About the Plan

“This living plan is our map to a brighter future for volunteering in Scotland. There is a long road ahead. We invite you to join us on the journey.”

Alan Stevenson, CEO Volunteer Scotland

Background

Volunteers have a key role in the delivery of many services to Scotland’s population at all life-stages, as well as supporting community connection and conserving Scotland’s natural, historical, and cultural assets.

Many voluntary and public sector organisations are reliant on the contribution of volunteers to support their work, whilst the vibrancy of local communities is dependent upon individuals volunteering informally. This spectrum of volunteers is the heartbeat of Scotland.

However, the vital role of volunteering is often taken for granted and is consequently underrepresented at a strategic level. More work is needed, especially around partnership development and policy impact, if we are to maximise its potential and ensure it is inclusive for all.

The Volunteering Action Plan acknowledges the cross-cutting value of volunteering. It builds upon Volunteering for All: The National Framework and is mapped to Scotland’s National Outcomes as demonstrated in the diagram.

The Volunteering Action Plan provides a renewed focus on the contribution of volunteers in communities and seeks to tackle inequality in volunteering through supporting the most disadvantaged in our society.

Cross-cutting Themes

Policy Impact

While the profile of volunteering has increased significantly in the last decade, it continues to be significantly under-represented within public policy. This is a barrier to policy-maker engagement. By developing an infrastructure for the impact of volunteering to be shared across all relevant policy areas, partners and decision-makers can ensure that volunteering is properly valued and reflected across public policy.

Funding for Success

To unlock the aspirations of Volunteering for All, we must ensure that volunteering is appropriately funded. Volunteering is largely ‘invisible’ as a discrete funding opportunity; it is often viewed as a ‘side-benefit’ of a larger project instead of having strategic value in and of itself. To ‘fund for success’ we must involve ‘funders’ as co-creators within solutions, through a consortium or similar structure. We must look to increase ‘visibility’ of volunteering through tighter standards within third sector funding and increase sector engagement around impact measurement. Finally, we must be bold in our ambition for new ways of working, funded through ‘experimental’ actions with long-term impact.

Enabling Environment

An Enabling Environment is our foundation for future action. It improves our ability to work effectively and collectively on the key challenges facing volunteering over 10 years.

Leadership: Leaders will drive the Plan. There must be clear pathways to becoming a Leader in volunteering.
Evidence and Voice: Evidence highlights gaps and tells us as much about what we ‘don’t know’ as what we do. We must consider who and what can help us better understand our system. This involves hearing from those with lived experience.
Learning: Learning is critical to achieving Volunteering for All but it will require us to organise and value learning differently.
Capacity Building: Creating an environment where volunteering thrives requires that we improve the infrastructure that enables volunteering.
Resilience: Volunteers have a key role to play in building the resilience of Scotland’s communities, both in responding to emergencies and in building a sustainable future. The ability of statutory responders to work effectively alongside voluntary organisations and volunteers is critical to our future resilience as a country.
Digital Volunteering: COVID-19 has highlighted the particularly important contribution that digital can confer but VIOs, volunteers and beneficiaries will need support to maximise these benefits, with equal access for all.

Ideas into Action

Volunteering happens through the relationships between people, organisations, and places & spaces.

Five Working Groups created a single high-level system map to inform ‘ideas for change’ and provide the basis for more detailed actions.

Action themes identified include:

To increase public awareness of volunteering, and to tackle stereotypes around what it is and who volunteers
To engage community assets, organisations, and local leadership to maximise the contribution of volunteering at the community level.
Increase the opportunities available to volunteer: widening the breadth of opportunities and increasing access for under-represented groups
Strengthen relationships between ‘volunteering’ and ‘community engagement’ partners; and between national and local stakeholders
Develop a targeted approach to new research evidence
Promote the ‘value’ of volunteering more widely.
Building knowledge and skills within inclusive volunteering, reducing bureaucracy, and widening standards of practice

Contributors and Supporters

The ‘Plan’ is co-owned and we’d like to thank individuals from stakeholder organisations, many of whom gave up their time over more than a year.

Governance Group

Chair: Natalie Masterson, CEO, Stirlingshire Voluntary Enterprise

Louise McGinty, Quarriers
Calum Irving, Scottish Government
Alan Stevenson, Volunteer Scotland
David McNeill, SCVO
Paul Reddish, Volunteering Matters
Paula Meise, Scottish Charity Regulator
Paul Okroj, Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland
Rachel Cackett, Samaritans Scotland
Ian McLaughlan, formerly Youth Scotland

Jen Reston, Aberlour
Mick Doyle, Scottish Community Development Centre
Debbie Adams, The Conservation Volunteers
Colin Lee, CEMVO
Kim Atkinson, Scottish Sports Association
Gün Orgun, Scottish Refugee Council
James Whyte, Sight Scotland
Sarah Latto, formerly Shelter Scotland

Working Group 1: Lifelong Engagement

Chair: Tricia Imrie, Impact Funding Partners

Working Group 2: Policy Impact

Chair: Selina Ross, West Dunbartonshire CVS (TSI)

