Felicity Winter
As many commentators and contributors to this website have been saying recently, these are tough times for the third sector. But as Andy Gregg of the London Advice Services Alliance (LASA) said last week, the sector can get through the recession – collaborative working and tackling issues of leadership and communication can help, but a sector so reliant on the work of volunteers must ensure that these people have the skills they need to perform efficiently.
Third sector organisations are crucial to the delivery of justice services across the UK. They provide services such as advice and support to victims, survivors and witnesses of crime, and to the families of offenders. They work with young people at risk of committing crime, offenders, ex-offenders, on community safety projects and much more.
They are integral to a successful justice system.
With the help of BMG Research, the Skills for Justice department conducted a survey which provided responses from over 500 telephone interviews painting a picture of the situation across the UK.
We found that volunteers are absolutely vital to service delivery.
They make up two-thirds of the third sector workforce in the justice sector, and to a large extent, do the same types of jobs as paid workers. However, due to the sometimes difficult nature of the work they do, organisations can sometimes find it difficult to recruit volunteers, a point mentioned in the Neuberger report – Volunteering Across the Criminal Justice System.
Despite this huge reliance on the work of volunteers, approaches to attracting and supporting them are mostly informal – recruitment tends to happen through word of mouth, investment in training for volunteers compared to paid staff is relatively low and any training given is usually 'on the job'.
There is also a limited emphasis on the management of volunteers, only 2% of the paid workforce is identified as having a role that includes volunteer management. This suggests that organisations and volunteers themselves could benefit from a more structured approach to the training, development and management of volunteers.
Whilst there is no doubt that there is a commitment to training and development, with 76% of establishments formally assessing skills needs and 73% having a training budget, organisations do find it difficult to address skills needs, largely due to lack of funding, lack of time and a lack of appropriate provision.
The employers we spoke to seem to have a high awareness of national training initiatives, but there is low take-up, 82% being aware of apprenticeships, but only 10% involved, and in England 69% aware of train to gain, but 32% involved.
Joanna Stuart, head of research, Institute for Volunteering Research, said: "Once organisations and agencies have volunteers, good volunteer management is key to keeping them. This research and other studies have shown training and development for volunteers involved in the justice sector are under resourced. This raises serious issues amongst organisations, funders and the wider justice sector about the way volunteers and their involvement is successfully supported."
We will be using this research to inform our future work with third sector organisations in justice, and we want to build a better understanding of the key issues that lie behind the figures we have.
While it is clear that the contribution of volunteers in the justice system is absolutely crucial, it seems that in order to get the best out of them, an investment in their skills development through a more structured approach to both training and management could make that contribution even greater.
Felicity Winter is director of policy and communications, Skill for Justice
