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London Vision and Action Plan for Volunteering – Have Your Say

Shaped by insights from volunteers and community groups across the city, the strategy aims to champion volunteering in our city—ensuring it’s supported, celebrated, and recognised as essential. Now, they’re inviting feedback to help bring this vision to life.
London Plus has unveiled a draft of London’s Volunteering Action Plan.

Shaped by insights from volunteers and community groups across the city, the strategy aims to champion volunteering in our city—ensuring it’s supported, celebrated, and recognised as essential. Now, they’re inviting feedback to help bring this vision to life.

Download report and feedback on the draft by the 24th of January 2025. 

The report came up with a whopping 42 reccomendations. Community Southwark’s volunteering team have put together 5 of our takeaways from the draft report. See if they chime with your experiences, and if you have 10 minutes and a cup of tea it’s well worth reading through the full report.


1. DBS checks need to be simpler and cheaper

The DBS process is often confusing and unclear. The report asks the government to create clear, volunteer-specific guidance on safeguarding and DBS checks. It also recommends that DBS checks be provided free to volunteer-involving organizations.

2. Volunteering needs funding!

This one might seem obvious, but the report found that all areas of volunteering need more funding – from day-to-day costs like volunteer expenses to the longer term – like a better rate of pay for volunteer supervisors. Funders need to understand that while volunteers give them time for free, volunteering brings costs for organisations.

3. We need to measure volunteering’s value.

The report acknowledges that volunteering is valuable to the economy, but calculating its financial worth can be tricky, as people volunteer for reasons beyond money. The draft suggests that understanding the value of volunteer hours and skills could help us better advocate for the sector and show its impact.

4. Recruiting volunteers in a leadership role is an ongoing challenge

Struggling to recruit Trustees or volunteers in similar leadership roles? You aren’t alone. The report found that for many Londoners, these roles ‘conjure up a mental image of a nineteenth century group of old white men sitting around a board table smoking cigars’. There’s also a belief that you need decades of experience to become a trustee. Organizations need more support to recruit Trustees in ways that break these stereotypes, and the government should do more to promote diverse boards.

5. Communities need more support to make sure volunteering is accessible to all

Respondents to the report highlight how recruiting and supporting volunteers from a variety of backgrounds is still a challenge. The report highlights some things we can work to change, like long and challenging application processes, and recommends some structural changes such as the government developing a support into volunteering scheme and easier funding to help people pay for volunteering.


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