Working Group 3: Recognition and Celebration

Chair: Tamsin Ferrier, Volunteering Matters

Working Group 4: Places and Spaces

Chair: Mandy Andrew, Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland

Working Group 5: Inclusive Volunteering

Chair: Janice Malone, NHS Healthcare Improvement Scotland

Working Group Members

Caroline McKenna, Social Good Connect
Beverley Francis, Volunteering Matters (Project Scotland)
Petra Biberbach PAS - Planning Aid for Scotland
Fleur Dijkman, PAS - Planning Aid for Scotland
Kirsty Gemmell, CLD Standards Council
Suzanne Macaulay, Volunteer Centre Western Isles
Jill Keegan, outside the box
George Eckton, Director of Advice Services, Citizens Advice Scotland
Jenni Snell, YouthLink Scotland
Eileen Cawley representing the Scottish Pensioners’ Forum on Older People's Strategic Action Forum (OPSAF)
Eileen Cawley representing the Scottish Pensioners’ Forum on Older People's Strategic Action Forum (OPSAF)
Catriona Mason, Seniors Together South Lanarkshire (Scottish Older People's Assembly Trustee)
Maureen O'Neill, Faith in Older People
Stephen Penny, Lifelines Scotland (NHS Lothian)
Charlie Wallace, Volunteering, Engagement and Programme Manager, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park
Douglas Guest, Home Start
Mike Melvin, ACVO
Mandy Burrell, Volunteering Matters
Kirsten Urquhart, Young Scot
Jim Duffy, Awards Network
Diane Waugh, SupportED The Community Eating Disorder Charity
Bella Kerr, Generations Working Together
Audrey Gatt, Voluntary Action South Ayrshire
Maureen Sier, Interfaith Scotland
Ben Thurman, Carnegie UK
Fiona Thomson, outside the box
Marion Findlay, Volunteer Edinburgh
Malcolm Dingwall-Smith, SportScotland
Miriam Leighton, Volunteer Midlothian
Jayne Stuart, ACOSVO
Lorraine Toner, Volunteering and Citizenship Manager, Glasgow Life
Irene Cree, Glasgow Life
Neil Ritch, The National Lottery Community Fund
Lori Hughes, PKAVS
Sharon Douglas, Fife Council
Helen McCabe, CEMVO Scotland
Laura Turney, Scottish Government
Charly Anderson, Volunteer Borders
Liz Wigelsworth, Head of Volunteering, Chest Heart Stroke Scotland
Jayne Laidlaw, Equal Futures
Chris Lau, Volunteer Centre Borders
Allan Lindsay, Young Scot

Mairi Allan, British Red Cross
Linda Cummings, Scottish Government
Catriona Maclean, Scottish Government
Louise White, Scottish Government
Paul Wilson, Volunteer Edinburgh
Rosie Wylie, Historic Environment Scotland
Alison Clyde, Generations Working Together
Sarah Van Putten, Befriending Networks
Alice McArdle formerly Voluntary Action South Ayrshire
David Maxwell, Volunteer Glasgow
Gregor Muir, Scottish Sports Association
Elaine Crichton, Inspiring Scotland
Naomi Mason, DTAS
Kevin Kane, YouthLink Scotland
Fiona Inglis, Impact Funding Partners
Stacey-Ann Lindsay, Scottish Government
Neil Bird, Trussell Trust
Ruth Noble, outside the box
Kirsty Struthers, Voluntary Action North Lanarkshire
Tommy Seymour, Inspiring Scotland (Specialist Volunteer Network team)
Ian Buchanan, Disability Equality Scotland
Debbie Zima, Inspiring Scotland - intandem
Abi Gardner, Nature Scot
Diane Wilson, Impact Funding Partners
Christine Ryder, outside the box
Fiona Harvey, CHAS
Sophie Bridger, Eden Project
Marie Oliver, Voluntary Action South Ayrshire
Tracey Passway, NHS Tayside
James Fowlie, COSLA
Emily Wallace, Corra Foundation
Craig Tobin, Macmillan Service Manager (Lanarkshire)
Claire Stevens, Voluntary Health Scotland
Andrew Paterson, Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC)
Kerry Jardine, Scottish Government (Community Resilience)
Kate Kilpatrick, Scottish Government Principal Researcher
Catrina Steenberg, SG (LGBTI)
Aqeel Ahmed, SG (Race Equality Policy)
Margaret Stygal, Finance at Deaf Blind scotland
Brian Scott, Glasgow Disability Alliance
Catriona Macleod, CVS Inverclyde
Alison Matheson, NatureScot
Hannah Bardett, DTAS
Janine Stenhouse , Fife Voluntary Action
Elaine Hill, Central Scotland Regional Equality Council (CSREC)
Ralph Throp, Scottish Government (Community Resilience)

Management Team

A management team with Volunteer Scotland driving the work and Scottish Government facilitating and supporting was established to support this process.

Support Team

The following team members of Volunteer Scotland provided support relating to evidence, supporting working groups, document content and design, and website design.