Coronavirus (COVID-19) volunteering - third sector perspectives: survey report

Executive summary

1 Introduction

This report presents the results of a survey undertaken by Scottish Government in collaboration with Volunteer Scotland, intended to gather third sector organisational perspectives on volunteering during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. The survey questions were designed to give insights into the contribution of volunteers and volunteering during the pandemic, to take stock of the current challenges faced by volunteering organisations and to highlight learning and insights emerging around volunteering and its role in this crisis.

1.1 Methodology, coverage, limitations and definitions

The survey included two questionnaires, one aimed at representatives of 'infrastructure organisations' working with the third sector – such as Third Sector Interfaces (TSIs), Local Authorities, Health and Social Care Partnerships and other umbrella organisations – and one aimed at third sector organisations working directly with volunteers, volunteer-involving organisations (VIOs).

The survey was live between 30 April and 6 June 2021. We received a total of 346 complete responses to the survey. Of these, 68 were responses to the questionnaire for infrastructure organisations, and 278 were responses to the questionnaire for volunteer-involving organisations.^[1]

Survey coverage and limitations

The survey results for the volunteer-involving organisations included responses from a wide range of organisation types, sizes and locations. However, the survey sample of volunteer-involving organisations was relatively small, when put in the context of the size of Scotland's third sector as a whole. As such, while we can have reasonable confidence in the overall aggregate findings, we are not able to disaggregate the findings to specific geographies or sectors. In addition, when compared with the whole population of registered charities in Scotland there is some over-representation of larger organisations (by income) and under-representation of smaller ones.

In the infrastructure organisation survey we received responses from 28 TSIs and 11 local authorities. When reading the data from the infrastructure organisation questionnaire, it is important to bear in mind that the majority (54%) were from TSIs.

Survey definitions

The survey asks questions about both 'formal' and 'informal' volunteering, and about 'mutual aid'. We provided the following definitions to guide respondents:

• Formal volunteering refers to volunteering through a charity, formally organised group, club, or public or private sector organisation.
• Informal volunteering refers to volunteering as an individual (not through a group) to help other people outside your family, or to support your local community or environment.
• Mutual aid refers to volunteering through an informal group, often organised via a social media platform, to support and help others in your local community.

In the context of this report, where possible we have explored these different forms of volunteering separately. However, for many practitioners these distinctions were sometimes unclear or contested, and the attempt to categorise volunteering activities as informal or formal was not always straightforward.

2 Key findings

The outset of the pandemic saw a huge upswell in people wishing to volunteer to help others. Infrastructure organisations and volunteer-involving organisations agreed that this volunteer response was crucial to underpinning the COVID-19 response across Scotland. Overall, 82% of VIOs strongly agreed or agreed that volunteers had been essential to the functioning of their organisation during the pandemic.

2.1 How volunteering changed during the pandemic

In practice, the survey findings indicate that what happened with volunteering during the pandemic varied considerably between volunteering types, between organisations and sectors, and in response to changing COVID-19 restrictions.

Reduced opportunities in pre-pandemic volunteering programmes

Organisations had to stop or reduce many of their programmes involving volunteers at the beginning of the pandemic. This was the combined result of COVID-19 restrictions, of closure of premises, and of many older volunteers and volunteers with underlying health conditions stepping back from in-person volunteering. The pandemic generally caused a reduction in opportunities within pre-existing formal volunteering programmes. Overall, 58% of the VIOs that responded to the survey said that the number of volunteers that they were working with had reduced since March 2020.

The growth of new community-based support groups

As pre-existing volunteering programmes were reducing their operations due to COVID-19, hundreds of new voluntary community support or 'mutual aid' organisations were being formed to respond to the pandemic. These groups were sometimes created by existing organisations, but often by concerned citizens seeking a way to support the COVID-19 response. The groups typically used social media platforms to support recruitment of volunteers and organisation of their activities. The structures and level of formal constitution of these groups varied hugely, from very informal 'pop-up' groups to groups with a certain level of organisational capacity already in place. The number of such groups across Scotland is unknown, since many were not formally registered or constituted.

