ER PROFESSIONALISERINGEN EN GAVE ELLER EN FORBANDELSE?

Decemberkonferencen 2017

Frivillighed og professionalisering

Nick Ockenden

WHAT IS PROFESSIONALISATION?

• Professionals – the rise of the volunteer manager (first one in 1963)

• Professions – the development of a career in volunteer management

• Professional bodies – the Association of Volunteer Managers; National Association of Voluntary Service Managers; National Occupational Standards for Management of Volunteers

• Also commonly associated with formalisation of volunteering (and its processes)

• Application forms and interviews, policies and role descriptions, management and support, training…

WHAT IS PROFESSIONALISATION?

• The professionalisation of what volunteers do• Volunteers doing more ‘work-like’ (or paid-like) tasks• Volunteers moving in to new service areas

• The professionalisation of how volunteers are managed and supported

• Not simply about applying a ‘work-place’ model to volunteers• This needs to recognise that what works with volunteers is

different to what works with paid staff

IS PROFESSIONALISATION THE SAME EVERYWHERE?• More common in larger organisations

• Small organisations rely on ‘peer support’ and informality• Doesn’t always have top priority within organisations

• Volunteer managers can be comparatively underpaid• 60% not paid at all• Only 15% use the terms ‘volunteer manager’ or ‘volunteer

coordinator’• Only 14% spend more than three-quarters of their time managing

volunteers• Smaller organisations far less likely to have formal processes or to

access external support

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

• What should we call volunteering if it is not (yet) profressionalised?

• Unprofessional?• Amateur?• Not as good?

• Does this risk implying something negative?• Is volunteering in smaller organisations unprofessional?• Is some volunteering more professional than other types and does

that imply better?• Are people who are paid assumed to be more professional (and

better?) than people who are not (i.e. volunteers)?

WE NEED TO SUPPORT VOLUNTEERS WELL

• Increases in professionalisation might have led to happier volunteers

• 1997: 71% volunteers felt their volunteering could be much better organised

• 2007: had decreased to 31% volunteers • The volunteer management profession has brought new

talent, support and ideas

• Have we risked prioritising the needs of volunteers over the needs of the organisation (and its beneficiaries)?

• Why have rates of volunteering not changed in the past 15 years?

WE NEED TO ENSURE VOLUNTEERING IS AS DIVERSE AS POSSIBLE

WE NEED TO ENSURE VOLUNTEERING IS AS DIVERSE AS POSSIBLE• Some aspects of professionalisation (and formalisation) can

put people off• Becoming too ‘work-like’• Too much bureaucracy (49%)• People afraid of risk / litigation (47%)• Criminal record checks (DBS) as a potential barrier

• But main barrier is always lack of time• Can also be an issue of perception more than the reality

WE NEED TO ENSURE VOLUNTEERING IS AS DIVERSE AS POSSIBLE• The Full-time Social Action Review and the DCMS call for

evidence • Aiming to get a new legal status for full-time volunteers

(16+ hours per week for six months or more)• To make full-time volunteering more attractive to people on lower

incomes, so more diverse• To ensure these volunteers receive rewards in line with paid

employees (e.g. some benefits)• But it could also have major risks

• Would it blur the boundaries between volunteering and employment?

• Would it create a two-tier system of volunteering? • Would it restrict rather than encourage social mobility?

WE NEED GOOD WORKING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN STAFF AND VOLUNTEERS• Professionalisation can mean volunteers getting involved in

new service areas• Help make services more effective• Connect services to the community in new ways

• But if managed poorly can bring risks• Create tensions between staff and volunteers (e.g. job

replacement)• Limit the positive impact of volunteering• Make volunteering a less satisfying experience

WE NEED FLEXIBILITY ALONGSIDE STRUCTURE• More people want to volunteer flexibly, for short, one-off

periods of time• The growth of ‘micro-volunteering’• The rise of online / digital volunteering

• Can be an important way to encourage a greater diversity of people to get involved

• Can it risk excluding people without access to technology?

• What does this mean for supporting, safeguarding and managing volunteers?

WE NEED TO BETTER RECOGNISE INDEPENDENT FORMS OF VOLUNTEERING

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