. They don’talways get a very good turnout when they tryto do this – e.g. for social events or for peersupport or for training. They often don’t getmore than 20% turnout which can feelfrustrating. When questioned, volunteers’reasons are that they’re not looking for socialcontact through their volunteering or that theyare too busy and don’t have the time.Periodically they do canvass volunteers tosee if there’s anything they’re not getting.


> More training opportunities:> Opportunities for volunteers to do extra

training and get accreditation (e.g. NVQlevel 2 for the crèche they have in drop in

sessions – there was interest fromvolunteers in this).

> Opportunities for e–learning

> Ongoing training opportunities – just madean annual safeguarding course mandatoryas everyone needs to be on top of that, alsofurther training in mental health etc.

> They want to form a pool of volunteers whocan step in for certain tasks, e.g. supporting

people to use the internet, groups of volunteersto go round cleaning up houses that need it:the rubber glove brigade.

Volunteer Centre Broxtowe

Volunteer Centre Broxtowe is all aboutvolunteers. They have some opportunitiesworking directly for the centre as officevolunteers and also put people in touch withmany local organisations who are looking forvolunteers to help them. In this infrastructure

role, supporting other local volunteer involvingorganisations, they carry out interviews andplace volunteers in organisations across theborough. They get a lot of referrals via theirextensive networking and have experienced a46% rise in the numbers of volunteers comingforward this year. They currently host 27 officebased volunteers in a variety of reception,administrative and project based roles. Aninterview was carried out with the ChiefOfficer of the Centre.

Top 4 successes> One to one support. The Centre has one

person who is responsible for all of their officevolunteers which works very well. This is built

in and volunteers know who they can turnto for support, that person looks after thevolunteers and does things such as theirappraisals etc.

> Specialist programmes for volunteers whoneed a little more support: > High proportions of people enquiring

about volunteering in Broxtowe don’t haveEnglish as their first language (a total of277 last year) so the volunteer centre gotsome European Social Fund money to pilotsome ESOL classes for 2 groups:

– Speakers of other languages who don’tspeak English very well at all in order toget them ready to place in a volunteer role

– Speakers of other languages who are

highly skilled (alongside their volunteerrole) in order to get them prepared for e.g.interviews and the workplace culture theywill encounter

> They run 2 job clubs working withunemployed volunteers.

> They also run a programme to ensurepeople with learning difficulties and mentalhealth issues get the extra support theyneed to enable them to volunteer. They

have received some funding from the Deptof Health to employ 1 worker to spendmore time with this group of volunteersand also have a counsellor (volunteer)supporting this programme.

> Empowering people to move on. Success forthe Volunteer Centre at Broxtowe is whenvolunteers do move on and for example, findpaid work. This might mean they stopvolunteering, but that is also a successfuloutcome for their volunteering. “That’s whatwe’re here for – enabling people to move on”.

CEO, Volunteer Centre Broxtowe

> Tracking volunteers and measuring impact. As part of their role providing a service placingvolunteers in other organisations, they try tokeep in touch with volunteers who they placeand track to see if they’ve taken up theplacement (after a few weeks), how they aredoing (after 12 weeks), what they thought ofthe service from Broxtowe Volunteer Centre(after 6 months) and any impact thevolunteering has had (after 12 months). As

well as providing them with vital informationfor their funders and to develop their services,volunteers seem to appreciate the follow up.




Top 2 challenges

> Recognising the differences betweenvolunteers and paid staff. When workingwith volunteers you do have to acknowledgeand take a different line to working with paidstaff as well as ensure that you’re always onestep ahead in working out the issues that mightarise. In addition, when you work with paidstaff you know they’re going to be there, whenyou work with volunteers you don’t and that’ssomething you have to work around.

> Funding. The Volunteer Centre is veryfrustrated at the lack of acknowledgementthat volunteering requires investment andcosts money. At the national level there’s a lotof talk from David Cameron about the Big

Society and volunteering but there’s not muchfunding coming through for volunteering toallow things to happen. Volunteering isnot free.


> Developing more sensitive in–houseplacements. They want the Volunteer Centreto act as a supported springboard for some ofthe perhaps more vulnerable volunteers to startwith and then move onto another placementwhen they are ready. The Centre ethos is that

they are here to help as many people tovolunteer as they can and some volunteers aredifficult to place outside. Therefore volunteerscan gain skills and confidence at the centre andthen move on elsewhere.

> Developing a pool of volunteers for one–offevents. The Volunteer Centre often gets askedby organisations for volunteers for one offevents and so they are starting to ask this atthe interview stage in order to build up a bankof people they can draw upon for this.

> Increasing the use of email. Trying to get moredone via email and send the newsletter out byemail as this will cut costs. They don’t wantto eliminate paper copies but there might be avery small charge associated for those that stillwant a paper copy of the newsletter.

Marie Curie

Marie Curie Cancer Care provides end of lifecare to terminally ill patients in their own homes,

or in one of their nine hospices. They haveapproximately 7,500 registered volunteers andup to another 20,000 occasional volunteers whoare in more ad–hoc (i.e. collections) roles. The

registered volunteers work in shops, hospices,office and outreach/ ambassador roles. Aninterview was carried out with one of theirRegional Volunteering Managers.

Top 3 successes

> Standardising processes. The organisationhas recently developed a new structure forvolunteering and created a centralvolunteering team with 4 Regional VolunteerManagers who support staff in their roles ofsupporting volunteers. This has enabled lotsof the processes (e.g. for recruitment andinduction) to become more standardised – sogetting volunteers on board is working well.While it’s still patchy and very dependent onthe departments and individual managers it’s

also still very early days.

> Volunteer appreciation. This is important andworks well through their communications andensuring volunteers are recognised in internalnews letters etc. Managers are hosting eventsfor volunteer week – this year it has beencalled The Big Thank You. They also haveformal awards for volunteers to recognise goodwork, for which they get a couple of hundrednominations each year (from managers andpatients) recommending volunteers. Different

awards for individuals, teams, innovation etc.The categories are revised every year torecognise the great variety of volunteersthey have.




> Volunteering is at the heart of businessplanning. It’s always been there but it’snever been so prominent before. There’s aDirector of Volunteering who sits on theexecutive board which enables that voice forvolunteering right at the top. In terms ofhow this plays out on the ground, departmentsall have volunteering objectives in their reviewsand it’s a required question in the annual plans– regarding what departments are doing andhow they are developing volunteering. As aconsequence, volunteering feels very built intoeveryone’s plans and objectives. With the newvolunteering department, it’s also becomingmuch more prominent across the organisationwith, for example, a lot more posts relatedto volunteering on the intranet, e.g. new

policies and practices, myth busters (a mythof the week) intending to educate staff andmanagers on some of the common mythssurrounding volunteer recruitment,limitations etc.

Top 4 challenges

> Culture of working with volunteers. Somestaff are not necessarily used to working withvolunteers and so they have to learn from thestart, for example, about the importance ofsaying hello. Getting everyone on board with

the culture of working with volunteers iscritical.

> Introducing more flexible and short–termvolunteering opportunities. The way peoplevolunteer is changing from how it used to be.Organisations need to accept volunteers withdifferent skills, and even if they can only comein for 3 months we might be able to get a hugeamount out of them in that 3 months so it’sabout recognising it’s worth it! The challengelies in changing perceptions of staff who mightthink the recruitment effort is too much to just

take someone on for a short time. Some ofthe changes Marie Curie has seen in the newvolunteers coming forward include: more men(perhaps unemployed or having just been maderedundant but still wanting to do something);more job seekers (a way to get experience);and more referrals from social workdepartments (people with mental healthissues looking for skills development).

> Legislation and other necessary requirements,e.g. insurance. This can be seen as red tape but

these things are required and it’s making surethat, for example, drivers are covered for theirvolunteering etc. It’s not always easy to fathomit all out but we have to be on top of it.

> Keeping good tracking information onvolunteers. This is a challenge due tohaving different databases that don’t talk toeach other. Work is in progress to improvethis (see below).


> Standardising things across the charity.Bringing shops and fundraising into thenew structure. Still being in the change period,the initial focus was on the hospices, there’snow a need to get all of the processes andinfrastructure in place across the organisationso to work with the shops and fundraising –supporting their recruitment, induction andother processes (although the need isrecognised as perhaps not so great in the

shops as they do have structures in place).

> Trialling volunteer team leaders. To supportstaff in taking on a volunteer co–ordinationrole, particularly in hospices where the wardstaff might need support in the day to dayvolunteer co–ordination work, but staff stillact as the volunteer’s line manager.

> Developing the database. Marie Curiecurrently use Care database but have justbuilt their own bespoke component to cope

with the fluid nature and timeline of volunteerrecruitment and allow for the tracking theyrequire in this process (they felt that a lot ofthe HR databases don’t have the capacity todeal with some of the things they wanted).

> The intern programme. This is beingdeveloped, largely office based roles expandinginto marketing, finance and other areas.

> Rolling out the Marie Curie more advancedvolunteer helper role. The pilot project forthis has just come to and end and that’s been

well–received by both volunteers andpatients so they will be gradually rollingthis out more. This will mean a targetedrecruitment campaign. This requires moretraining (over several weeks) than othervolunteer roles as the volunteer is going intopeople’s homes so a much more rigorousrecruitment process, taster sessions andselection also happens after training to ensurethe right people are in these critical roles andthe expectations of the work are clear tothe volunteer.

> More generally, there’s a desire to make thingseasier for everyone (staff and volunteers). Forexample, for volunteers to get started,




cutting down the time it takes for volunteersto come on board. This can take from 3 weeks(usually roles that don’t need external checks)to as long as 9 months (current disclosures inScotland are taking a long time to come backand they’re still awaiting some from January).Depending on the role volunteers cansometimes start doing non–patient basedactivity but not always.

Crisis

Crisis is the national charity for single homelesspeople, dedicated to ending homelessness bydelivering life–changing services and campaigningfor change. Over 10,000 volunteers are involved

in Crisis every year, to help deliver services,campaign, fundraise, provide administrative andIT support, and in their Christmas Crisis Centres.The Institute for Volunteering Research carriedout a research study in 2008 to evaluate what thevolunteering programme is currently achievingand how it can move forward in the future. Thishelped Crisis to inform the development of avolunteering strategy in late 2009. These are someof the key successes and challenges highlightedfrom the report.

