Volunteering
Good-practice guidance
June 2016
If you require a copy of this guidance in an alternative format (large print, Braille or audio
version), or if your first language is not English, we can provide it in the appropriate format or
language if you ask us. It is also available in Welsh.
Heritage Lottery Fund
Volunteering – Good-practice guidance
Contents
1.
Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 3
2.
What do we mean by volunteering? ................................................................................. 3
3.
Why do people volunteer? ................................................................................................ 4
4.
Why encourage volunteering? .......................................................................................... 4
5.
Barriers to volunteering .................................................................................................... 5
6.
What kind of activities can volunteers do in heritage projects? .................................... 6
7.
Planning and costing your volunteer activity .................................................................. 8
8.
Training volunteers and volunteer managers .................................................................. 9
9.
Questions to consider as you plan your project ........................................................... 11
10. Sources of advice and information ................................................................................ 14
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1. Introduction
This good-practice guidance is designed to help you think about an application to HLF for a
project that seeks to achieve the outcome: ‘people will have volunteered time.’ Providing
opportunities for volunteers, or improving their experience, could also potentially contribute
towards other outcomes, such as ‘heritage will be better managed’, ‘people will have developed
skills’ or ‘more people and a wider range of people will have engaged with heritage.’
The good practice in the guidance is drawn from the experience of HLF-funded projects, and
others.
2. What do we mean by volunteering?
A range of definitions of volunteering exist in the UK. HLF uses the definition published in the
2008 Volunteering Compact Code of Practice:
‘Volunteering is... an activity that involves spending time, unpaid, doing something that aims to
benefit the environment or individuals or groups other than (or in addition to) close relatives.’
This definition is shared with the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), and
many other bodies across the UK. Other definitions in common use, including those provided by
the Scottish and Welsh Governments, can be found via the web addresses in section 10 of this
document.
Volunteering in HLF projects can involve participating in activities at a heritage site, or the
opportunity to volunteer remotely, supported by technology. Your project may aim to create
opportunities for individuals or groups, including families, businesses and community networks.
When planning volunteering opportunities, it is important to be mindful of employment law and
the clear distinction between volunteers and workers or employees eligible for national minimum
wage levels, including apprentices and paid trainees. NCVO offers guidance, and the UK
Government website contains information about employment status, volunteering (including
examples to help explain issues around pay and expenses), and specific information about
employment rights for interns. The term ‘intern’ has no legal definition; an intern is either a
worker or employee, or a volunteer, and it is important to be clear which kind of role is being
created.
We want our grants to contribute to promoting a diverse, appropriately skilled heritage
workforce, with fair and accessible entry routes to employment in the sector. In the development
of your project, therefore, consider carefully the implications for equality of access of any
volunteering role, particularly those aimed at individuals seeking to gain skills and experience as
a step towards employment in the sector. We encourage you to build paid internships or
traineeships into your project if this is likely to bring new people into the sector who perhaps
could not afford to volunteer.
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Factors that might indicate that a position should be paid rather than voluntary include:
expected, regular working days; commitment to volunteer over a long, fixed period of time; a
high number of hours per week (eg above 0.4 FTE); a promise to provide a contract or further
work that will be paid; an assignment of duties that were previously undertaken by paid staff.
3.
Why do people volunteer?
People volunteer for many different reasons. They may choose to volunteer to develop skills; to
gain experience by putting existing skills developed in a different context to new use; or to add
interest to a CV. Some people want to put something back into an organisation that has helped
or inspired them, and others want to support an organisation whose ideals they identify with.
Others may want to meet people, keep active, experience a new sense of independence, or do
something worthwhile with their spare time. In 2015, the Commission on the Voluntary Sector
and Ageing identified an increasing need for volunteering opportunities both for young people at
the early stages of their lives, and for older citizens able to make substantial contributions long
after retirement.
Volunteers vary widely in the commitment they are able to give. Some volunteers are happy to
join an organisation indefinitely and keep their contribution flexible, while others would prefer to
volunteer on specific projects with a beginning and an end. Some volunteers want to work
outdoors and like physical labour; others might prefer to complete tasks from home or online.
