Umbrella groups to lobby government over volunteering

Volunteering England and Acevo say the next government must provide more funding for volunteer management.

Volunteering England and chief executives body Acevo have agreed to lobby ministers jointly in the next government to provide more funding for volunteer management.

When new legislation affecting charities that work with volunteers is introduced, representatives from both groups will ask ministers to commit to providing resources so that charities can train and manage the volunteers, according to Stephen Bubb, chief executive of Acevo.

"Most of Acevo's members work with volunteers," he told Third Sector. "All three of the main political parties are talking about expanding the number of volunteers, but none is saying they would provide extra funding for this.

"There's an assumption by politicians that charities have an open door to welcome unlimited numbers of new volunteers. In reality, they need more funding to be able to do this."

Bubb said Acevo would also consider extending its professional development courses to cover volunteer management in greater depth, and producing a publication about best practice in volunteer management that would be distributed to its members.

Mike Locke, director of public affairs at Volunteering England, said Acevo would be involved with VE's continuing volunteer rights inquiry. Acevo would help the organisation to put together proposals for addressing volunteers' grievances, he said.