Top 3 successes> Processes and procedures in place. Over thelast few years, the volunteering programmehas adopted a more formal and structuredapproach to involving and supportingvolunteers. It has now in place a series ofprocedures and processes for volunteers whichwould be viewed as “good practice”, includingan application and interview procedure, avolunteer policy, volunteer agreements, roledescriptions, induction, training andaccreditation opportunities and a supervisionand support structure for volunteers.

> Volunteers feel supported and valued. Overallvolunteers feel supported by the organisationand the well–developed support structure.Three quarters of year round volunteersreported feeling well supported (75%) and80% of Christmas Crisis volunteers reportedthis. Volunteers generally felt valued andthanked appropriately for the contributionthey made. Note however that there wassignificant variation in the views of volunteersaccording to their role and between centres.

> Induction session contributing to feelingwell informed. Volunteers who felt very wellinformed were three times more likely tohave attended an induction session.

Top 3 challenges and recommendations for

further developments

> Achieving consistency of support forvolunteers. The research recommended a needto move towards a more consistent level ofsupport for all volunteers by raising awarenessof the importance of effective management andsupport for volunteers amongst staff, improveaccess to training in working with volunteersand increase the sharing of good practice involunteer management between departments,teams and Crisis Christmas Centres.

> Enhancing opportunities for volunteersto influence development and improvingcommunication with volunteers. Anotherrecommendation highlighted improving

communication channels between staff andvolunteers to ensure they are involved in,and informed of, issues and changes in theorganisation. Improve the mechanisms forvolunteers to feed in their ideas for thedevelopment of services and wider activities,as well as for feeding back their experiencesof volunteering.

> Developing progression routes for volunteers

(particularly for clients who volunteer) andimproving the ‘post volunteering experience’

(particularly for Christmas Crisis volunteers). Providing further support to volunteers, inparticular clients who volunteer, would helpthem develop and progress through theirvolunteering. This includes providing themwith opportunities to reflect on theirvolunteering experiences. Explore ways ofkeeping Crisis Christmas volunteers engagedwith Crisis and homelessness issues throughregular e–newsletters and volunteer days.

The review also highlighted some broaderstrategic considerations:

> Exploring the possibility of moving moretowards an engagement model ofvolunteering. Crisis currently operates amix of different models and approaches tovolunteering. In one way, volunteers arehelping to deliver and support Crisis’ workwith homeless people and volunteering can beseen as a means to an end in the delivery ofservices. In another, volunteering is a meansthrough which individuals and communitiescan be empowered and engaged; here,volunteering can be seen as an end in itself.

Currently, there is an emphasis within Crisison the former, although the latter is recognisedas important.




> Exploring opportunities to meet the widercommitment to raising awareness abouthomelessness amongst the general public. There is a tension within Crisis between itsimpressive ability to recruit volunteers andthe consequent demand for the limitednumber of opportunities available. Theorganisation is looking to engage volunteersin ‘new roles with new responsibilities’ andthis initiative will be key to developing thevolunteering programme and a deeper levelof engagement with volunteers andsupporters. This work could be undertakenin partnership with others, through involvingvolunteers across organisations andestablishing a ‘community’ of homelessnessvolunteers. Such an approach could play a

potentially vital role in helping Crisis andother organisations meet their widercommitment to raising awareness abouthomelessness amongst the general public.

The Wildlife Trusts

The Wildlife Trusts are a network of 47 localconservation trusts, supported by an umbrellaoffice. Over 32,300 volunteers are involved inundertaking a wide variety of activities. In seeking

to develop their volunteering The Wildlife Trustsdecided to implement and deliver Unlocking the Potential, a three year volunteering developmentprogramme. Some details of the highlights froman evaluation of the programme, published in2006 by the Institute of Volunteering Research,are noted below.

Key challenges (identified before the developmentprogramme and research)> At the time, there was no central resource to

support individual Trusts in the developmentof volunteering

> The quality of experience for volunteerswas inconsistent

> Many Trusts were struggling to recruitvolunteers from a wide cross–section of thecommunity – 98% of volunteers, for example,were white, and 46% were retired.

Aims of the programme

The main aims of Unlocking the Potentialwere to:

> Volunteer recruitment. Get more peoplevolunteering for The Wildlife Trusts

> Volunteer diversity. Involve people whohave traditionally been under–represented asvolunteers, including young people, disabledpeople, people from Black and minority ethnicgroups, unemployed people, people withmental ill health.

> Focus on volunteer benefits. Ensure allvolunteers receive maximum benefits fromtheir involvement

> Focus on organisational mission – natureconservation. Deliver nature conservationbenefits through enhanced volunteerinvolvement.

The programme was delivered through two

key strands. Firstly, ten local Trusts ran diversityprojects to test out different ways of attractingnew groups of volunteers in the organisation.Secondly, a volunteer development function wasdeveloped within the umbrella office to promotegood practice in volunteer management acrossall Trusts.

Some of the key findings of the researchevaluation of the programme were:> A number of recruitment methods were

tested. Those found to be most successful

were based on partnership working, withTrusts developing relationships with anumber of locally–based organisations torecruit, support and place new volunteers.

> A range of new and innovative opportunitieswere developed for volunteers across the tenTrusts. Those based on time–limited groupactivities were felt to be most successful atattracting new volunteers.

> Internal volunteer support policies andprocedures were developed in order to enhance

the involvement of a more diverse range ofvolunteers. This included coordinatingvolunteer management across all departmentsfor the first time in some Trusts. In others itincluded training staff on volunteering anddiversity issues.

Further learning highlights the key ingredientsfor success of their programme – http://www.ivr.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/61B5DCA2–DE33–47C7–9C67–727D692E7DF7/0/wildlife_trust.pdf

http://www.ivr.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/61B5DCA2-DE33-47C7-9C67-727D692E7DF7/0/wildlife_trust.pdf









This study has enabled us to buildon the significant pieces of workpreviously conducted and currentlyongoing in volunteering teams

throughout the British Red Cross. It has broughttogether the views of beneficiaries, volunteers andstaff in an attempt to identify the essentialelements which we need to focus on as anorganisation if we are to continue to enhancethe quality of volunteering at the Red Cross. Thatis, our capacity to respond effectively to the needsof our beneficiaries while ensuring that the

volunteering experience itself is positive,rewarding and maximising of the talents andskills people want to offer.

It is clear that there are many success storiesof good volunteering practice at the Red Cross.As in so many other sectors of the organisation’swork, volunteering too is limited in the degree towhich this practice is shared more widely acrossthe organisation.

A review of the external literature alongside our

internal findings suggests that we are in quite agood position at the Red Cross. We have takena bold step to identify what it means for the RedCross to have a quality volunteering offer in place

6 Conclusions and implications for theBritish Red Cross




and we recognise the main areas on which weshould focus. The external literature does promptsome questions which need some reflection andconsideration:> Developing a clear British Red Cross vision/

framework for volunteering. While volunteerinvolvement is fundamental to the work ofthe Red Cross, the mission is to ensureeveryone gets the help they need in a crisisand hence, remain beneficiary focused. Arevolunteers therefore largely a means to anend, an end in itself or both? Acknowledgingand being clear about the tensions in theseunderpinning philosophies of volunteeringwill enable a greater understanding of thereal implications on volunteer support andmanagement practice. For example, addressing

issues surrounding the selection of volunteerswithin a framework of inclusion, supportingbeneficiaries to become volunteers asappropriate, highlighting wider outcomes frominvolving volunteers, investing in volunteerswho might need a little more support toempower and enable them to carry out thework of the Red Cross .

> Understanding the potential impact of becoming more market focused on ourvolunteers. The British Red Cross, like other

voluntary sector organisations, is rapidlygrowing its involvement in the world ofcontracts and contracting. Venturingincreasingly into the world of contracting mayhave implications for volunteering at the RedCross. In other words, what are theassociated challenges and opportunitiesarising from a more market–approach to theRed Cross’ business given that volunteersengage for more ‘social’ reasons? How doesRed Cross travel down the contract routewithout losing the distinctive nature,independence and ethos of voluntary sector

service provision – which is what ourvolunteers are here for and are proud of –without alienating volunteers in the process?How well is the Red Cross placed to addressthese issues proactively?

> Leading thought and contribution. The BritishRed Cross would appear to be in the upperpercentiles of leading thinking on definingwhat quality volunteering is in the voluntarysector. Is there an appetite for the Red Crossto become engaged and contribute to a wider

public/sector debate?

> Diversifying our workforce, knowledge baseand reach. Issues of diversity will have a majorimpact on both the quality and quantity ofvolunteering at the Red Cross over the nextseveral years. Innovative approaches and apolitical will are needed to engage with newcommunities in terms of expanding both ourvolunteer and beneficiary base. What is theRed Cross’ aspiration for proactivelydiversifying its workforce and engaging withnew groups and communities in the future?

> Resourcing quality volunteering is notinsubstantial. Additional resources are calledfor to enable the outlined recommendedimprovements to take place as discussed. Someprioritisation of the elements identified may be

necessary. However, there is a strategic relatedquestion that must be addressed – that is, towhat degree of quality volunteering is theBritish Red Cross aspiring – and what are theassociated resources required and in whichthe Red Cross is willing to invest in order torealise this?




Recommendations from this studyare included right through thepaper under each of the qualityvolunteering elements discussed.

The recommendations included in this sectionrelate specifically to future research andlearning opportunities identified in thecourse of the study.

> Identifying volunteering outcomes andindicators to monitor progress. One of theaims of this study was to develop our

understanding of some of the key indicatorsfor measuring progress towards qualityvolunteering at the Red Cross. We haveidentified the elements of qualityvolunteering, and laid the foundation forthe development of volunteering outcomes.A further step is needed to identify a few keyoutcomes and indicators against which thevolunteering department wishes to monitorits performance. A recommendation ismade to undertake this next stage of workbuilding on the findings from this study.