New approaches such as bite-size or micro-volunteering may encourage involvement for those
less able to commit, including students, parents and professionals. Consider offering a variety of
opportunities in your project to appeal to a range of people.
4. Why encourage volunteering?
Volunteering is a vibrant expression of active citizenship. It is a powerful force for social change,
both for those who fulfil their potential through volunteering and for the wider community.
Volunteers can offer support, expertise and innovation to any organisation, enhancing impact
and adding value.
Volunteering can:
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help an organisation achieve its aims and objectives;
enable more tasks to be completed;
allow services to be extended beyond the core or help to respond to short-term demand;
give access to new skills, and enhance projects by providing wider experience and
external perspectives;
contribute to the sustainability of projects and heritage assets by increasing community
ownership;
create important links with the community, rally community support to fundraise into the
future, and provide powerful ambassadors for an organisation;
promote user involvement and keep the organisation in touch with grass roots feelings
and perceptions;
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build and sustain community support for the project by actively involving other organised
volunteering groups beyond your organisation;
create opportunities for people to learn about heritage and have an enjoyable
experience;
build volunteers' skills and confidence to contribute to management committees;
have a positive impact upon volunteers’ confidence, wellbeing and/or physical and
mental health;
support people to build the transferable skills and experience they need to find a job or
change jobs, or offer chances for recently retired people to maintain and share skills;
provide in-kind contributions for external grants.
You can read more about the benefits people experience from volunteering with heritage
projects in our social impact research, available on the HLF website.
Our research has shown that a heritage volunteer group is rarely fully representative of the local
population, tending to be white, older and with higher than average qualifications. Given what
we know about the positive benefits of volunteering, we want National Lottery players’ money to
bring those benefits to as wide a range of people as possible. Our research also tells us that,
where projects do engage those beyond the ‘typical’ heritage volunteer, the individual impacts
are even greater. We therefore welcome applications that seek to:
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increase opportunities for heritage volunteering by people of all ages, abilities and
backgrounds, to increase diversity in your organisation;
increase the quality of heritage volunteering opportunities, including through the steps
highlighted in section 9 of this guidance;
match important tasks in the heritage sector with the right people;
provide tailored training and support for volunteers; and
offer taster sessions as a way to encourage new volunteers.
5. Barriers to volunteering
A wide range of factors may prevent or deter people from volunteering. They may include
physical barriers, the attitudes of individuals, cultural barriers, differing understandings of the
value and purpose of volunteering, and not being aware of volunteering opportunities or access
to opportunities in society.
Specific examples include:
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the cost to the individual of volunteering;
opportunities to volunteer being located far from where potential volunteers live or where
transport is poor, or at times that make it difficult for people with work, study or caring
commitments to participate;
potential volunteers’ lack of confidence in their ability to undertake the task offered;
physical barriers for people with disabilities at a building or site; and
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the culture of organisations, which may sometimes be perceived as less welcoming to
people who do not fit their current volunteer profile.
We encourage you to think about possible financial barriers to volunteering, and to include
reasonable costs to overcome these barriers; see Section 7 for further information.
It might be possible to overcome barriers relating to location and timing, and therefore make
your volunteering opportunities accessible to a wider range of people, by developing more
flexible volunteer roles. Some projects have achieved this through digital or other volunteering
roles, which can be done from home, regular drop-in volunteering sessions, or through
partnerships with other organisations in alternative locations.
Issues around confidence can be addressed through training as well as ‘buddying’ schemes
between more and less experienced volunteers, or mentoring from members of staff. Ways to
overcome cultural barriers impeding members of particular community groups from volunteering
in heritage might be found through the contribution of community champions, and other
appropriate volunteer representatives from these groups.
If you are a service provider, we expect you to meet your obligations under the Equality Act
2010 as part of your everyday business. We can consider the costs of reasonable adjustments
to overcome barriers that would stop disabled people volunteering (such as providing auxiliary
aids and services) where these are part of a wider project and you intend to reach out to
disabled people to be volunteers. See our guidance Making your project accessible for disabled
people for further information.
