team BEDS&LUTON Volunteer Strategy July 2007 team BEDS&LUTON (Bedfordshire & Luton County Sports Partnership) Volunteer Strategy April 2007 – March 2009 “Working in partnership at the heart of the community to support, develop and promote high quality opportunities to allow everyone to get involved, stay involved and succeed in sport and physical activity.” - 1 - team BEDS&LUTON Volunteer Strategy July 2007 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 What is team BEDS&LUTON? team BEDS&LUTON is the County Sports Partnership (CSP) for Bedfordshire and Luton and the local driving force to encourage people of all ages to become involved in sport and physical activity. The CSP aims to provide opportunities for clubs, coaches and volunteers to develop, and is central in helping to achieve the government target of a 1% rise in participation each year until 2010. The key to the success of the CSP is joined up thinking and team BEDS&LUTON should encompass many local partners to ensure achievement in delivering its objectives. There must be strong links with schools, colleges and universities, the health sector, community safety and regeneration departments, as well as local authorities, National Governing Bodies of sport, community clubs and voluntary agencies. 1.2 The Importance of Volunteers in Sport Research has shown that volunteers contribute 1.2 billion hours of time each year to sport, and have the equivalent value of almost 1 million full time workers, at a cost of approximately £14 billion1. team BEDS&LUTON recognises that without a quality volunteer workforce, sport would not be able to thrive. The volunteer sector makes up over 80% of the workforce according to MORI findings. Volunteers in sport are therefore vital, and many sports clubs and organisations rely solely on their efforts to operate. Football has the largest number of volunteers in the county. Other sports that have large number of volunteers include Swimming (1210 individuals), Netball (729 individuals), Cricket (567 individuals), Badminton (384 individuals) and Tennis (312 individuals). Consequently it is imperative that volunteers are recruited, retained, recognised and rewarded by the CSP, to enable local based community sport to continue to operate and develop in the future. 1.3 Why is a Volunteer Strategy Required? A volunteer strategy is required by the CSP to demonstrate our commitment to recognising the efforts of sports volunteers within the county, whilst ensuring that all volunteers are treated equally and have the same access to support. Volunteers that are not supported may feel taken for granted, under valued and superfluous to need, and will often become apathetic and unenthusiastic about carrying out their role. It is intended that the volunteer strategy will be a working document that the CSP, Volunteer Centres, sports clubs and others will adopt. The strategy will challenge existing provision and structures through involving many more organisations and co-ordinating resources and efforts for best value. Whilst it is envisaged that this strategy will be adopted by the voluntary and community sector (VCS) and sporting clubs/organisations, it is important to point out that it has been developed with the input from National Governing Bodies (NGB’s) and should be used in conjunction with current NGB volunteer strategies and support material. It is not a replacement for NGB volunteer strategies and resources. Most NGB’s have now developed strategies for the support of their volunteers linking into Whole Sport Plans. Most strategies can be downloaded from NGB websites (see appendix E for a list of useful county contacts). Traditionally links between voluntary sporting organisations and the voluntary and community sector (VCS) have been weak. Both sectors have a remit for supporting volunteers in sport and voluntary sporting organisations, but as of yet there has been little or no partnership working. Volunteer Centres are experts in attracting, recruiting and placing volunteers, whilst many sports clubs and organisations are significantly under capacity in human manpower. This strategy aims to help bring about a change in this culture, and improve the links between the sporting industry and the voluntary sector and make use of the current facilities e.g. volunteer centres, to encourage and allow for more individuals to undertake voluntary placements in sport within the county. This strategy intends to build upon current good practice within the county, while addressing any gaps in current provision. It is the responsibility of all partners of the CSP to ensure the procedures and 1 Sport England December 2003. - 2 - team BEDS&LUTON Volunteer Strategy July 2007 processes set out in this strategy are followed to improve the support of the volunteer workforce within this county. In accompaniment to this strategy, there are number of resources for clubs and the voluntary sector. These resources, available through the tB&L ‘Good Practice Bank’ on the website, will aid in the development of new and existing clubs to support them in the management of volunteers. 1.4 Development of the Volunteer Strategy This strategy has been produced in consultation with National Governing Bodies, Local Authorities, School Sport Partnership Development Managers, Sport England, Bedfordshire and Luton Volunteer Centres, the University of Bedfordshire, and Millennium Volunteer, in line with the Bedfordshire County Council and Luton Borough Council AOTTSL policy, and will enable a more joined up approach to supporting volunteers. It hosts a series of recommendations for partners and encompasses an implementation plan with roles, responsibilities and timescales. Sport England are leading on delivering the East Vision for Volunteering, and therefore we will ensure that work contained within this strategy contributes to regional priorities and the regional vision of making the East ‘a region where the true value and contribution of the sports volunteer and voluntary sports organisations is recognised, supported and celebrated’ In addition to this strategy (covering more general sports volunteering), there is also a county strategy for the Step into Sport initiative. Whilst there is some obvious overlap between the two strategies, the reader should be referred to Appendix A for a detailed version of the Step into Sport Volunteer Development Plan. 2. OBJECTIVES 2.1 To work with key partners to ensure that appropriate volunteer infrastructures are in place at all levels to support the development of volunteers and voluntary organisations, including volunteer pathways and exit routes into paid employment 2.2 To increase the number of volunteers undertaking quality volunteering placements in sports clubs/organisations, particularly those groups and/or individuals that are underrepresented, socially excluded, or have extra support needs to address inequality at all levels of volunteering in sport 2.3 To support voluntary sport organisations in their retention and management of volunteers 2.4 To support voluntary sport organisations in recognising and rewarding volunteers in sport 2.5 To ensure that all planning is based upon an accurate picture of the needs of volunteers and voluntary organisations, identified through systematic research, data gathering and dissemination of good practice. For a diagrammatical overview of the strategy objectives see Appendix B. Refer to Appendix C for an action plan highlighting how each of the above objectives will be achieved. The objectives listed above are addressed within the strategy and all relate back to one of team BEDS&LUTON’s key focuses; to recruit, retain, develop and reward the workforce. 3. RECRUITMENT For an overview of team BEDS&LUTON volunteer recruitment procedure see Appendix D. 3.1 Identifying Volunteer Opportunities Clubs must be educated on how to identify their volunteer requirements, and assign specific responsibilities to these roles. A Volunteer Development Plan (see Good Practice Bank) will enable clubs to identify the number of volunteers they require to aid the clubs long term development. Each club should therefore have a trained Volunteer Coordinator in place to lead on the CSP Volunteer strategy and Volunteer Development Plan. It is recommended that clubs whom are accredited through a NGB Clubmark Award should have a Volunteer Coordinator already in place and - 3 - team BEDS&LUTON Volunteer Strategy July 2007 this individual can be easily bought up to speed with the CSP strategy. Those clubs without Volunteer Coordinators will need to identify an individual. This individual may be recruited internally or advertised through their local Volunteer Centre (VC) and should be trained to become equipped with the knowledge and skills to carry out the Volunteer Co-ordinator role. Relevant training will be made available to Volunteer Co-ordinators, including the runningsport Valuing Your Sports Volunteers to help Volunteer Co-ordinators manage effectively volunteers. This training will be publicised centrally through the CSP Education and Training Brochure, website and ezine, and through the Volunteer Centres. Once volunteer requirements and roles have been identified, the Volunteer Coordinator should fill out a ‘volunteer opportunities’ form. A form can be accessed either online through the CSP website, but the club should be encouraged to make direct contact with the voluntary and community sector (VCS) (i.e. local Volunteer Centre) to discuss their volunteering opportunities (see Appendix E for a full list of contacts and addresses). Information