> Specific research areas related to volunteeringto enhance future developments. Sometopics were highlighted in the research

7 Recommendations for future research




as pertinent and that pulling togetherorganisational knowledge to gain a betterunderstanding of how things work in practice,specific to these would aid future planningand replication of good practice. Theseincluded:1. Contracts and volunteers. What is already

known across the organisation? What arethe current opportunities and challengesand how do these affect volunteermanagement practice? What should we betaking into account and considering now inorder to prepare well for the future? (e.g.regulations; an enhanced skills requirement,hence training requirement, of volunteersfor certain contracts; the changing rolesand positions of volunteers in relation to

paid staff.)

2. Understanding the differences betweenvolunteers and paid staff . How differentis it for volunteers in the workplace andwhat are the implications on volunteermanagement and support practices?What is the importance of recognising andrewarding volunteers? And how is this bestdone? What can we learn from currentpractice on what works well both internallyand from other volunteer–involving

organisations?

3. Gaining a deeper understanding of theassociated costs of volunteering.Acknowledging that volunteering isn’t freeand supporting forward planning in orderto ensure a sustainable volunteering future.

4. Exploring our diversity profile and aims with regard to volunteers and beneficiaries.The need to know where we are, as wellwhat we are striving for, with regards toour diversity profile and overall agenda

and to provide more strategic direction inthis regard.

5. Different styles of volunteering withina changing society. Bringing togetherthe good practice that exists across theorganisation in recognising andsupporting new ways of volunteering.How can we maximise the opportunitiesof a changing society?

6. Exploring what kinds of specialist support

volunteer leaders and volunteers whomanage other volunteers may need. SavingLives, Changing Lives seeks to increase thenumber of volunteer leaders. Is the current

support and training offered to ourvolunteer leaders appropriate to theirneeds? Do they have access to the training,support and advice that they need todevelop their skills in order to carry outtheir role effectively? What do we alreadyknow about the associated challenges inensuring the quality and consistency ofmanagement? And what are theimplications for paid staff as they delegateand equip volunteers to take on thatmanagement/leadership role?

7. Exploring the barriers and enablers tovolunteer retention in the early stages –from the initial enquiry to being recruitedto undertaking the initial training and then

to the early deployment phase. What levelof retention is feasible, realisitic and/ordesirable (noting that this may varybetween different services and activitiesof the Red Cross)? And what can we learnfrom good practice across the organisation?

The above could be taken forward asdiscrete projects, in some cases this might bedevelopmental and suit an intern positionwithin a limited time–frame.

>

Contributing to the public debate on qualityvolunteering: the concept of qualityvolunteering is a newly emerging one. Thereis relatively little research as of yet conductedin this area. Our research places us in aposition to contribute to this debatethrough publication and conferences. It isrecommended that the Red Cross seizes thisopportunity.

> Research and learning in partnership: manyof the organisations we contacted for thisstudy expressed an interest in forming learning

partnerships on volunteering with the RedCross. Some felt that this would be extremelyuseful for staff in volunteer management andsupport roles at a regional level (i.e. not onlyat the central office/national level). There wasalso some appetite in potentially conductingjoint research to understand what some of theissues mean for the voluntary sector. Acollective voluntary sector perspective on anumber of these issues would greatly enrichthe debate and learning. We recommend thatthe Red Cross should take an active lead in

this regard.




Qualitative Research – focusgroups and interviews

Focus group with staff and volunteers

> The purpose of the group discussions was toexplore staff and volunteer experiences, needsand perspectives on quality volunteering. Thesessions were informal using the templates setout in Appendices C1 & C2 and lasted, onaverage, about 75–90 minutes. Participationwas voluntary and answers were treatedconfidentially.

> A total of 30 groups were carried out frommid–February to mid–April 2011 and tookplace in each of the 4 Territories of the BritishRed Cross. The breakdown was as follows:> A total of 16 volunteer groups: Northern

(2), South Eastern (3), Scotland, NorthernIreland & Isle of Man (5), Wales & West-ern (3), and 3 groups of Volunteer Chairs(from across all the Territories).

> A total of 14 staff groups: Northern (1),

South Eastern (6), Scotland, NorthernIreland & Isle of Man (2), Wales &Western (3), a group of OperationsDirectors, and a group of the SeniorManagement Team.

> Note that volunteer focus groups were notarranged in the London Area due to Londoncompleting their own research project onthe volunteer experience and hence, to avoidduplication. Instead we liaised with theLondon project research team across theresearch period in order to compare findings

and share learning wherever possible. Contact Jessica Lightfoot ( [email protected]) for more information on the London research.

Interviews with beneficiaries

> The purpose of the interview was to hearbeneficiary views and experiences of theservice they received from volunteers at theBritish Red Cross. We wanted to understandhow satisfied or unsatisfied they were with theservice and any particular reasons they havefor feeling that way.

> We used a mixture of face to face andtelephone interviews. They were informaldiscussions using the template set out in

Appendix C3 and lasted, on average about15–20 minutes. Participation was voluntaryand answers were treated confidentially.

> A total of 18 interviews were carried outin April 2011 across 4 different service areasof the British Red Cross including Refugeeservices, Health and Social Care, FireEmergency Support Services, as well asattendees on first aid courses.

Area mapping

> The purpose of the Area mapping was todevelop a national picture of how volunteerco-ordination and support currently worksin each Area from the insights and experiencesof the volunteer support teams.

> A template of open, reflective questions wassent to the Volunteer Advisers in each of the 21Red Cross Areas and a selection of Retail andFundraising staff for their insights.

> As well as feeding into the overall research

findings, a good practice guide was producedfrom the collation and analysis of these areamapping responses. This supplementarypublication is available alondside thisresearch report.

Quantitative Research – surveys

The purpose of the surveys was to test some ofthe emerging themes from the focus groups witha larger sample of representative volunteers andstaff and enable us to fill in any gaps in knowledge

as well as test some wider organisationalassumptions/priorities.We also wanted to capturesome information from former volunteers.

Online survey of staff

> A short online questionnaire was emailed to allservice co–ordinators (n=401) in April 2011using the online survey tool Surveyshack. Thesample was obtained from the PeopleSoft HRdatabase.7

> 159 completed questionnaires were received

yielding a response rate of 40%.

7 A separate request was sent to retail staff through the weekly till news

(as they were not included in the PeopleSoft list).

Appendix A Technical Report






Telephone survey of volunteers

> A short telephone survey (approximately 10minutes) was conducted with a random sampleof volunteers, obtained from PeopleSoft. Wegot an achieved sample of 456 volunteers, 344were current volunteers and 112 were formervolunteers.8

> The fieldwork was carried out by FactsInternational Ltd in April 2011. The analysiswas completed in May 2011 using thestatistical package STATA which allowedthe research team to carry out a range ofsystematic tests on the data to look for

explanations to the question responses (forexample, whether any differences that wereapparent between different groups of

volunteers were significant or not).

8 Note that due to the methodology used it was not possible to calculate

a true response rate for this survey. We started with a sample of 3,000

volunteers in order to achieve over 400 interviews in the very short

timeframe we had for the fieldwork period. We stopped the fieldwork

when we reached over the 400 total required, rather than continuing to

contact volunteers who had not yet taken part/ been contacted.

> A breakdown of the volunteer surveyrespondents, by Red Cross service andTerritory as well as various demographicvariables, can be found in Appendix B..

Research challenges

A number of methodological challenges wereidentified upfront for the research to overcome.These are highlighted in the table below.

Challenge Steps to overcome

Avoiding duplication: It was essential that

the research filled gaps or sought further

understanding where useful and appropriate

rather than duplicating work already going on.

An important objective of the research was to

collate recent and current research being carried

out on the volunteering experience nationally and

within the Areas and interpret this collated picture.In addition, participation from the right people in

the Areas was key to the project’s success.

Communicating early and well with the right

people was critical.

Capacity of the Areas to participate: A lot of

requests are made of the Areas (and particularly at

the time the research was being conducted), we

needed to ensure the burden on Areas was kept

to a minimum with strong clarity of purpose.

Carefully planned communications (when, what

and from whom) were essential, and joining up

communication about the research with the wider

EP5 activity where possible. Aligning the research

with other work where necessary to demonstrate a

joined up approach and avoid duplication of effort.

Wide coverage: The research attempted to

cover all volunteering activity in each of the

services across the 21 Areas of the British Red

Cross. Understanding the different approaches

that work most effectively in different

geographical Areas and keeping an eye out for

differences across different service areas was

identified as a particular challenge for the

research to uncover.

We needed to focus on what reliable findings

could be drawn out of this current research

project. We constantly revisited the aims, as

necessary, in designing the study and checked

any potential to bring in research capacity to boost

data collection (e.g. the spread and the number

of focus groups). Further needs/breakdowns (that

could not be addressed in this research) were

noted for consideration in future research.

Research capacity: This is a lot of work to be

done in a 9 month period.

Identifying essential and non-essential outputs for

the end of the 9 month period was necessary so

the project could be scaled back if necessary, and

leaving non-essential outputs to be addressed in

future research.

TABLE 3 METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGES

FOR THE RESEARCH




Appendix B Sample demographics: Volunteer achieved survey sample

1. Are you a current volunteer with the British Red Cross?

Number %

Yes 344 75

No 112 25

TOTAL 456 100

2. Sex

Number %

Male 96 28

Female 248 72

TOTAL 344 100

3. Age

Number %

25 and under 53 15

26 to 35 19 6

36 to 45 32 9

46 to 55 42 12

56 to 65 71 21

66 to 75 83 24

76 and over 44 13

TOTAL 344 100

Number %

25 and under 53 15

26 to 45 51 15

46 to 65 113 33

66 and over 127 37

TOTAL 344 100




4. Which services or activities do you volunteer for in the British Red Cross?

Number %

Retail 89 26

Event First Aid 84 24

Fundraising 62 18

Other H&SC projects 36 10

Community Based

First Aid29 8

Medical Loan 28 8

Emergency Response 23 7

Care in the Home 23 7

Transport and Escort 18 5

Fire Emergency

Response Services15 4

Youth Services 12 3

Office admin 12 3

Refugee Services 7 2

ITMS 4 1

Other 35 10

TOTAL 344 100

Note:% columnn adds up to more than 100%

because multiple response

5. Number of services/activities people volunteer for

Number %

1 251 73

2 63 18

3 22 6

4 7 2

6 1 0

TOTAL 344 100




6. Territory

Number %

Scotland, NorthernIreland and Isle of Man 69 20

Northern 65 19

Wales and Western 80 23

South Eastern 104 30

UKO 9 3

Don’t know 17 5

TOTAL 344 100

7. How long have you been volunteering with the Red Cross?

Number %

Less than 6 months 22 6

6 months to a year 31 9

1-2 years 74 22

3-5 years 64 19

6-10 years 51 15

11-20 years 52 15

21-30 years 19 6

30 years or more 31 9

TOTAL 344 100

Number %

Less than a year 53 15

1-2 years 74 22

3-5 years 64 19

6-10 years 51 15

11 years or more 102 30

TOTAL 344 100




8. How often do you volunteer with the Red Cross?

Number %

More than one day aweek 90 26

One day a week 116 34

One or two days a

month72 21

A couple of times a year 38 11

Once a year 8 2

Another arrangement 20 6

TOTAL 344 100

9. Do you manage or lead other volunteers?

Number %

Yes 80 23

No 263 76

Don’t know 1 0

TOTAL 344 100




C1. Volunteer focus groups

Preparation before the group arrive:

> Put up 4 flip charts in different parts of theroom, with the following questions on:> FLIPCHART 1: What are the gains and

benefits you get from volunteering at theRed Cross?