6. What kind of activities can volunteers do in heritage projects?
This section gives some suggestions for the kinds of activities volunteers can undertake in a
project, but is not exhaustive. You can find more examples of volunteering activities within HLF
projects by looking at the case studies on our website.
As noted, it’s useful to provide a variety of volunteering experiences that are appealing and
accessible to a range of volunteer needs and preferences, as well as organisational needs.
Projects involving volunteers can often be especially effective and inspiring when they include
opportunities to take part in substantial, skilled activities, and that give volunteers the opportunity
to experience and contribute to key aspects of your organisation’s work.
All sectors:
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skilled professionals offering fundraising, learning, business planning or IT skills to
heritage organisations;
older people helping to plan and test out easy access routes at either built or natural
heritage sites;
anyone involved in decision-making as a Trustee, member of a Friends group or project
management team;
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remote volunteering, where people can undertake tasks such as cataloguing records or
collecting data from home, often enabled by the internet;
community representatives with a commitment to help an organisation to plan and
engage with their culture/community;
being a tour guide, site guide or explainer;
assisting with community engagement sessions and events.
Museums, libraries and archives:
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young people giving their time on youth panels or as consultants, to help create a childfriendly experience or to curate an exhibition;
helping staff or a Friends group research and organise a series of talks;
helping to meet the needs of a more diverse range of visitors as front of house
volunteers;
describing, indexing, transcribing, digitising or translating records as part of a project
giving wider access to a local archive;
delivering education or family events.
Historic buildings:
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making a house come alive for visitors by dressing in period costumes and interpreting
its history through role play;
demonstrating traditional skills and crafts that help visitors understand how people lived
or worked in the past, or conservation skills showing how historic properties are
maintained today;
forming a Trust and applying to HLF to rescue and give a sustainable purpose to an
underused church, barn or other property;
digging at archaeological sites;
historical research on the building and/or its environs or collections.
Industrial, maritime and transport:
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joining a project to restore a fishing or canal boat, and assisting trips for the public once
complete;
helping to redisplay transport collections to bring them up-to-date and make them more
accessible;
restoring steam locomotives or other historic machinery, and passing on the necessary
skills to young people as part of an accredited training programme;
providing family activity events for visitors to a historic railway.
Community heritage:
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delivering a reminiscence outreach project, visiting the elderly in care homes with
objects, pictures or recordings from a museum or archive collection;
delivering an oral history project, for example, based on a local social history theme;
organising community events and fundraising initiatives;
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looking after a project website or social media presence, or blogging about a project.
Natural heritage (land projects, biodiversity or parks):
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surveying and recording habitats and species and reporting this data to local biological
record centres, contributing to local Biodiversity Action Plan targets;
landscape management and maintenance, including tasks such as reed-cutting and
footpath construction;
teaching young people how to monitor and record marine environments;
reporting biodiversity or scientific data from home online, as part of a citizen science
project;
serving in a community run café or shop;
assisting with environmental education sessions for school groups;
helping to run a visitor centre.
7. Planning and costing your volunteer activity
Volunteers give their time freely and are excellent value for money, but they are not cost free.
When putting your project together we recommend that you balance the level of voluntary
activity against the cost of managing it. For instance, where continuity, reliability and consistent
quality are critical to the project’s success, it might be more effective or better value for money to
take on a new salaried member of staff than recruit, train and manage a number of volunteers
over the lifetime of the project.
Before involving volunteers in your project you should consider all of the costs involved,
including:
Recruitment – If you intend to recruit new volunteers through your project you will need
appropriate publicity materials, adverts and/or events that are designed to reach and encourage
the people you want to target. You could consider recruiting volunteers based on activities,
rather than written applications.
Training – Volunteers will need a full induction to your organisation in addition to any training
linked to individual tasks. For example, volunteers may require health and safety training or,
specific training such as a course in dry stone walling. Training can be an important motivating
factor when recruiting new volunteers.
The opportunity to claim expenses – Volunteers should not be ‘out of pocket’. The main
expenses are likely to be reasonable travel costs to and from the place of volunteering, and any
travelling they need to do as part of the task they are involved with; some organisations may
also choose to reimburse volunteers for basic meal costs. Some volunteers may need to claim
childcare and other expenses.
