Free Volunteering From Red Tape
The Free Volunteering From Red Tape campaign's aim is to remove unnecessary paperwork from the volunteer recruitment process which can be a major barrier to some people wishing to give their time for free.
If you believe the reasons why organisations insist on conducting CRB checks aren't always justified, then support us in our quest for change!
You can show support by following us on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kent-Centres-of-Voluntary-Excellence-KentCOVE/119609354787878
You can also have your say by emailing: admin@volunteering-ashford.org
Comments will be published here so please do express your views on the subject!
Highlighting one of the strands of Volunteering England’s “Free Volunteering from Red Tape” campaign the Volunteer Centres in Kent and Medway are working together to prevent unnecessary bureaucracy from discouraging valuable volunteers from supporting their communities.
Our concern is that in desire to protect service users or property, statutory, private and voluntary and community sector Volunteer Involving Organisations (VIOs) often ask prospective volunteers to undergo Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) checks where none is necessary. This can result in the loss of volunteers who are unwilling to undergo checks after considerable time and cost has been incurred in recruitment and selection by Volunteers Centres and VIOs, and may also be against the law.
In the recent report “Unshackling Good Neighbours” Lord Hodgson of Ashley Abbotts, Chair of the Independent Task Force appointed to consider how to reduce red tape and bureaucracy in the Community Sector urges
‘organisations to avoid using a CRB check as the default option. CRB checks are only required for people having “frequent and intensive” contact with children and vulnerable adults.’
We are asking organisations to consider whether they:
- have lost promising volunteers because they are unwilling to undergo checks?
- find this issue to be a barrier to volunteering?
- could review policies and procedures to ensure that only volunteers who have frequent and intensive contact with children or vulnerable adults undergo CRB checks?
- should support and develop volunteers on an on-going basis, only asking that they undergo CRB checks when and if it becomes appropriate to their specific role?
- are complying with Rehabilitation of Offenders legislation if they require that all volunteers present with a “clean” CRB check?
To find out more about cutting bureaucracy around volunteering contact us for a chat or email us through this website.
If you agree that CRBs should be used only when volunteers are in “frequent and intensive” contact with children and vulnerable adults email us with the words “We support Check the Checks” in the subject field, at admin@volunteering-ashford.org . If you are on Facebook you can “like” our campaign at www.facebook.com/KentCOVE
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