> FLIPCHART 2: Illustrate the volunteer

journey as a timeline:

1. Initial induction & trainingà 2. Co–ordination & organisation of work à 3.Support & managementà 4. Developmentopportunitiesà 5. Communication

> FLIPCHART 3: What is QualityVolunteering?

> FLIPCHART 4: Do you think we’reheading in the right direction?

> Distribute post–its and red, amber, green dots > Can start the first question (on flipchart 1) for

people to think about as others are arriving.

Notes & introductions incorporating Q1

(estimate 10 minutes)

Thank people for coming and introduce yourself,the research and the aims of the session (how itwill help the organisation and how we will useinformation):

1. Background to the research: Research islooking to explore what a good volunteeringexperience looks like at the British RedCross. We want to provide an increasedunderstanding of what quality volunteeringmeans to us (this is the question prepared onflipchart 3 which we’ll come back to at theend) from the experiences of volunteers, staffand beneficiaries. We’re looking to identifyapproaches that best support us all to deliverour work effectively. The research will becompleted in June 2011 and a report will go

to the Senior Management Team to informthinking on how we develop our volunteeringoffer in the future.

2. Aims/uses of this session: The purposeof the group discussion is to give you theopportunity to input your views andexperiences of volunteering as part of thedata collection phase of the study. It’s aninformal discussion and will last aboutan hour.

3. Emphasise that what they say is confidential(within the room) and any comments will be

treated anonymously. Check everyone is okwith the discussion being taped but toreassure this is only for own purposes andto be able to recall the full discussion for theanalysis stage. Won’t go any further.

Will have a quick whizz around the room in amoment for introductions but before that a quickexercise...

A. Exploring why volunteers stay – gains

and benefits

1. As an organisation we get lots of benefits

from your volunteering with us but what

do you get out of it? What are the gains

and benefits you get from volunteering at

the British Red Cross? (FLIPCHART 1)

Ask them to take a moment to reflect and jotthese down on the post–its provided, e.g. up to3 reasons. INTRODUCTIONS: Quick whizz around the

group with everyone introducing themselves –their name, the service and volunteer role andhow long they’ve been volunteering at Red Cross. And to share their main gain, what they get outof volunteering.

Collect in the post–its to stick on the flipchart forlogging and to share for everyone to see.

B. Exploring volunteer satisfaction

(estimate 45 mins)

Now turning to your volunteering experience,

your role, the support you receive and the

training you’ve had from the organisation.

Appendix C Research focus group discussionsand interview templates




I’d like to ask a few questions about how

satisfied you are with the different aspects.

(FLIPCHART 2)

Talk through the 5 aspects we’re going to cover aslisted on flipchart 2. Ask volunteers to take a briefmoment for reflection... then explain what thered, amber, green dots are... ask people to comeup and indicate on the flipchart for each aspecta green dot if you’re really satisfied with howthis works, an amber dot if you think it’s ok butthere’s some room for improvement, and a red dotif you feel unsatisfied about it and changes to thiscould enhance your volunteer experience.

Open discussion...reflecting what they haveindicated... using the qns & probes below as

necessary...

1. Thinking back to your first experiences as avolunteer, how relevant was your induction,initial training & any other preparation youhad for your volunteer role? Check/summarise how they scored this aspect... refer to flipchart> What did you like about it?> What did you dislike about it?> How could we improve the initial

experience for volunteers?

2. How do you find your volunteer workis co–ordinated and organised? Check/summarise how they scored this aspect...refer to flipchart> What do you like about it?> What do you dislike about it?> How could we improve the co–ordination

of volunteering to enhance yourexperience?

PROBES: Is the workload and levelsof responsibility appropriate? Are

expectations and boundaries made clear?

3. In terms of support and management, can wedo a quick check around the room, do youknow who your manager (or supervisor) is?(show of hands) Check/ summarise how theyscored this aspect...refer to flipchart > What do you like about the support

you get?> What do you dislike about it?> What support would you like from a man-

ager that would enhance your experience?

> For those that don’t have a manager –where do you go to for direction orsupport?

PROBES: Whether get feedback and howoften? Whether feel valued by manager?Team?

4. What development opportunities have youhad or do you have access to in your volunteerrole? Check/ summarise how they scored thisaspect...refer to flipchart > What do you like about them?> What do you dislike about them?> What sort of development opportunities or

other offers would you be interested in foryour Red Cross volunteer role? How couldwe improve our offer in this aspect?

PROBES: Whether feel like theirindividual skills and experiences are

being acknowledged and used? Whetherknow much about other volunteeringopportunities at the Red Cross? & if ofinterest.

4. Finally, what about communication, how doyou feel about the ways in which the RedCross communicates and listens to itsvolunteers?> What do you like about it?> What do you dislike about it?> How could we improve communication to

enhance the volunteer experience?

PROBES: Perceptions of the role of thevolunteer council? Whether know whotheir council rep is? & whether feed intothese meetings? Or get feedback fromthem? What would you like from yourvolunteer council?

C. Wrapping up (estimate 5 minutes)

Let’s finish by coming back to the research

question, to define quality volunteering, andalso to look to the future of volunteering at

the British Red Cross.

1. From your point of view, what is quality

volunteering? (write on the post–it, andstick onto flipchart) (FLIPCHART 3)

2. Is the Red Cross heading in the right di-

rection – to be an effective volunteer–led

organisation? If not, then what should

we be considering to put things back

on track? (response on post–it, and stickonto flipchart) (FLIPCHART 4)

Thank them and close the group. Collect flipcharts...post–its etc.




C2. Staff focus groups

Preparation before the group arrive:

> Put up 3 flip charts in different parts of theroom, with the following questions on:> FLIPCHART 1: Illustrate the volunteer

support cycle as a timeline:

1. Attracting volunteersà 2. Recruitment& selectionà 3. Initial induction &trainingà 4. Deploymentà 5. Co–ordination & organisation of work à 6.Support & managementà 7. Developmentopportunities à 8. Parting ways

> FLIPCHART 2: What is QualityVolunteering?

> FLIPCHART 3: Do you think we’reheading in the right direction?

Distribute gold stars and black dots , post–itsfor the very last section

Notes & introductions (estimate 10 minutes)

Thank people for coming and introduce yourself,the research and the aims of the session (how itwill help the organisation and how we will useinformation):

1.

Background to the research: Research islooking to explore what a good volunteeringexperience looks like at the British Red Cross.We want to provide an increasedunderstanding of what quality volunteeringmeans to us (question on flipchart 2 whichwe’ll come back to at the end) from theexperiences of volunteers, staff andbeneficiaries. We’re looking to identifyapproaches that best support us all to deliverour work effectively. The research will becompleted in June 2011 and a report will goto the Senior Management Team to inform

thinking on how we develop our volunteeringoffer in the future.

2. Aims/uses of this session: The purposeof the group discussion is to give you theopportunity to input your views andexperiences of supporting and managingvolunteers as part of the data collectionphase of the study. We want to capture whatyou feel works well and what doesn’t go sowell. It’s an informal discussion and will lastabout an hour.

3. Emphasise that what they say is confidential(within the room) and any comments will betreated anonymously. Check everyone is ok

with the discussion being taped but toreassure this is only for own purposes andto be able to recall the full discussion for theanalysis stage. Won’t go any further

Will have a quick whizz around the room in amoment for introductions but before a quickexercise...

A. Exploring the lifecycle of volunteer

planning and support (estimate 40 minutes)

On the flipchart, we’ve drawn up the timeline

of volunteer planning and support. I’d like

you think about each stage, & from your own

insights & experiences, decide which stages

you think work well for you and your service

and which ones you think don’t work so well?(FLIPCHART 1)

Briefly talk through the 8 stages on the flipchartand explain what the gold stars and black dots arefor... ask everyone to come up and indicate on thevisual timeline points that work well with a goldstar and stages that perhaps don’t work so wellwith a black dot.

INTRODUCTIONS: When everyone’s done andre–seated have a quick whizz around the group

with everyone introducing themselves first –name, service and role in relation to volunteers,how many volunteers they manage and one thingon their mind that they’d like to share in relationto volunteering. Take a note of who’s in the room – staff name, role and service.

Open discussion... starting at the beginning andreflecting on what they have indicated on theflipchart... using the questions overleaf and probesas necessary...

1. Volunteer planning – how do you decide what

resources you need / how many volunteers youneed to recruit? Flipchart reflection...> What works well?> Why does this not work so well?

What’s challenging about this?> How could things be done better?

PROBES: Do you currently have enoughvolunteers? What are your recruitmenttargets this year? Who is responsible forthis planning?

2. Attracting volunteers – how do you promotevolunteering? Flipchart reflection...> What works well?




> Why does this not work so well?What’s challenging about this?

> How could things be done better?

PROBES: Who is responsible? Wheredo you advertise?

3. How do you recruit and select volunteers?Flipchart reflection...> What works well?> Why does this not work so well?


PROBES: Do you recruit volunteers forspecific roles? Do you turn any volunteersaway (explore)? How long does it take to

get someone recruited?