Space and equipment – Depending on the role, volunteers may need a desk, and access to a
telephone and computer (and therefore the allocation of a proportion of organisational
overheads). They may also require specialist clothing, tools or equipment; depending on the
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role, for health and safety reasons you may have a responsibility to provide volunteers with
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as goggles, gloves or footwear. Volunteers with
disabilities may need special adjustments to the workplace, such as computer software, in order
for them to volunteer.
Management – Like staff, volunteers perform best when they are effectively managed and you
will need to allocate staff, time and resources appropriately. This may include training staff to
manage volunteers, conduct volunteer reviews, keep learning logs, and conduct exit interviews.
Recognising volunteers – You may wish to recognise your volunteers’ contribution and create
opportunities for them to feel more connected to your organisation by organising celebration
events, social occasions or ‘go-and-see’ visits to learn from good practice in other places.
Insurance cover – If you are working with volunteers you must have an insurance policy that
includes volunteers. Volunteers must be covered either under employer’s liability insurance or
public liability insurance. Depending on the type of work involved your organisation may need
professional indemnity insurance as well. Policies should explicitly mention volunteers because
they may not automatically be covered.
Organisational policy – Volunteers should be referenced in all relevant organisational policies
and documents for your organisation, including but not limited to Health and Safety Policy (e.g.
lone working procedures, driving at work policies etc.), Safeguarding Policy, Data Protection
Policy, organisational risk assessments, and Service Level Agreements regarding customer
service.
Safeguarding – Disclosure and Barring Service checks are free for volunteers but are usually
only available for those who have sole charge of children or vulnerable adults. Remember that
the process can take some time so plan ahead (visit the government website for more
information). Projects taking direct supervision of young or vulnerable volunteers have
responsibility for safeguarding, appointing a designated person with safeguarding responsibility
and ensuring that volunteers know who to talk to if they have any concerns about safeguarding.
The experience of volunteering can go badly wrong if organisations bring in volunteers to avoid
paying staff, or lack the resources to support and train them properly. If people have a bad
volunteer experience their talents may be lost to the heritage sector for good. Poorly trained
volunteers could do damage to both your heritage and your organisation’s reputation.
8. Training volunteers and volunteer managers
The training you offer to volunteers will depend on the kinds of tasks they will be doing, the
number of volunteers you need to train and the resources you have available. There are three
main ways of delivering training:
On-the-job-training, where a member of staff or another volunteer shows new volunteers how
to do the task, and supervises them as they do it. This is low cost and most appropriate when
you have small numbers of volunteers or you are training one-to-one.
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In-house training programme, where in-depth knowledge about issues or tasks is necessary.
For example, volunteers working with vulnerable people might need detailed training on setting
boundaries and the protection of children. This requires some resource to develop a course and
the associated materials as well as people who are confident communicators and are up-to-date
on issues such as safeguarding and learning styles. It is most appropriate when you are taking
on new volunteers in groups and it is helpful to draw on specific examples and case studies
relevant to your project.
External training, where volunteers attend an open public course or you buy in a trainer to run
a course for your organisation. This can be an expensive way to provide training but it might be
worth it if your volunteers need to learn specialist skills. You will need to source appropriate
courses in your local area – your local volunteer centre, Further Education college or adult
education centre might be able to help, as might your regional Museum Development team,
local Wildlife Trust or Council voluntary sector support network. There might be ways you can
share the costs of providing training with other organisations in your area or source suitable elearning packages or webinars, if appropriate.
Some organisations give volunteers an opportunity to gain accreditation or formal recognition for
their training. Individual volunteers might prefer not to take up these opportunities, but for some,
including some young people, accreditation will be an incentive to volunteer, increasing the
likelihood of gaining paid work from voluntary experience. Possible awards include:
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formal vocational qualifications of different types, currently being consolidated into the
Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) in England, and also including Scottish
National Vocational Qualifications (S/NVQs);
Open College Network credits (OCN);
professional or industry awards such as the Construction Skills Certification Scheme
(CSCS card);
regionally or nationally available programmes, such as the Saltire Award and the Award
in Volunteering Skills in Scotland, and the Millenium Volunteer Scheme in Wales;
schemes that encourage young people to volunteer such as ‘VInspired’ programmes, the
Youth Achievement Award, the Prince’s Trust Volunteer Programme, Arts Award and the
John Muir Award.
