Development Needs of Volunteers in the Children’s Workforce

Although estimates of the number of volunteers engaged in the children’s workforce vary, it is clear that large number of people (in excess of five million) give of their time to provide support to children, young people and families in a range of settings across the country. These volunteers are engaged by VCS and statutory and private sector organisations in a multitude of roles, either working alongside or independent from paid staff and professionals. While significant resources have been invested in restructuring the children’s workforce, and in providing training and development opportunities for paid workers, the needs of volunteers have not – as yet – received substantial targetted investment. This paper reports on a research project undertaken on behalf of the Children’s Workforce Development Council to investigate the core training needs of volunteers in the children’s workforce. The project started with a review of the literature on volunteers’ training needs and the selection of two case study areas, Derbyshire and Rotherham, where the involvement of representatives from the Children’s Trust and third sector infrastructure organisations was sought. In each case study area, interviews were carried out with staff involved in identifying and responding to volunteers’ training needs, along with a number of volunteers in the children’s workforce; additional interviews were conducted with representatives of national VCS organisations. These interviews were used to secure a range of views on the way in which volunteers in the children’s workforce are perceived / perceive their role, and to explore the ways in which their training needs are identified and addressed. As the paper reports, the research concluded that local agencies are engaged in a range of activities to provide targetted support to volunteers in the children’s workforce; and a number of examples of ways in which volunteers have been supported in identifying and accessing opportunities for learning and development were identified. Nevertheless, it appears that Children’s Trusts remain unclear about the full extent of volunteering in this part of the workforce, and have only limited appreciation of the nature and extent of volunteers’ learning and development needs. The paper includes recommendations about ways in which these needs might be identified and addressed more effectively in future.