Infrastructure organisations noted the speed at which these groups had formed, their ability to respond rapidly to needs, and their reach. However, there were also concerns that these groups did not always have strong procedures in place, including policies and procedures to ensure the safety of the people being helped and the volunteers. Supporting these new organisations to put COVID-safety and safeguarding in place became a major focus for TSIs and other infrastructure organisations.

The importance of informal volunteering

The COVID-19 response was also characterised by widespread informal volunteering, with people supporting others in their neighbourhoods through periods of shielding and self-isolation, or by staying in contact with those at risk of loneliness. Ninety percent of infrastructure organisation respondents agreed that informal volunteering had helped to combat social isolation and loneliness; 87% agreed that informal volunteering had been an essential complement to formal volunteering; and 85% agreed it had strengthened community spirit and identity.

Engaging new volunteers

Infrastructure organisations identified a pattern of large and rapid initial increases in volunteer registrations and activity during the first lockdown, followed by a drop during the second lockdown in early 2021.

Some 73% of infrastructure organisations agreed 'to a large extent' that people started volunteering at the beginning of the pandemic who had not been volunteering before. Many working people and younger people had more time available as a result of unemployment or furlough. The lockdown conditions requiring people to remain in their local areas were also seen to have contributed to an increase in community-based volunteering. Finally, there was a recognition that people were volunteering to support others; to reduce their own experience of isolation and loneliness; and because the situation was so exceptional that many people felt particularly motivated to help.

Infrastructure organisational support for the COVID-19 volunteering response

Infrastructure organisations assumed key roles in supporting the volunteer response in local authority areas, ranging from signing up and assigning volunteers; establishing coordination structures; offering advisory support, guidance and information about all aspects of volunteering to VIOs; and funding advice and distribution.

Faced with a patchwork of different levels of voluntary response across their areas, infrastructure organisations described how they worked with partners to identify areas where there was less volunteer support emerging at the beginning of the pandemic, and to fill any gaps.

Providing support for new mutual aid/community support organisations became an important role for many infrastructure organisations, particularly TSIs and local authorities. Infrastructure organisations also supported the informal volunteering response, focusing primarily on creating advice and guidance on volunteering safely and good practice.

2.2 Coordination of the volunteering response

Many different institutional partners were involved in the coordination of local volunteering responses during the pandemic. Some respondents indicated that initially the situation was confusing – particularly given the rapid proliferation of new groups and initiatives seeking to help out – and that local coordination took time to get in place.

Infrastructure organisations rated the coordination of the response between themselves and key local partners the highest, with 48% of respondents saying this was excellent, and 31% saying it was good. Infrastructure organisations rated coordination between themselves and national partners less favorably.

Among VIOs, 47% rated coordination of the response as good or excellent, 26% considered that coordination was limited/could be improved, and 6% said there was no coordination of the volunteering response. Where VIOs felt coordination was good, this was usually due to the local TSI, local authority or both putting effective coordination structures in place and engaging well with the third sector.

Overall, many infrastructure organisations and VIOs suggested that coordination within local authority areas improved during the course of the pandemic, and that better coordination structures and working relationships may be an important legacy. Organisations also recognised that their awareness of existing resilience arrangements had increased. Some respondents felt that the nature of resilience arrangements had changed, developing greater focus on social aspects of resilience – including community volunteering – and building closer relationships with the third sectorRespondents felt these were important gains to build on for future responses.