Proper management and support for volunteers is crucial and is a resource-intensive
exercise. In addition to training and supervision, volunteers often need further encouragement
and support to ensure satisfaction in their role. Even if your organisation does not have a paid
volunteer manager, it is good practice to have someone who is specifically designated to
coordinate and deploy volunteers as part of their role. We can help fund any training that this
volunteer coordinator might need in order to make sure your project is delivered. Accredited
awards for volunteer management training are available through a number of organisations –
see the links in Section 10 for more information.
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9. Questions to consider as you plan your project
Projects need to be well planned in order to deliver quality volunteering opportunities. If your
project is primarily focused on training current volunteers and/or recruiting new ones, we
recommend that you address some of the questions below when you plan your project. Working
through all the questions will help lead you to good practice. If you represent a small voluntary
group, you will find useful tips below, but it is unlikely that you will build all of these elements into
your project.
Your policy for delivering volunteering opportunities
Organisations that involve volunteers need a Volunteering Policy
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Do you have a Volunteering Policy?
Does your policy have clear and inclusive aims to promote volunteering?
Is your policy endorsed by your Chief Executive and Board of Trustees?
How is your policy promoted, reviewed and developed?
Are paid staff aware of and supportive of the policy?
How does the proposed project help your organisation deliver its volunteering policy?
How will the project make a difference, plug gaps in provision, or target excluded or
under-represented groups?
The quality of your project planning
Detailed planning will improve the quality of your project
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Have you carried out a needs assessment of your project? Why do you need volunteers
to carry out your project?
Have you consulted the groups and organisations you want to work with, and also any
current volunteers?
Do you have partnerships with community organisations that will allow you to recruit a
diverse range of volunteers? How can you establish these, if new ones are required?
Do you have a project timetable that identifies activities, content and the roles people will
fulfill? For example, giving details of what kinds of people or community groups will be
involved and selected for tasks; the training approaches that will be used; the milestones
that you have identified; and the outcomes that you are aiming to achieve
Volunteering expertise and management issues
Organisations need structures and systems to properly support/integrate volunteers
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Are the staff who will recruit and manage your volunteers trained and experienced? Is
managing volunteers in their role description? How can they be supported to fulfill this
responsibility effectively?
If you are recruiting a new salaried volunteer manager as part of your project, have you
provided a job description?
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Are volunteers, including older people and young people, covered by your insurance?
Who will ensure that risk assessments for tasks involving volunteers are written and kept
up to date?
Do you have a volunteer handbook, which provides useful information for staff and
volunteers on your organisation’s policies and procedures, including health and safety,
lone working, child protection, vulnerable adults, conflict of interest policies etc?
Do you provide an induction day with input from senior staff?
Are your advertised volunteer vacancies underpinned by clear role descriptions, which
outline duties, structured development opportunities, and the support that will be
provided to volunteers?
Do you have procedures in place to regularly review volunteer tasks and performance?
Do you provide measurable goals tailored to individual volunteers?
Do you enter into volunteering agreements with volunteers?
Do you offer, or routinely undertake, exit interviews or questionnaires with volunteers?
Have you considered working towards the nationally recognised ‘Investing in Volunteers’
standard so that your volunteers, as well as external stakeholders, will have confidence
in your organisation’s ability to provide a good standard of management? For more
information visit the Investing in Volunteers website.
Budgets
Volunteers are not cost free
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Do you have a budget for recruiting and managing volunteers, and for training both
volunteers and the staff who will manage them?
Have you considered and taken account of the less direct costs to your organisation –
commitment of staff time to manage and supervise volunteers, overhead costs including
desk and computer provision, etc.?
Do you have a budget to pay expenses should they be required?
Do you encourage volunteers to claim, and have clear procedures in place for this?
