Agenda item

To introduce a suite of proposed policies to support the volunteering activities within the Council namely, a Volunteer Policy and an Employee Volunteering and Public Duties Policy which, if agreed, will be implemented by the Council.

The Committee considered a report of the Assistant Director (Partnerships) (A.3) which introduced to it a suite of proposed policies to support the volunteering activities within the Council namely, a Volunteer Policy and an Employee Volunteering and Public Duties Policy, which, if agreed, would be implemented by the Council.

Members were informed that the purpose of introducing a suite of Volunteer Policies was to outline the Council’s commitment to encouraging members of the local community to undertake voluntary roles within the Council and to support existing employees who wished to undertake voluntary work within the local community, or for charitable institutions.

The Council recognised that by encouraging and supporting volunteers, it was able to increase the services it offered, help build relationships with the local community, develop employees/ volunteers and improve how the Council was perceived within the local community.

It was felt Employees who volunteered could share the skills that they had developed at work to help the community and also learn new skills through volunteering. This might include, for example, leadership qualities and improved morale, physical health and work-life balance.

The Policies outlined:-

§  the Council’s commitment to volunteering, volunteers and employees who volunteered in our local community;

§  the recruitment, induction and management of volunteers;

§  conflict of interest considerations where existing staff requested to volunteer for external bodies in the local community;

§  guidance on time off or changing working hours for existing staff who wished to volunteer; and

§  key policies and procedures that needed to be considered when supporting volunteers.

Unison had been consulted on the full suite of Volunteer Policies and had offered agreement and support for their implementation.

Furthermore, consultation on the Volunteer Policy had taken place with Payroll (for insurance purposes), Public Realm (as a significant host of volunteers) and Health & Safety colleagues (for Risk Assessment purposes). All of whom had offered agreement and support of its implementation.

During the discussion of this item, members of the Committee raised points of issue on the following matters:-

Volunteer Policy

(a)    Section 3 (Status of Volunteers) – implication that Ward Members would not be able to use any involvement for political promotion;

(b)    Section 6.4 (Problem Solving and Complaints) – suggestion that an amendment be made in order to allow a Volunteer to have the facility to involve a third party in support in making/defending a complaint;

(c)    Section 7 (Volunteers who are under 18 years old) – suggestion that an amendment be made to strengthen requirement for DBS checks; and

(d)    Appendix F (Volunteer Induction Checklist) – Include issues around various forms of Insurance as part of the induction process.

Employee Volunteering and Public Duties Policy

(e)    Section 5.4 (Special Constables) – Expand this section to also include Retained Firemen.

Having duly considered the Council’s statutory obligations with regard to the engagement of volunteers, and employees who undertook voluntary public duties:-

It was moved by Councillor Baker, seconded by Councillor Amos and:-

RESOLVED that –

(a)    the Volunteer Policy (January 2023) and the Employee Volunteer and Public Duties Policy (January 2023), as set out in Appendices A and B respectively to item A.3 of the Report of the Assistant Director (Partnerships), be adopted, subject to the Officers taking on board the issues raised by Members at the meeting (as detailed above) and making the appropriate amendments to the Policies, as required; and

(b)    the Polices, as amended, be circulated to all members of the Committee for their further comments which comments will be taken into account by the Assistant Director (Partnerships) in finalising, adopting and publishing the Policies.