The Scotland Cares campaign

The Scotland Cares campaign was a national volunteering campaign that ran between March-May 2020. The campaign was put in place by the Scottish Government in partnership with NHS Scotland, Volunteer Scotland and the British Red Cross. The intention was to ensure that a large pool of volunteers could be identified to be called upon to support the COVID response at community level as needed. The campaign was a response to the widespread public impetus to volunteer, and the need to be able to channel this 'spontaneous' volunteering effectively without creating additional burden for operational services.^[2]

Scotland Cares encouraged potential volunteers to sign up with either the British Red Cross or Volunteer Scotland, both organisations with extensive experience of supporting volunteering. Through the campaign there were more than 60,000 sign-ups of potential volunteers with Volunteer Scotland (35,262) and the British Red Cross (25,172).^[3]

Some respondents recognised that the campaign had been successful in raising the profile of volunteering, generating a huge positive response – including from people who were new to volunteering, or with a wide range of skills and experience.

However, the overwhelming opinion among infrastructure organisations was that the volunteering campaign had led to large numbers of people signing up for whom there were not enough volunteering roles available: 48% of infrastructure organisations said that there were significantly more volunteers than it was possible to place. Their view was that the Scotland Cares campaign did not result in high numbers of volunteer placements, primarily because the level of formal volunteering opportunities that existed in local areas at the time was very low. Just 5% of the VIOs responding to the survey indicated that they had received volunteers via the Scotland Cares campaign. Meanwhile, community support and mutual aid groups had already recruited large numbers of participants via social media channels.

2.3 Challenges for volunteering during the pandemic

We asked VIOs to tell us about the challenges they faced in deploying volunteers during the pandemic, and how they have responded to these. The most significant challenges that VIOs faced included:

• Volunteers not being able to volunteer as a result of social distancing measures (87% of VIOs said this was either a 'major' challenge or 'some' challenge)
• A reduction in the participation of existing volunteers because of the risks of COVID-19 (80% of VIOs).
• 49% of organisations said that adapting their volunteering work to meet COVID-19 requirements was a challenge, along with a lack of information and consistent communication and implementation regarding COVID-19 regulations and what these meant in practice.
• 47% of organisations considered that volunteer wellbeing, fatigue or burn-out was either a 'major' or 'some' challenge.
• Volunteers having insufficient digital skills or confidence to volunteer remotely was a 'major' or 'some' challenge to 58% of organisations, with access to suitable equipment also being a challenge.
• 46% of VIOs said that they faced challenges in ensuring that their volunteering deployment was inclusive. Certain groups of volunteers and service users were particularly likely to be excluded as a result of the shift to digital and remote volunteering. Respondents mentioned people with poor internet access; refugees; people with dementia; some people with disabilities. Organisations working with children and young people struggled to engage these groups effectively through on-line provision.

How volunteer-involving organisations responded to these challenges

Volunteer-involving organisations responded in many different ways to the challenges of deploying volunteers during COVID-19 including:

• Adapting organisational ways of working to implement a COVID-safe volunteering environment: 65% of VIOs said they did this.
• Enabling remote and online forms of volunteering and training: 56% of VIOs moved some or all of their volunteering activity online, while 44% enabled shielding volunteers to undertake volunteering activities from home.
• Pivoting the focus of their work to support the COVID-19 response: 52% of VIOs changed or refocused the types of activities that their volunteers do, when faced with the closure/pausing of their usual programmes.
• 42% said that they responded by providing increased mental health or wellbeing support to their volunteers.

2.4 Current situation and recovery: uncertain times

At the time of this survey (April-June 2021), many VIOs were beginning to restart or increase volunteer work as COVID-19 restrictions were being eased. Many VIOs reported that their numbers of volunteers were recovering: 70% of responding VIOs thought that by the end of 2021 their volunteer numbers would be similar to or higher than they had been pre-pandemic. We do not yet know the effects of the emergence of the Omicron variant on this expected recovery.

Some VIOs were finding that some of their pre-existing volunteers were not able or willing to return. Reasons for this included continued apprehension in relation to volunteer safety/COVID; loss of confidence after having stopped for so long; and for some volunteers, a reassessment of priorities leading to stopping volunteering. Meanwhile, the end of furlough meant that some people who had started volunteering during the pandemic no longer had time for daytime volunteering.

