Report of the Strategic Director, Communities and Environment

The Committee received the Annual Update Report with regards to the Volunteer Plan.  The Committee has previously agreed that they should receive an annual update on the implementation of the Council’s Volunteers Plan, now known as Helping Out.

Gateshead Council has adopted the Making Gateshead a Place Where Everyone Thrives, and this will supersede the current Council Plan.

The Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy 2019/20 to 2023/2 states that the Council will continue to seek to mitigate demand pressures within services by capacity building within communities, including where appropriate, work with partners and volunteers.

In April 2018 this Committee agreed the content of the Volunteers Plan Refresh.  The plan offered a new set of commitments to support residents and community organisations in Gateshead to help each other out.

The original Volunteers Plan (2013) and refresh (2018) have helped provide a co-ordinated approach to volunteering in Gateshead.  The plan was originally structured around key principles which aimed to support volunteers as well as organisations and services delivering volunteer opportunities.

Since the creation of the original plan in 2013 there are now 1978 residents registered with Gateshead to volunteer and increase of 1928.  A conservative estimate is there could be as many as 8000 to 10000 volunteers helping across our communities.

Corporate volunteer days continue to grow in demand, with a total of over 80 individual organisations being offered tailored bespoke volunteer days supporting an estimated 2500 individual employee volunteers.  The economic value to the Gateshead community is estimated at £160,955.

The Volunteer Plan and systems for the management of volunteering projects had remained largely unchanged since 2013 until the refresh.  Therefore, some of the systems and processes that support the recruitment and retention of volunteers are now difficult to manage efficiently due to the increasing volume of volunteering requests and the capacity available to process the requests.  It has also always been acknowledged that the Council’s arrangements only cover a fraction of the volunteering that takes place across Gateshead.

Council officers have worked with Open Lab Newcastle and PACT Lab Northumbria to try and find ways to address some of the issues around recruitment and management of volunteers.  One of the main findings from this and other research into volunteer recruitment is that an online system is required to provide appropriate support and alleviate some of the current constraints.  The Team are now looking at the various off the shelf volunteer management systems that could be purchased to help improve efficiency and quality of the support.

In May 2014 Gateshead Council Employee Volunteering Policy was refreshed enabling employees to request up to 15 hours paid time to volunteer in Gateshead over a 12-month period.  This needs to be matched by at least 15 hours pro rata of employee’s own time.  The scheme also allows employees to take part in taster sessions.  Promotional activity will continue in 2018/19 with an aim to increase the number of employee volunteer days.

Throughout Gateshead there are many different informal environmental Friends of Groups (FOG) that support their local community with the maintenance and upkeep of Gateshead’s open spaces and parks.

There are currently an estimated 40 FOGs in 2017.  These groups all have their own individual aims and objectives as well as support needs.  Development with these groups is supported by the Volunteer Coordinator for Countryside and Environment as well as the Development Officer for Volunteering.  One of the recurring barriers for these group was around public liability insurance.  As the volunteers making up the FOGs would be delivering activities within open spaces and parks (where there are likely to be members of the public) Public Liability Insurance is a necessity.  This is not only to protect members of the public but also the volunteers themselves.  A procedure has been established and developed with Gateshead Council to enable FOGs to register their volunteers and received tailored support around tasks within designated open spaces, receive equipment that is required, necessary training and any additional volunteers as well as any other areas of support identified.

A specific area of work which has been identified through recent work is volunteering and young people.  Through work with organisations such as National Citizenship Service (NCS) and Tyne Wear Skills there is a strong need to develop some work and support to link young people with volunteering opportunities and projects that are available in Gateshead.

There are several priority areas for future actions which have been identified in the continued delivery of the Volunteers Plan:

·         Create a new online management system to recruit volunteers, record volunteers, promote volunteer roles and match available volunteers to opportunities within Gateshead. The system will also need to generate specific reports to monitor volunteering.

·         Continue promotion of the Employee Volunteering Scheme specifically group volunteer opportunities for teams of Council employees

·         Create and deliver the volunteer programme supporting The World Transplant Games 17^th – 24^th August 2019 (listed in Appendix 1)

·         Continue development work with corporate organisations around group volunteering and provide links to the voluntary sector

·         Continued development of volunteering opportunities on OurGateshead and using the online resource as a space to share experiences and good news stories to illustrate examples of good practice

·         Continued development work with local colleges and universities

·         Development of young people and volunteering including Tyne Wear Skills and for example specific tailored projects for groups of young people including sixth forms and secondary schools as well as youth groups

·         Continue to provide lead support for volunteering with the Voluntary & Community sector as well as for council service projects and roles.

·         Specific support including a conference type event for Environmental Friends of Groups working with Street Scene Team.

·         Continue working relationships with Trade Unions regarding the creation of further volunteering opportunities.

It was suggested that councillors and senior officers put themselves forward once per year for a particular piece of work.

It was suggested that the voluntary sector be linked with economic development for support.

RESOLVED -              that the comments of the Committee be noted.