4. Induction and initial training – how arevolunteers welcomed and prepared for theirrole? Flipchart reflection...> What works well?> Why does this not work so well?


5. Deployment and organisation – how do youdeploy then co–ordinate the work of your

volunteers? Flipchart reflection...> What works well?> Why does this not work so well?


PROBES: How does the scheduling ofvolunteer shifts happen?

6. How are volunteers managed and supportedin your service? Flipchart reflection...> What works well?> What doesn’t work well / is challenging

about this? What are the barriers?> How could things be done better?

PROBES: Whether give feedback andhow? Formal/ informal? How do you makevolunteers feel valued? Do you have anyvolunteers that require different kindsof support? Examples? Volunteers withspecific skills fulfilling specialist functions?

7. What developmental opportunities areavailable for volunteers in your services?

Flipchart reflection...> What works well?> What doesn’t work so well?

What’s challenging about this?

> How could things be done better?

PROBES: Whether share volunteers acrossservices? Is this of interest – to staff/ tovolunteers? Whether feel able to tap into,know about volunteer’s individual skillsand experiences?

8. Parting ways with volunteers – what happenswhen a volunteer leaves? Flipchart reflection...> What works well?> What doesn’t work so well?


PROBES: How do you know when avolunteer has left? Any practical issues?

Who is responsible?

B. Support and skills reflection

(estimate 10 min)

Reflecting on the discussions we’ve just had

and your experiences of what volunteers

need from you, I’ve got a few questions on

how you are supported in carrying out your

role of managing volunteers.

1. Are there any aspects of your work withvolunteers where you would welcome supportor guidance? If yes, in what areas & how? e.g.informal one to one support , peer learning,formal training course...

2. Have you ever had any training or learningthat has assisted you in your work withvolunteers? (quick show of hands who hashad vol mgt training)

PROBES:> What training was it? And who

delivered it?> How useful was it for your role? Why?

Why not?> Or do you tap into any other forms of

support related to volunteer management?Where do you turn to for support? col-leagues, internet, external organisations...how useful?

C. Wrapping up (estimate 5 minutes)

I’d like to finish by coming back to theresearch question, to define quality

volunteering, and also to look to the future

of volunteering at the British Red Cross.




1. From your point of view, what is quality

volunteering? (write on the post–it, andstick onto flipchart) (FLIPCHART 2)

2. Is the Red Cross heading in the

right direction – to be an effective

volunteer–led organisation? If not, then

what should we be considering to put

things back on track? (response on post–it,and stick onto flipchart) (FLIPCHART 3)

Thank them and close the group. Collect flipcharts...post–its etc.

C3. Beneficiary individual

interviews

Aim of interview: To explore your experiencesof the services received from volunteers at theBritish Red Cross, and to understand what youparticularly value and what doesn’t work so well.It will help us to assess the effects of ourvolunteers on people who use our services.

Please answer any questions you can but don’tworry if you can’t answer a question. Youranswers will be kept strictly confidential and

won’t be shown to anyone else. (If taping thediscussion check the respondent’s ok with that.)

1. Were you aware that the services you receivefrom this organisation were provided byvolunteers? Yes / No

2. What services or help do (or did) you receivefrom British Red Cross volunteers? And forhow long?

3. How did you find out about the service youreceived? (e.g. referral source, or otherwise)

4. How did you feel about the help or servicesyou receive from volunteers at the British RedCross? Please could you explain why?

PROBE IF NECESSARY: What was it aboutthe service that made them satisfied or not –the amount of help received, the quality,reliability, consistency, how tailored was itto their needs...

5. Did the service you received meet your

expectations (and needs)? Please explain why/ why not?

6. Would you recommend the volunteers andservice to other people in a similar situationto yourself? Yes / No / Maybe / DK

7. What are the main benefits you wouldemphasise?

PROBE for specifically volunteer relatedbenefits.

8. What are the main drawbacks that you wouldidentify?

PROBE for specifically volunteer relateddrawbacks.

9. Does it make a difference to you if services are

provided by volunteers or paid staff?Yes / No / DK

Please could you explain why?




D1. Current volunteers telephone survey

Introduction

Hello, I’m calling on behalf of the British Red Cross. We recently wrote to you

regarding a research project we’re carrying out on volunteer experiences in order

to improve the way we do things. Would you be able to spare 10 minutes to tell

me about your experience as a volunteer with the British Red Cross? All of the

information will be anonymous and confidential and will only be used to help

improve what we do and the overall volunteer experience with the British

Red Cross

1. Are you a current volunteer with the British Red Cross?Interviewer: this doesn’t have to be a regular commitment, include

those who volunteer from time to time.

> Yes à Go to Q3

> No à Go to Q2

2. Have you ever volunteered with the Red Cross?

> Yes à Go to leavers questionnaire

> No à Apologise and end the call, record outcome

3. Are you male or female?

> Male

>

Female

4. How old are you? Are you:

> 25 or under

> 26 to 35

> 36 to 45

> 46 to 55

> 56 to 65

> 66 to 75

> 76 or over

5. Which services or activities do you volunteer for in the British Red Cross?

Interviewer: please code all that apply

> First Aid– Event First Aid (EFA)

– Community Based First Aid (CBFA)

> Emergency Response (ER)

– ER

– Fire Emergency Support Services (FESS)

> Refugee Services

> ITMS (Tracing Services)

> Health & Social Care

– Care in the Home

– Transport & Escort

– Medical Loan

– Other H&SC projects

Appendix D Survey questionnaires




> Retail

> Fundraising

> Youth services

> Office admin volunteer

> Intern

> Other

Please specify:

__________________________________________________________________

6. And in which Territory do you volunteer?

> Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man > Northern

> Wales and Western

> South Eastern

> UKO

> Don’t Know

7. How long have you been volunteering with the Red Cross?

> Less than 6 months

> 6 months to a year

> 1–2 years

> 3– 5 years

>

6–10 years

> 11–20 years

> 21–30 years

> 30 years or more

8. And how often do you volunteer with the Red Cross, is it…?

Interviewer: read out…

> more than 1 day a week

> One day a week

> One or two days a month

> A couple of times a year

> Once a year

> Another arrangement

Please specify:

__________________________________________________________________

9. Do you manage or lead other volunteers as part of your role? Please

include any formal or informal part you play in organising or co–ordinating

other volunteers as well as leading and supporting other volunteers.

> Yes (in order to route to batch of questions for volunteer leaders at the end)

> No

> Don’t Know




I’m now going to read out a series of statements and I’d like you to tell

me whether you agree or disagree with each one. You can strongly agree,

agree, neither agree nor disagree, disagree or strongly disagree. If you

don’t know then please say “don’t know” – that’s fine too.

Interviewer: code 1 strongly agree to 5 strongly disagree

Interviewer: code 6 ‘don’t know’ or ‘don’t remember’

Interviewer: please check where necessary…. (E.G. If they say agree)…

is that strongly agree or just agree?

Firstly, I’d like you to think back to when you started volunteering at the Red Cross.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following…

I was provided with clear information

about:

> the types of volunteer opportunities

available at the British Red Cross

1 2 3 4 5 6

> the recruitment process, for example

what to do and how long it would take1 2 3 4 5 6

> any compulsory training requirements 1 2 3 4 5 6

> the expectations of me in my

volunteer role1 2 3 4 5 6

I was keen to do more in the period

between being recruited and waiting for

the CRB and reference checks to come

1 2 3 4 5 6

Now, thinking about your current experience as a volunteer, to what

extent do you agree or disagree with the following…

I am clear about the way I am expected to

act as a Red Cross volunteer1 2 3 4 5 6

My experience at the Red Cross has met

my expectations1 2 3 4 5 6

Thinking about the support and training you receive as a volunteer,

to what extent do you agree or disagree with the following…

I can readily access support when

I need it1 2 3 4 5 6

I do not have the resources I need to

carry out my role effectively, for example,

financial, equipment or other resources

1 2 3 4 5 6

I am clear who my manager is 1 2 3 4 5 6

My manager has the capacity to support

volunteers effectively1 2 3 4 5 6




I receive feedback on my performance

from time to time1 2 3 4 5 6

My routine volunteer activities are not well

co–ordinated

1 2 3 4 5 6

The training courses I have attended

have been good quality1 2 3 4 5 6

I have not been able to access courses

that have been of interest to me due

to, for example, the day, the time or the

location being difficult for me

1 2 3 4 5 6

It is important to me that I can obtain

accreditation or qualifications through my

volunteering

1 2 3 4 5 6

All volunteers across the organisation

should be trained in common core skills,

and only undertake extra training when it

is needed for their specific role

1 2 3 4 5 6

In my opinion, some of the training I’m

required to do is not really necessary 1 2 3 4 5 6

I would like to know more about how I

can progress as a Red Cross volunteer 1 2 3 4 5 6

Please think about how the organisation involves you as a volunteer

and how valued you feel. To what extent do you agree or disagree

with the following…

I feel able to give my views on issues

such as how to improve the way we do

things

1 2 3 4 5 6

I would like more opportunities to express

my views 1 2 3 4 5 6

I feel my views are taken into account 1 2 3 4 5 6

I have the opportunity to engage in

discussions that impact on my

volunteering1 2 3 4 5 6

I feel trusted to carry out my role

effectively 1 2 3 4 5 6

Staff and volunteers do not work well

together in my team 1 2 3 4 5 6

On the whole, I feel valued by RedCross staff 1 2 3 4 5 6




Overall, I value the work of Red

Cross staff 1 2 3 4 5 6

Staff seem more valued than volunteers

in the organisation 1 2 3 4 5 6

The next few statements are about how flexible you think your

volunteering is. Please say to what extent you agree or disagree


There are too many rules and regulations

that restrict what I can do as a volunteer

at the Red Cross

1 2 3 4 5 6

I have skills and experience I am not

currently using in my role that I couldcontribute to the organisation

1 2 3 4 5 6

I am not aware of other volunteering

opportunities in the organisation 1 2 3 4 5 6

I feel that, if I want to, I can move from

one role to another and am not limited

to a specific service or part of the

organisation

1 2 3 4 5 6

I am not really interested in volunteering

for more than 1 service or activityInterviewer Note: if they already do

volunteer for more than one activity

code 7

1 2 3 4 5 6

I could be interested in becoming a

volunteer leader in the future. This might

entail, for example, co–ordinating or

supporting other volunteers

1 2 3 4 5 6

And to what extent do you agree or disagree with the following

statements about volunteers in general…

In my experience, volunteers are happy

to work alongside a diverse group

of people

1 2 3 4 5 6

I feel there are barriers to engaging

volunteers from a wide range of

backgrounds1 2 3 4 5 6

In my experience, volunteers respect the

Red Cross’ fundamental principles in their

behaviour. INTERVIEWER: in case theyask, our fundamental principles are Unity,

Universality, Neutrality, Independence,

Voluntary service, Humanity, Impartiality,

1 2 3 4 5 6




Only ask those who said ‘yes’ to question 9

You mentioned earlier that you manage or lead other volunteers as

a part of your role. Please think about the following statements in

relation to your experience in this. To what extent do you agree or

disagree with the following...