Emerging needs of service users and communities

We asked survey respondents to tell us what they thought were likely to be the most important emerging needs in the communities they work with. VIOs and infrastructure organisations agreed that their primary areas of concern were around mental health and wellbeing (84% of VIOs and 90% of infrastructure organisations respectively) and loneliness and social isolation (73% and 88%). Financial hardship and concerns about unemployment/redundancy were the next most highly cited areas of emerging needs, alongside digital inclusion and access.

Survey respondents were very concerned about the long-term impacts of the pandemic on mental health and wellbeing, and on social isolation and loneliness, particularly for older and more vulnerable people who had spent much of the pandemic in relative isolation.

VIO priorities for engaging and supporting volunteers during the pandemic recovery

The main priorities expressed by VIOs for volunteering during the next phase of the pandemic and recovery were:

• making volunteering safe/COVID-19 compliant (83%);
• restarting volunteering and encouraging pre-existing volunteers who have stopped to return (76%); and ensuring volunteer health and wellbeing (71%).
• Engaging new volunteers, and training volunteers to do new types of volunteering such as volunteering remotely were the areas of next highest priority.
• Around 37% of VIOs said that making their volunteering more inclusive was a priority.

What support do VIOs need for recovery in volunteering?

We asked VIOs what they need in order to support recovery in volunteering within their organisation over the next two years.

• Dedicated funding for volunteer coordination and support: VIOs said they need sustainable and longer term funding for core costs, and for dedicated posts to support volunteer coordination and management. They highlighted that lack of funding for volunteer coordination roles is limiting their ability to restart volunteering after the pandemic.
• Support for the costs of dual delivery and hybrid working: Some VIOs noted that they will need to provide both face-to-face and online/digital services simultaneously over a number of months, and that this dual delivery has additional resource requirements and costs.
• Digital volunteering and service delivery was the second most-common area where VIOs said they needed support, recognising that there may be demand for longer-term remote volunteering or service delivery.
• Support for volunteer training: Supporting volunteer and staff access to free or low-cost training was a priority for several VIOs.
• Recognising, accrediting and celebrating the value of volunteering: VIOs also felt that more should be done to ensure that volunteers themselves are recognised and formally accredited for the skills, experience and training that they develop in their roles as volunteers. Organisations view this as essential for promoting the value of volunteering in order to engage more people.

Infrastructure organisation priorities for supporting recovery in volunteering

We asked infrastructure organisations about priority measures for supporting the recovery of volunteering in their area during the next 12 months.

• 90% of infrastructure organisations said that short- and long-term funding support for volunteering was very important or important.
• Support for volunteer coordination within local areas was a high priority, with 80% saying this was very important or important.
• Developing and embedding different models for supporting volunteering – such as digital and remote forms of volunteering – were considered to be very important or important by 83% of infrastructure organisations.
• Infrastructure organisations highlighted the need to respond to inequalities and exclusion in volunteering as significant priorities.
• Infrastructure organisations felt there is an opportunity to harness willingness to volunteer during the pandemic and turn this into longer-term engagement: 81% of respondents said it was important or very important to recognise and support informal volunteering, and 67% felt that it was important or very important to support mutual aid groups where they want to continue.

They also prioritized ongoing commitment to collaboration and partnership working, building on what has been achieved in this respect during the pandemic.

2.5 Learning and what has changed

We asked all survey respondents to reflect on learning from the pandemic.

VIO reflections on change and learning as a result of the pandemic

• The move to remote, online and digital volunteering: Around one third of the VIOs highlighted this as the most important change and learning that they had experienced during the pandemic. VIOs felt that this had:
  • allowed volunteering to continue in many cases;
  • enabled beneficiaries who were remote or isolating to be reached;
  • enabled organisations to engage a wider pool of volunteers;
  • supported communication and contact.

Whilst organisations acknowledged the challenges that remote and digital working poses in terms of the potential exclusion of some volunteers and some service users, many VIOs recognised the flexibility and benefits that online/remote volunteering had brought, and intended to maintain some degree of online programme, alongside blended approaches and a return to face-to-face volunteering.