Do you have a budget to recognise and celebrate the contribution of your volunteers?
This might include events, social occasions or visits to other heritage sites.
Volunteer recruitment
Thinking about doing recruitment differently might encourage different kinds of people to come
forward
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Do you have publicity materials that are inclusive and likely to appeal to the people you
would like to encourage to volunteer?
Are these materials in the right format/language, and in the right places (including digital
channels) to reach and encourage your target audience?
Do you have a structured recruitment procedure so that applicants can tell you about
why they want to volunteer, what they want to do and the time they can give?
Do you interview candidates and ask for references?
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Could you consider alternatives to formal applications and interviews, which may be less
of a barrier for certain people? For example, friendly, participatory selection events,
including the chance to meet staff and other volunteers, and take part in group activities.
Or attending a local event with a stall to recruit volunteers.
Do you provide taster sessions and trial periods as a safety net for the volunteer and
your organisation?
Tip: Lengthy application forms can be a barrier to potential volunteers. Keep any forms simple.
In recruiting and sustaining volunteers it is important to match their skills, constraints and
aspirations with the activities and responsibilities of the tasks involved and to review these
regularly.
Tip: There are a variety of online spaces to promote volunteering opportunities. These include
the Do-it website, the Reach website for volunteers with specific skills, and local volunteering
centre websites.
Tip: There is also organisations such as vInspired and the National Citizen Service, which help
young people find opportunities to volunteer.
Meeting your volunteers’ needs
Someone in your organisation should have the responsibility to help volunteers develop their
skills, both to fulfill their duties within your organisation and as part of their personal
development
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Does your project offer volunteers structured opportunities to share and/or develop their
knowledge, skills and professional experience?
Are the volunteering opportunities offered by your project likely to appeal to the people
you are targeting?
How will the project achieve equality in the recruitment and participation of volunteers
from diverse backgrounds?
To what extent is your organisation able to make adjustments that may be required to
allow disabled people, or people who may face other barriers to participation, to
volunteer with you?
Do you have a flexible range of tasks, including the opportunity for people to volunteer
from home?
Are you aware of benefit rules on volunteering in order to advise volunteers? Are your
expense payments structured so that volunteers in receipt of benefits will not
compromise that entitlement?
Do you offer training that is tailored to individuals’ needs?
Do you offer accreditation or formal recognition for this training?
Do you have ways for volunteers to share their thoughts, ideas and experiences, not only
with their direct supervisor but with other colleagues and the wider organisation?
Tip: Some organisations have a volunteer forum so that volunteers can feed their perspectives
into wider structures.
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Tip: Some organisations are beginning to use ‘time banking’ schemes, to enable volunteers to
gain rewards, which could include visits to other local heritage sites, and discounts in local
shops.
Evaluating volunteers’ contribution
Evaluating the impact of volunteering on your project can help promote volunteering inside and
outside the organisation and improve the way volunteers are involved
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10.
How will you measure and monitor the targets you have set yourself? For example, how
will you know if you have engaged with the local community, and reached new
volunteers?
How will project outcomes be monitored? Have you explained how the project might
secure long-terms outcomes? For example, through continued partnerships, the ongoing
use of a newly created volunteer manual, or through work continued by better trained
volunteers?
How will you ensure that evaluation takes place throughout your project not only at the
end?
Do your evaluation strategies use an appropriate range of quantitative and qualitative
methods?
How will you ensure that the results of any evaluation are fed into your current project
and future practice?
Sources of advice and information
There are four volunteer development organisations in the UK, working strategically across the
voluntary, public and private sectors to raise the profile of volunteering as a force for change.
They can help you develop volunteering policies, find training courses and link you with
volunteers and volunteer centres in your area.
National Council for Voluntary Organisations
Volunteer Scotland
Wales Council for Voluntary Action
Northern Ireland
The UK government and devolved administrations also provide guidance and policies:
UK Government
Scottish Government
Welsh Government
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There are many other useful sources of information and guidance online, including the following:
Institute for Volunteering Research
Volunteer centre finder (England)
The Heritage Volunteering Group (HVG)
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