Civil society minister Stuart Andrew has urged caution over a proposal by a fellow Conservative MP to introduce a legal right for all workers to request paid volunteering leave.
Jo Gideon suggested the policy at a Westminster Hall debate about the contributions of volunteers she tabled yesterday.
She urged Andrew to consider introducing “a right to request paid leave for volunteering, or amending section 50 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 to enable reasonable time off for trustee duties”.
Gideon compared her proposal for trustees to school governors, who legally qualify for a “reasonable” amount of time off to perform their duties.
“Trustees play a vital role overseeing charities, but there are currently an estimated 100,000 trustee vacancies,” she said.
In response to Gideon’s suggestion of paid leave for volunteers and trustees, Andrew said: “There is a danger that that could become a problem, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses.
“However, we do want to see employers develop their own corporate responsibility programmes and to encourage businesses, the public sector and charities to consider the role that employer-supported volunteering can play as part of their impact on society.”
‘Victims of their own success’
Gideon said charities were facing increased demand but this had not been matched with more funding or volunteers.
“Many charities are in fact victims of their own success,” she said.
“They often deliver vital services that the public value but are not currently or fully delivered through public sector bodies.
“The voluntary sector is often asked to do more, but without the funding to match.”
Gideon said workplace volunteering initiatives, where employees are allowed extra days off work to spend volunteering, should be expanded.
“We should make it easier for businesses to do this, and work with employers to make volunteering easier,” she said.
“Voluntary organisations need a regular commitment, not the usual three volunteering leave days offered by employers.”
Mileage allowance
She also proposed an uplift to the approved mileage allowance payment to make volunteering more affordable, for which Liberal Democrat MP Richard Foord voiced support.
“The approved rate has not changed since 2012, despite the costs associated with motoring having increased substantially,” said Gideon.
In response to that proposal, Andrew said that the costs apply more broadly than to just volunteers and that he hoped the government’s 5p fuel duty cut would help in this area.
Later in the debate, he said: “We know that recruitment and retention [of volunteers] is an increasing problem, particularly for small local charities.
“There continue to be barriers to more people becoming involved in volunteering, ranging from a lack of awareness of the volunteering opportunities that exist to simply not having enough time.”
More charities ‘effectively part of the state sector’
Meanwhile, Labour shadow minister for creative industries Chris Bryant expressed concern over an increase in charities that have a contract with a local authority or a memorandum of understanding.
“They are then effectively part of the state sector, which makes them less flexible and less able to adapt to situations around them,” said Bryant, who is a trustee of the Mabon Trust, History of Parliament Trust and Rhondda Arts Festival in Treorchy.
“That has been a worrying trend over the past 20 to 25 years.
“Maintaining that sustainability for them is the real challenge.
“That is one of the problems facing [Welsh charity] Valleys Kids at the moment: trying to make sure that they have a strong financial future.”
