Third Sector magazine reports that conservation charity BTCV has called for a debate on an industry standard for volunteer brokerage. Those involved in the activity, such as BTCV, CSV and volunteer centres, should debate whether a code would be useful. This could have guidelines on the cost of brokerage and the extent to which brokers should be obliged to inspect volunteering workplaces.

More at http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/News/914809/ (registration required).

A review of the volunteering programme at the charity Crisis during 2008/9 explored the difference it makes to the organisation, its clients and volunteers, using a series of focus groups, interviews and surveys. The Institute for Volunteering Research has published a summary, Strong foundations, available in pdf, 287KB.

A report for the National Council on Archives, ‘Volunteering in Archives’ celebrates and reinvestigates the role of volunteering in the archive sector. See news item at http://www.mla.gov.uk/news_and_views/press/releases/2009/Valuing_volunteers, which has a link to the pdf download. And Museums Galleries Scotland has published research which looked at the role and impact of volunteers in museums and galleries, on workforce development, on the volunteers themselves and on communities. MGS news item.

Youth volunteering body v published ‘Young People Speak Out - Attitudes to and Perceptions of Full-Time Volunteering’, showing that over 2 million young people might consider volunteering on a full-time basis. Pdf, 1MB.

We had given this article a low rating as the issues in the USA differ markedly from Britain, but uprated that as Nonprofit Online News has stated that there are plenty of articles “where reading them is a good idea - reading this one is a responsibility”.

There may be some ideas worth taking further on tackling low wages in your area of work in the Blue Avocado article ‘Low-Wage Workers and Nonprofits’ at http://www.blueavocado.org/node/376.

Voluntary sector employers are being encouraged to offer placements to graduates from September 2009, as part of the government’s Graduate Talent Pool initiative.

Stuart Etherington, chief executive of NCVO says “we need to offer new graduates the chance to experience working in this sector, help them to develop their employability skills and encourage them to forge careers with us in the longer term.” Internships, both paid and unpaid, would vary in length but typically last around three months.

Workforce Hub news item or go direct to http://www.dius.gov.uk/graduatetalentpool to register.

The Clore Social Leadership Programme aims to equip aspiring leaders in the third sector with competence and confidence to deliver for the future. Applications for the fellowships starting January 2010 have just opened, with a deadline of 30th June.

See programme director Mary Marsh’s Society Guardian article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/may/27/mary-marsh-public-eye, or go direct to http://www.cloresocialleadership.org.uk (if you have navigation problems, use the site map http://www.cloresocialleadership.org.uk/sitemap.php).

Update.  Clinks Light Lunch has extracted the following key information: The Fellowships will last for one year, during which Fellows will attend two intensive residential courses, including a variety of site visits.  A bursary of up to £20,000 is available to support Fellows or the organisations that currently employ them.

A survey for those involved in Employer Supported Volunteering seeks to understand current levels of demand and the extent to which the expectations and capacity of employers matches those of brokers. It is being run by RedCCI, an initiative of the Red Foundation which provides a range of services aimed at increasing the impact of Corporate Community Investment programmes.

Respond by 9th June at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=0rNN129ySniAotnIZ9F_2bYw_3d_3d.

Volunteering England has published ‘Safeguarding student volunteering in the Further Education sector’, with the aim to help colleges to support more vulnerable adults and students under the age of eighteen to volunteer.

It highlights practical steps to safeguard students in volunteering both on and off campus. Info from Volunteering England.

A report from the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group shows the inconsistency in the tax and benefits treatment of volunteers expenses, and makes recommendations for a simple and coherent approach across government. This includes the proposal that volunteers should be able to donate their expense reimbursement under Gift Aid.

LITRG news item at http://www.litrg.org.uk/news/index.cfm?id=661 has link to the report, pdf 712KB.

Last week  (21st May) saw the launch of the Volunteering Wales campaign to encourage more people to get involved in volunteering and more organisations to provide quality volunteering experiences.

Alongside media adverts, there is a new logo and web site at http://www.volunteering-wales.net, a £2,000 award to each volunteer centre in Wales to help with local campaign activities and an online toolkit. WCVA news item at http://www.wcva.org.uk/news/dsp_news.cfm?newsid=1327&display_sitedeptid=21.

The Office of the Third Sector has provided details on three new programmes to boost volunteering, spending £6.6 million between 2009 and 2011.

Meeting commitments made in response to the Commission on the Future of Volunteering, Access to Volunteering aims to reduce barriers to disabled people volunteering and explore the feasibility of a national Access to Volunteering fund. OTS is seeking expressions of interest from organisations wishing to manage the programme.

Also following from the Commission recommendations, three million pounds to be handled by CapacityBuilders will go to training for volunteer managers. A third programme will contribute to building a volunteering legacy for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Volunteering news item.

The government’s special adviser on volunteering, the Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Julia Neuberger, has announced she is to step down from the position shortly, as she does not want to hold the position during the build-up to a general election.

Third Sector news item at http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/News/905506/ (registration required).

From Sandy Adirondack’s Legal Update, at http://www.sandy-a.co.uk/employment.htm#criminalrecordchecks:

The Criminal Records Bureau issued on 6th April 2009 a revised code of practice for registered bodies and other recipients of CRB disclosure information. Download (pdf, 1.06Mb) from http://www.crb.gov.uk/PDF/Code%20of%20Practice.pdf - copies of the previous code should be discarded.