Thursday 16-11-2017 - 08:12

How many of us say in various policies that volunteering should not replace a paid post in a charity? Is this statement becoming increasingly untenable in today's voluntary sector? In fact, do we need to take a long hard look at how volunteers are in fact now replacing paid roles across growing swathes of the third sector?

The Local Charity & Community Group Sustainability Report 2016 has reached some rather bleak conclusions. It received almost 600 respondents from charities and community groups around the UK. A key finding of the report is: "without the necessary funds to pay salaries and retain employees, more than three quarters of groups are…seeing a reduction in paid staff. This is compounding existing skill gaps - particularly within fundraising and marketing - and leaving the sector ever more reliant on volunteers". This is borne out in the chart below from the report which highlights the percentage of functions performed by paid staff versus volunteers amongst respondents.

The report is clear that volunteers fulfil vital functions across a range of core roles. It sounds a word of warning regarding this trend: “While it is important for the character of the sector to retain a high proportion of volunteers, such a rapid loss of paid staff is likely to impact negatively on service continuity and capacity and lead to a reduction in overall skill levels.”

Other pertinent conclusions are:  

• 27% of groups surveyed said that they found recruiting suitably skilled volunteers to be “challenging” or “extremely challenging”.

• After “generating income and achieving sustainability” survey respondents rated “finding and retaining volunteers” as their most pressing issue over the coming year”.

• "There is a clear divide between small and larger groups in the division of labour between volunteers and paid staff. Over 80% of Chief Executives, senior management, finance, fundraisers and marketers are volunteers amongst groups with an annual income of £50k or under. However, for groups with an annual income of over £500k, fewer than 8% of these roles are held by volunteers.”

• Economic concerns are having an impact on charities’ ability to deliver training to its staff and volunteers. 41% of respondents cite their lack of budget as a barrier to training volunteers, with a further 26% citing a lack of time.

As volunteering managers we have an important role to play in this. So what should our response be to these findings? One might be to offer more and smarter training to students before and during volunteering. This could address the skills gap and training deficits within the charities themselves. Another might be to become more innovative and creative in helping charities to identify and recruit suitably skilled volunteers. This could involve the adoption of smarter brokerage software as well as performing more enhanced screening of candidates. Another response could be to focus strategically on supporting smaller organisations rather than large national groups.

Perhaps we should also ask ourselves some more searching questions. For example; are we complicit in the staffing crisis that the voluntary sector is now facing? Will these services continue to be starved of funds because they are papering over the cracks with volunteers? By providing volunteers are we helping to disguise this funding crisis; allowing policy makers and funders to justify further cuts and helping them to avoid taking decisive action to provide community services with the support that they need?

I am sure we will all reach our own conclusions. This report poses some challenges and also offers opportunities for us to innovate. The report suggests that growing numbers of the UK public are dependent on charities, and thus the goodwill and efforts of volunteers. Ensuring they are the right volunteers is therefore more necessary than ever.

Written by Joe Crooks | Volunteering Manager | Civic Engagement | University of East London