The organisation commits adequate

resources to support volunteering, for

example, financial, equipment or other

resources

1 2 3 4 5 6

I feel there are clear criteria on the skills

and abilities which volunteers need for

various roles1 2 3 4 5 6

I have had clear guidance on how best

to support volunteers 1 2 3 4 5 6

I would like more support in my role of

leading or managing other volunteers 1 2 3 4 5 6

I would be interested in doing a profes-

sionally accredited training course in

volunteer management1 2 3 4 5 6

For volunteer managers, I think

leadership and coaching skills are

more important than supervisory and

management skills

1 2 3 4 5 6

When volunteers leave we make sure

we get their feedback 1 2 3 4 5 6

I’d like to ask how strongly you feel connected to the organisation

in terms of the local centre or place where you volunteer, the service

or activity that you are doing, the national organisation of the British

Red Cross, and the international movement.

You can respond very strongly connected, quite strongly connected,

not very strongly connected, not connected at all. So, how strongly

do you feel connected to…1 = very strongly, 2 = quite strongly, 3 = not very strongly, 4 = not at all, 5 = don’t know

1. … the local centre or place where

you volunteer1 2 3 4 5

2. … the service or activity you are doing 1 2 3 4 5

3. … the national organisation of the

British Red Cross 1 2 3 4 5

4. …. the International Movement of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies 1 2 3 4 5




And finally…

1. What, in your opinion, are the most important things for the Red

Cross to consider to enable a good experience for volunteers?

2. Do you have any specific suggestions for how we might improve

things for our volunteers?

That’s all the questions. Thank you very much for taking part in this survey.

I’d like to assure you that the information you have given will be kept confidential.

Finally, just to mention that later this year, we’ll be running our biennial Have

Your Say survey. This survey collects the views of staff and volunteers to see

how the organisation is performing and what we can improve on. More

information about how you can take part will be available in the autumn.




D2. Former volunteers telephone survey Note: callers to be routed here if they are no longer volunteering…

1. How long ago did you stop volunteering for the Red Cross?

> Less than 6 months

> 6 months to a year

> 1-2 years

> 3-5 years

> 6-10 years

> 11 years or more

2. And what were your main reasons for stopping volunteering?

__________________________________________________________________

Interviewer: please enter full response above and code this below

> Personal reasons

> Health reasons> Moving out of the area

> Taken up paid employment

> Dissatisfaction with volunteering

> Other

3. Overall, how satisfied or unsatisfied were you with your volunteering

experience at the British Red Cross. Were you… READ OUT…

> Very satisfied

> Satisfied

> Neither satisfied nor unsatisfied

> Unsatisfied

>

Very unsatisfied

> Don’t know

If unsatisfied or very unsatisfied, please explain why

__________________________________________________________________

4. We’re trying to improve the volunteer experience at the British Red

Cross. What, if anything, could we have done better to enable you to

continue volunteering?

__________________________________________________________________

5. Would you consider volunteering for the Red Cross again at somepoint in the future?

> Yes

> No

> Don’t know

6. Would you still like to receive updates from the Red Cross?

> Yes à Go to Q7

> No

7. Would you prefer these updates by email or by post?

> Email

> Post




D3. Staff online survey We’re carrying out some research on volunteering at the British Red Cross

in order to improve the way we do things. Would you be able to spare 10 minutes

to tell me about your experience of supporting or working alongside volunteers

with the British Red Cross?

The research aims to provide an increased understanding of what quality

volunteering means at the British Red Cross from the experiences of volunteers,

staff and beneficiaries and identify approaches that best support staff and

volunteers to deliver our work effectively

All of the information will be anonymous and confidential and will only be used

to help improve what we do at the British Red Cross

1. Job title/post:

__________________________________________________________________

2. How long have you worked for the British Red Cross?

> Less than 1 year

> 1-2 years

> 3-5 years

> 6-10 years

> 11 years or more

3. Which services or activities do you work for in the British Red Cross?

Please tick all that apply.

> Community Based First Aid

> Event First Aid

>

Emergency Response

> Fire and Emergency Support Services

> Fundraising

> Health & Social Care

> ITMS (Tracing Services)

> Refugee Services

> Retail

> Red Cross Training

> Office support services (e.g. Finance, HR,

Communications, Admin…)

> Youth & Schools services

> Other

Please specify:

__________________________________________________________________

4. And in which Territory do you work?

> Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man

> Northern

> Wales and Western

> South Eastern

> UKO

> Other

Please specify:

__________________________________________________________________




5. Does your role involve managing, supporting or co-ordinating

the activities of volunteers?

> Yes, a lot

> No, a little

> No à Please go to the last

2 questions in this

survey

6. What is your contact with volunteers in the organisation?

Please tick all that apply.

> Directly manage

> Help to supervise/ support

> Work alongside

> Support staff who manage volunteers

> I am also a volunteer

> Other, please specify ________________________________________

Please tell me how strongly you agree or disagree with each of the followingstatements. If you don’t know then please tick “don’t know”.

Note that when questions refer to “we” or “our” we’d like you to think about

the people or team of staff and volunteers you work with on a day to day basis.

Firstly, thinking about volunteer recruitment from your experience, in your

service or team at the Red Cross. To what extent do you agree or disagree


Strongly

agree

Strongly

disagree

Don’t

know

Our team annual plans include

objectives for the recruitment of

volunteers1 2 3 4 5 6

We need more volunteers to

be able to carry out our work

effectively

1 2 3 4 5 6

People interested in volunteering

are provided with clear information

about:

> the types of volunteer

opportunities available at theBritish Red Cross

1 2 3 4 5 6

> the recruitment process, for

example, what to do and how

long it will take1 2 3 4 5 6

> any compulsory training

requirements1 2 3 4 5 6

> our expectations of them in their

volunteer role1 2 3 4 5 6

> what they can expect from the

the Red Cross 1 2 3 4 5 6




Strongly

agree

Strongly

disagree

Don’t

know

I feel there are clear criteria on the

skills and abilities which volunteers

need for various roles

1 2 3 4 5 6

We could use volunteers’ time and

skills better in the period between

being recruited and waiting for the

CRB and reference checks to come

1 2 3 4 5 6

I feel there are barriers to

engaging volunteers from a wide

range of backgrounds1 2 3 4 5 6

Strategic

Strongly

agree

Strongly

disagree

Don’t

know

In my view, the organisation

commits adequate resources to

support volunteering, for example

financial, equipment or other

resources

1 2 3 4 5 6

I regularly seek the views of

volunteers on issues such as how

to improve the way we do things1 2 3 4 5 6

Volunteer views are taken into

account when we plan and make

decisions about our work 1 2 3 4 5 6

When volunteers leave we make

sure we get their feedback 1 2 3 4 5 6

Volunteers should be free to move

from one role to another, if theywant to, and not be limited to

specific services or roles

1 2 3 4 5 6

All volunteers across the

organisation should be trained

in common core skills and only

undertake extra training when it

is needed in their specific role

1 2 3 4 5 6

On the whole, I feel volunteers

have a good understanding of

the boundaries of their role.

1 2 3 4 5 6




Support

Strongly

agree

Strongly

disagree

Don’t

know

I have the resources I need to

support volunteers effectively, for

example, financial, equipment or

other resources

1 2 3 4 5 6

I have had clear guidance on how

best to support volunteers1 2 3 4 5 6

I would like more support in my

role of managing volunteers1 2 3 4 5 6

I would be interested in doing a

professionally accredited trainingcourse in volunteer management

1 2 3 4 5 6

For volunteer managers, I think

leadership and coaching skills are

more important than supervisory

and management skills

1 2 3 4 5 6

Volunteers who supervise other

volunteers are provided with the

necessary support, training and

other resources to do their work

1 2 3 4 5 6

Volunteers can readily access

support when they need it1 2 3 4 5 6

The management structures at

the British Red Cross are not

supportive of staff who challenge

inappropriate behaviour from

volunteers

1 2 3 4 5 6

The difference between the role

of the UK Office volunteering team

and the role of the area or territory

volunteering teams, are not clear

1 2 3 4 5 6

Value

Strongly

agree

Strongly

disagree

Don’t

know

I value the work of Red Cross

volunteers 1 2 3 4 5 6

I feel valued by Red Cross

volunteers 1 2 3 4 5 6




Strongly

agree

Strongly

disagree

Don’t

know

Volunteers seem more valued than

staff within this organisation1 2 3 4 5 6

I can trust volunteers to carry out

their role effectively1 2 3 4 5 6

Staff and volunteers work well

together in my team1 2 3 4 5 6

I am confident that we provide

consistently good quality support

to our beneficiaries or those we

are working with

1 2 3 4 5 6

We don’t ask our beneficiariesenough for their opinions in

delivering our services

1 2 3 4 5 6

On the whole, volunteers are happy

to work alongside a diverse group

of people

1 2 3 4 5 6

On the whole, volunteers respect

the Red Cross’ fundamental

principles in their behaviour1 2 3 4 5 6

And finally…

1. What, in your opinion, are the most important things for the Red

Cross to consider to best support staff and volunteers to deliver

our work effectively?

2. Do you have any specific suggestions for how we might

improve things?

That’s all the questions. Thank you very much for taking part in this survey.




