On Thursday 14th July we had a great seminar about the contribution that volunteers can make to improving outcomes for families in early life. The seminar took place in a very warm room in the Institute for Child Health, and was run in partnership with the Big Lottery Fund’s A Better Start Programme. It centred around an evidence review which was conducted by Parents 1st and IVAR.
The Collaboration for Children were pleased to host this event, which was a fitting follow up to our 2014 seminar with Parents 1st, where we concluded that more evidence was needed about the contribution that volunteers could make to outcomes for children in early life.
The seminar began with a great presentation from Celia Suppiah, Leila Baker, Jenny McLeish and Dulcie McBride about the evidence review. Their slides can be found here and the full evidence review here.
The review summarises how volunteer programmes can contribute to improved outcomes for children during pregnancy and the first years of life. It provides a set of principles about when and how volunteer programmes can be effective and an implementation framework to help volunteers, professionals and commissioners to ensure that volunteer programmes work in practice.
The presentation and the lively discussion that followed covered a wide range of useful topics. Three important messages emerged:
- Volunteer projects must be used wisely. Volunteer projects can contribute to outcomes in ways that are distinct from, but complementary to, professional support. Volunteering must be used thoughtfully, and programmes must be designed and implemented with care if they are to be effective.
- Implementing volunteer projects takes skill. Volunteer coordinator, management and leadership roles are critically important to the effective implementation of programmes. The people in these roles need knowledge, skills and relational capability, as well as the time and resource to do their roles properly. They must both provide effective support to volunteers and build strong relationships with local professionals.
- Volunteering is not the cheap option. The cost effectiveness of volunteering was not in scope of this evidence review. However it was recognised that volunteer recruitment, training and management must be properly resourced.
The group raised concerns about some commissioners requesting or requiring the increased use of volunteers within services – often as a cost saving exercise. It was agreed that this could bring substantial risks if the use of volunteers was not thought through, implemented and resourced properly. The group agreed that the Evidence Review contained very important and useful messages for commissioners and providers about how to use volunteers effectively. It would be important to share these messages widely, and to try to ensure that all commissioners who fund volunteer programmes, do so knowing when and how such programmes can be effective.
Collaboration for Children 