TABLE 4 MODELS OF MANAGING VOLUNTEERS: MODERN VERSUS HOMEGROWN –

A QUICK SUMMARY

“Modern” “Home grown”

Aim of organisation Most perfectly structured and

efficient bureaucracy

Fullest expression of core values

Form of authority Formal and universal: maximum

application of rules and procedures

Informal and ad hoc: maximum

application of values

Role of volunteers/employees

Equal (both “human resources) Different in principle but potentiallyequal in practice

Distribution of

authority between

volunteers and

employees

Hierarchical, with volunteers

subordinate to employees

Shared, with volunteers and

employees as partners

Control Direct, formal Indirect, loose

Social relations Functional relations with managers

and employees

Permeable boundaries: personal/

functional relations between and

among volunteers, managers,employees, clients, members etc.

Criteria for recruitment

and advancement

Process–based; equal opportunities,

risk management

Intuitive: shared ideals and interests,

friendships

Incentive structure Intrinsic, with most emphasis on

most employee–like (expenses,

training)

Intrinsic, with emphasis on fulfilment,

enjoyment

Construction of tasks Maximum division of labour

(e.g. between “intellectual” and

“mechanical”)

Minimum division of labour

Construction of

expertise

Specialist Generalist

Source: Zimmeck, 2001

Appendix E Comparing two models formanaging volunteers




Brewis, G., Hill, M., & Stevens, D. (2010).Valuing Volunteer Management Skills, Institutefor Volunteering Research. Summary at http://www.ivr.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/ADA89203–CA46–4E21–BBFB–F79A2F7D2854/0/Valuing_volunteer_management_skills_summary.pdf ,full report http://www.skills–thirdsector.org.uk/documents/Skills_report_final.pdf

Cameron, H. (1999/ 2007). Are membersVolunteers? An exploration of the concept ofmembership based on the study of local churches,

Voluntary Action 1(2) pp.53–66.

Department for Communities and LocalGovernment (2010). Citizenship Survey 2009–10and 2008–9, DCLG http://www.communities.gov.uk/communities/research/citizenshipsurvey/recentreports/

Ellis, S., & McCurley, S. (2011) What is“Quality” volunteering? e–volunteerism. http://www.e–volunteerism.com/volume–xi–issue–2–january–2011/points–view/1039

Ellis Paine, A, Ockenden, N and Stuart, J (2010)Volunteers in Hybrid Organisations: AMarginalised majority? in Hybrid Organisationsand the Third Sector, Palgrave Macmillan.

Evans, E., & Saxton, J. (2005) The 21stCentury Volunteer: A report on the changing faceof volunteering in the 21st Century, nfpsynergy forthe Scout Association. http://www.nfpsynergy.net/includes/documents/cm_docs/2010/2/21st_century_volunteer.pdf

Gaskin, K. (2003) A choice blend: Whatvolunteers want from organisation andmanagement , IVR and the EnglandVolunteering Forum. http://www.volunteering.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/C2D97CE0–017F–4BF1–8120–68B08ADD8D26/0/choicblend.pdf Goodall, R. (2000). Organising cultures:volunteerism & professionalism in UK CharityShops, Voluntary Action Journal. http://www.ivr.org.uk/VA+Documents%2fVA3_1%2farticle3_goodall.pdf

Handy, F., Brodeur, N., & Cnaan, R. (2006).Summer on the Island: Episodic volunteering ,Voluntary Action 7(3) pp.31–46.

Hill, M. (2011). Volunteering and the recession.The Institute for Volunteering ResearchThinkpiece. http://www.ivr.org.uk/News/Thinkpieces Hurley, N., Wilson, L., & Christie, I. (2008).Scottish Household Survey Analytical Report:Volunteering, Scottish Government SocialResearch. Locke, M., Ellis, A., & Davis Smith, J. (2003)Hold on to what you’ve got: the volunteer

retention literature, Voluntary Action Journal, Vol 5, No.3. http://www.ivr.org.uk/VA+Documents%2fVA5_3%2farticle5_lockeetal.pdf Low, N., Butt, S., Ellis Paine, A., and DavisSmith, J. (2007) Helping Out: A national surveyof volunteering and charitable giving , CabinetOffice: London

Macduff, N. (2005). Societal changes and therise of the Episodic volunteer, in J. Brudney (eds)

Emerging areas of volunteering . ARNOVAOccasional Paper Series 1, 2 Indianapolis.

Meijs, L., & Hoogstad, E. (2001). New Ways ofManaging Volunteers: Combining membershipmanagement and programme management,Voluntary Action 3(3) pp.41–61

Murray, V., & Harrison, Y. (2005). VirtualVolunteering , in J. Brudney (eds) Emerging areasof volunteering . ARNOVA Occasional PaperSeries 1, 2 Indianapolis.

Omoto, A.M., & Snyder, M. (2008). Volunteerism: Social Issues Perspectives andSocial Policy Implications. Social Issues andPolicy Review, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2008, pp. 1–36

Rochester, C., Ellis–Paine, A., & Howlett, S.(2010), Volunteering and Society in the 21st Century, Palgrave Macmillan, http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=292515 Sibley, M. (2010). From Bean Counting toBehaviour Analysis, Paper for Volunteering

Counts conference, held in March 2010, co–organised by the Institute for VolunteeringResearch, Volunteer Development Scotland, theWales Council for Voluntary Action and the

Appendix F External literature reading list

http://www.ivr.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/ADA89203-CA46-4E21-BBFB-F79A2F7D2854/0/Valuing_volunteer_management_skills_summary.pdf




http://www.skills-thirdsector.org.uk/documents/Skills_report_final.pdf


http://www.communities.gov.uk/communities/research/citizenshipsurvey/recentreports/



http://www.e-volunteerism.com/volume-xi-issue-2-january-2011/points-view/1039



http://www.nfpsynergy.net/includes/documents/cm_docs/2010/2/21st_century_volunteer.pdf



http://www.volunteering.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/C2D97CE0-017F-4BF1-8120-68B08ADD8D26/0/choicblend.pdf



http://www.ivr.org.uk/VA+Documents%2fVA3_1%2farticle3_goodall.pdf



http://www.ivr.org.uk/News/Thinkpieces


http://www.ivr.org.uk/VA+Documents%2fVA5_3%2farticle5_lockeetal.pdf



http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=292515

































Volunteer Development Agency, Northern Ireland.Paper submitted by BTCV. http://www.ivr.org.uk/events/Past+Events/Vol+Counts

Staetsky, L. (2010). Individual voluntaryparticipation in the United Kingdom: An overviewof survey information, Third Sector ResearchCentre. Briefing and working paper series 6.http://www.tsrc.ac.uk/Research/Quantitative-Analysis/Individualvoluntaryparticipationin-theUK/tabid/520/Default.aspx

Stuart, J. (2009). Strong Foundations: ReviewingCrisis volunteering programme, IVR.

The Institute for Volunteering Research (2006).Unlocking the potential. Reviewing the WildlifeTrusts project to strengthen volunteering. http://www.ivr.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/61B5DCA2–DE33–47C7–9C67–727D692E7DF7/0/wildlife_trust.pdf

Zimmeck, M. (2001) The Right Stuff: Newways of thinking about managing volunteers, IVR.

http://www.ivr.org.uk/Migrated+Resources%2fDcuments%2fR%2fThe_Right_Stuff.pdf

http://www.ivr.org.uk/events/Past+Events/Vol+Counts


http://www.tsrc.ac.uk/Research/QuantitativeAnalysis/IndividualvoluntaryparticipationintheUK/tabid/520/Default.aspx







http://www.ivr.org.uk/Migrated+Resources%2fDocuments%2fR%2fThe_Right_Stuff.pdf
















Note: This does not claim to be an exhaustive list of all projects but highlights

those that came to light during the research. It shows the huge breadth and

range of internal information gathering that is taking place across the

organisation related to volunteering.

TABLE 5 INTERNAL RESEARCH PROJECTS RELATED TO VOLUNTEERING

Projects are listed in descending order of their year of completion ,

i.e. the most recently completed projects first.

Name of

project/report Contact Aim/ Further details

Year

completed/published Area

The Volunteer

Motivation

and Retention

Project

Jessica

Lightfoot &

Carlton Jones

To increase understanding of

what makes a quality volunteer

experience and to identify how

we can support and motivate

volunteers to remain with the

British Red Cross for as long as

possible.

2011 London

Volunteer socialevening (forum)

non–attender

survey –

Manchester

Linzi Crossley

To find out what might encourage

volunteers to attend forums with theoverall aim to improve activities and

make volunteering for the British

Red Cross a rewarding experience.

2011

Lancs,Merseyside

& Greater

Manchester

Volunteer

recruitment

survey 2010

Nancy Elkins

To benchmark our recruitment

and induction process and identify

where good practice is taking place

and how best to share this.

2011 National

Review of

volunteercouncils and

Volunteer

Representation

Guidance

Nancy Elkins

Guidance produced following

the review to support goodrepresentation in the quality local

experience in volunteering.

2011 National

Volunteer

experience –

developmental

research

Paul

Robinson &

Janet Crick

To explore current practice and

staff aspirations in relation to

volunteering in order to enhance

the volunteer experience.

2011

Hampshire,

Surrey & Isle

of Wight

VolunteerProject

Paige Earlam& Linzi

Crossley

To research the volunteering

experience from the point of viewof staff and volunteers and explore

successful areas and challenging

issues.

2011

Lancs,

Merseyside& Greater

Manchester

Appendix G Internal research projects




Name of

project/

report Contact Aim/ Further details

Year

completed/

published Area

Learning

Organisation

Baseline Survey

at the British

Red Cross

Alison

McNulty

& Femi

Nzegwu

To provide a baseline measurement

of organisational learning at the

British Red Cross and a way of

tracking movements towards this

goal in the future

2011 National

The Value of

Volunteers

International

Federation

To explore, establish and report on

the economic and social value of

volunteering (data was collected

across all National Societies). The

IFRC is commited to creating anenabling environment for volunteers

and ensure all volunteers can

provide a meaningful contribution.

2011 International

Mystery

Shopping

Survey 2010.

Responding to

Young People

Karen

Sheldon

To evaluate the staff’s speed of

response, helpfulness, level of

enthusiasm and adherence to

British Red Cross standards when

responding to enquiries.

2010 National

Young people

and the Red

Cross – Here

for good survey

Karen

Sheldon

The original research project was

carried out in 2006 to explore anddevelop a new strategy to enhance

the quality and develop the reach

of the involvement of young people

across the British Red Cross. This

research was repeated to obtain

further feedback from young

volunteers on how we can attract

and retain more young people.

2010 National

Excellence

awards

nominations

Simon De

Lacy Leacy

To showcase and promote

examples of good practice in all

service areas across the UK. One of

the categories for the 2010 Awardsfocused on volunteering – Making

volunteers count.

2010 National

Volunteer

Report South

West Wales.

Health &

Social Care

Barry Miles

This report aims to provide

information and an overview in

relation to changes in volunteer

recruitment, deployment and

management in South West Wales.

2010 Wales

Volunteer

SatisfactionSurvey

Janet

Williams &Laura Clays

A baseline survey in order to

measure improvements to enhance

the volunteering experienceexploring specific elements such

as recruitment, engagement etc.

2010 Wales




Name of

project/


Year

completed/

published Area

Engaging

with Young

Volunteers in

Mid Scotland

and Argyll.

Understanding

young person

volunteer

participation

Thea Tomison

To ascertain whether Mid Scotland

and Argyll have fallen behind the

rest of Scotland in terms of youth

participation and suggest ways in

which volunteer numbers can be

increased.

2010

Mid Scotland

and Argyll

Volunteers’

Week 2010.Project

evaluation

Penny Sims

To evaluate how the Big Red Bus

initiative worked during volunteer

week in achieving it’s aim ofincreasing awareness of

opportunities and recruitment

of retail volunteers.

2010 National

Improving

the volunteer

experience,

Derby

University

Study

Rebekah

Neelin

To identify what constitutes the

best quality volunteering experience

and feed into the overall aim of

improving the volunteer experience

across the Area.

2010

Derbyshire,

Notts &

Cheshire

Engagingwith University

Students:

Working with

University

Groups and

Individual

Students

Louise Halpin

Guidance to establish, support andrecruit university groups in SNIIOM

2010

Scotland,

Northern

Ireland & the

Isle of Man

Presidents and

Patrons review

Annie

Bibbings

To explore how presidents,

vice presidents and patrons

undertake their roles and make

recommendations for change.

2010 National

Defining

resilience at

the British

Red Cross

Femi Nzegwu

Overall aim of this study is to

develop a conceptual definition

of resilience within the British

Red Cross & a framework for

operationalising its use in the

work of the organisation.

2010 National

Volunteer

fundraiser

recruitment

survey

Pippa

Westwood

A survey of community fundraising

staff exploring volunteer

recruitment.

2010 National




Name of

project/


Year

completed/

published Area

Positive Images

conference

report (2010)

MyrthaWaite

This report highlights the interim

learning from the postitive images

project, particularly related to youth

awareness–raising activites on

migration issues.

2010 National

Volunteer

Healthcheck

Pilot

Nancy Elkins

To explore Area baseline

levels against indicators relating

to volunteer recruitment, training

and services in order to enable

ongoing measurement of progress

and development.

2010

Derbyshire,

Notts &

Cheshire

Have Your Say

Survey 2009

Nancy Linton

To explore staff and volunteer views

on a number of themes around

working/volunteering for the Red

Cross, and to understand where the

organisation could do more to

support the workforce.

2009 National

Internship

project

evaluation

Kate Appleby

To evaluate the spread of

internships across the

organisation and promotion of

internships through internal and

external communication channels.

2009 National

Refugee

services –

volunteer

experiences?

Sue Yin

& Sarah

Davidson

To explore how refugees

volunteering with refugees feel,

talk about themselves and their

volunteering role. This was carried

out by a student at the University

of East London who completed a

report titled A discourse analysis of

how refugee volunteers talk about

themselves and their experiences

of volunteering.

2009 London

Volunteer Exit

Pilot Report Syed Haque

To understand and record whyvolunteers leave the British Red

Cross and to make

recommendations on how best

to capture this information.

2009 National

Diversity

involving

muslim

youth

Karen

Sheldon

To explore how the British Red

Cross can attract more BME

volunteers, focusing on

Muslim youth

2009 National

Evaluation of

British RedCross volunteer

placements

Phillip Vollie

and Lynne Tinsley

(SchoolZone)

To evaluate volunteer placements at

the British Red Cross and why thevolunteers felt how they did.

2008 National




Name of

project/


Year

completed/

published Area

After the floods:

the lessons for

recovery

Cathy Sharp,

Danny Burns

(SOLAR) and

Lisa Bass ( )

To explore the emerging lessons

from an action research project

looking at how the British Red

Cross can work with external

partners in best meeting the needs

of people during the recovery stage

of a major incident. To develop

a range of services provided by

the British Red Cross to meet the

needs of people affected by

flooding.

2008 Yorkshires

Re–engaging

with First Aid

Trainers

Charlotte

Franolic

To improve the development ofcapacity and support systems and

to gain an understanding of how to

better engage trainers at the British

Red Cross.

2007 National

Review of

volunteer

awards

HR &

Education

To review the awards & recognition

scheme to ensure it reflects the

desires of current volunteers & to

ensure the awards scheme is

attractive to potential volunteers.

2007 National

Rethinking

vulnerability

Emily Laurie To re–evaluate the organisation’swork with vulnerable people: to

review who we should be working

with effectively.

2007 National

Youth

representation

and

participation

in decision–

making in the

British Red

Cross

Karen

Sheldon

To seek and test ways to ensure

that young volunteers (15–25 year

olds) are able to influence the

organisation at every level. 2007 National

Taking

volunteers

seriously

International

Federation

To evaluate the progress of

volunteering internationally, and

to help National Societies provide

a favourable internal and external

environment that encourages and

facilitates the work of volunteers,

and that promotes volunteerism

across all sectors of society.

2007 International




Name of

project/


Year

completed/

published Area

Making a

difference

through

volunteering –

the impact of

volunteers who

support and

care for people

at home

Liz Urben

To identify and emphasise the

contribution of volunteers involved

in supporting people also receiving

other health and social care

support from statutory services,

usually linked with home care

services. This project was carried

out in partnership with Help the

Aged and CSV.

2006 National

Attracting

volunteers

amongst thegeneral pulic

BrandEnergy

Research

To provide information to help

support British Red Cross initiatives

to attract more volunteers into theorganisation.

2006 National

Engaging

adults –

Red Cross

positioning

BrandEnergy

Research

To explore how adults perceive

the British Red Cross and other

charities, and their views about

supporting the organisation.

2006 National

Engaging

young people

BrandEnergy

Research

To explore young peoples

pereptions and attitudes towards

supporting the Red Cross, and how

best for the orgisation to engage

with young people.

2006 National

New, dynamic,

innovative

volunteering

opportunities

for young

people

Steve

Brennan

To detail positive experiences from

young volunteers and to identify

areas where more work may need

to be done with young volunteers

in the British Red Cross.

2006 Staffs, West

Mids & Warks

Changing

Humanity –

A report

into the

nature ofhumanitarian-

ism in the

21st Century

Elisha Evans

& Joe Saxton

(nfpsynergy)

The purpose of this report is to look

at the changing nature of our hu-

manity and how organisations like

the British Red Cross can spread

humanitarianism.

2005 National

Diversity

and Values

Project:

Diversity

Review

Managing

Divesity

Associates

(MDA)

To determine where the

organisation is on diversity, and

what it needs to do to make any

appropriate changes. To locate

gaps between organisation policy

and practice.

2004 National




Ongoing or forthcoming projects

Reasons for leaving Jonathan

McDonnell

To investigate reasons for leaving,

motivation for starting volunteering and

whether expectations of volunteering within

the British Red Cross were met. Telephone

interviews being done by a member of the

volunteer council.

Lincs,

Rutland,

Northants

& Leics.

Recruitment and

induction process in

Northern Ireland

John Lyttle

Objective is to test the perceptions of

recently recruited volunteers to the modern

British Red Cross induction process as part

of continual improvement

Northern

Ireland

Communication and

volunteer councils

Joseph

Turrent

A survey to volunteer councils to gain

feedback on communications across the

Territory.

South

Eastern

Territory

Volunteer satisfaction Brenda Allan

A follow up to the Have Your Say survey

to explore volunteer satisfaction across

the Area. Being carried out within the

communications team.

North East

& Cumbria

Volunteer recruitment Sally Kilner

To research avenues of recruiting both

young and adult volunteers who can

support the service delivery in West

Yorkshire. To include desk based research

and consultation with partner agencies to

assess volunteer participation. Being carriedout within the Youth and Schools team.

Yorkshires

Experiences of young

volunteers

Katherine

Lorraine

To investigate parity in the experience of

young volunteers. Being carried out within

the Schools and Community Engagement

team at UKO.

National

Photo credits are listed from left to right, in clockwise order © BRC

Front Cover: Steve Watkins, Callum Bennets/Maverick Photo Agency, Page 9: Jonathan Banks, Page 10: Anthony Upton,

Page 12: Claudia Janke, Page 13: Derek Gordon, Page 14: Jonathan Banks, Page 17: Stephen Latimer, Page 18: Elise

Blackshaw, Page 20: Anthony Upton, Page 23: Alex Rumford, Page 25: Derek Gordon, Page 26: Tony Hall, Page 28: Paul

Macabe/UNP, Page 29: Layton Thompson, Page 32: Layton Thompson, Page 35: Lloyd Sturdy, Page 39: Anthony Upton,

Page 40: Jonathan Banks, Page 42: Tim George/UNP, Page 45: Lloyd Sturdy, Page 46: Tim George/UNP, Page 49: Kate

Lee, Page 50: Tony Hall, Page 52: Paul Macabe/UNP, Page 55: Steve Watkins, Page 57: Harriet Armstrong, Page 58:

Jonathan Banks, Page 60: Lloyd Sturdy, Page 63: Lloyd Sturdy, Page 64: Julian Hamilton, Page 66: Pete Willows, Page

69: Alex Rumford, Page 71: Hannah Maule-ffinch, Page 96: Alex Rumford

Research Report Quality Volunteering at the British Red Cross

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