• Recognition of volunteers, and support for volunteer health and wellbeing: VIOs highlighted an increased focus on recognising and valuing volunteers, and on supporting their health and wellbeing.

If we had to respond to a similar situation in future, there are a number of areas where VIOs think that organisations coordinating policy and responses at national or local level should do things differently:

• Funding volunteering adequately: VIOs acknowledged the emergency COVID response funding for third sector organisations (from Scottish Government and other funders) as a lifeline. However, the funding support needs for volunteering remain significant. VIOs stressed that continued investment in volunteering, and in community/third sector organisations, is an important aspect of ensuring readiness for future emergencies.
• Maintain a focus on digital inclusion: VIOs felt that digital inclusion needs further investment and support to ensure that organisations and individuals are sufficiently equipped with digital technology and skills as part of readiness for any future response.
• Emergency response: provision of clear information and guidance: in a future emergency, VIOs felt there could be improvements in the provision of timely and clear information, advice and guidance in relation to volunteering.
• Giving priority to local-level decision-making in emergency response: VIOs also emphasised the need to recognise the importance of local-level decision making by local organisations within any future emergency response. They felt this could have been achieved through better communication and engagement with local organisations, and by including these groups more effectively in local area decision making.

Infrastructure organisation reflections on change and learning as a result of the pandemic

We asked infrastructure organisations what they had learned, what they would do differently if a similar situation arose in future, and what policy makers and other stakeholders should do differently:

• Planning and preparedness for future emergency situations: Several respondents stressed the need for better planning to support the response to any future emergency situation. There was recognition that resilience arrangements have become more inclusive as a result of the pandemic, and that awareness of existing arrangements has increased. Organisations also felt that the internal resilience structures and systems as well as investments in digital working that they have developed during the pandemic make them better prepared for dealing with a future crisis.
• Better partnership working: Partnership working – at local levels between key partners, and between national and local levels – was a clear emergent priority. Many organisations said they would seek to approach partnership working differently from the outset of an emergency situation, building more collaboration between key partners.
• Prioritising local decision making and flexibility of response: Like the VIOs, infrastructure organisations emphasised the importance of devolving decision making and coordination to local areas, and decentralising funding decisions to enable a more rapid and flexible local response. Some respondents felt that certain aspects of decision making during the pandemic had become more responsive, flexible, or devolved, and wanted to ensure that this could be retained within future emergency responses.
• Clearer communications and guidance in relation to volunteering: Some infrastructure organisations stressed the need for clearer communications and guidance in relation to volunteering, and for more proactive engagement with the voluntary sector when developing national or local guidance.

3 Conclusions and next steps

The following key conclusions emerge from the data presented here:

New ways of working represent gains and losses: VIOs made significant changes to their ways of working during the pandemic, adapting to offer remote and on-line opportunities for volunteering and service delivery. Many organisations appreciated the flexibility that remote delivery had brought. Nevertheless, there were some clear losses associated with the shift to online/remote volunteering. These included increased risks of exclusion for some volunteers and service users – because of barriers including lack of access to equipment; disablity; health conditions; low confidence. Many VIOs stressed the importance of in-person interaction for the wellbeing of many volunteers and service users. Long-term hybrid and flexible models will require continued investment in digital inclusion as well a recognition that on-line models do not work well for all volunteers, programmes, and service users.

Volunteer wellbeing is a concern: The intensive period that many VIOs have been through since March 2020 has taken its toll on staff and volunteer health and wellbeing. An increased need to focus on supporting volunteer wellbeing and mental health was a clear emerging finding from the study. There were also concerns for those who have had to stop volunteering during the pandemic, and are unable to access the wellbeing benefits that volunteering provides.

Mental health tops emerging needs among service users: VIOs felt the pandemic has had a significant negative impact on mental health, loneliness and social isolation among their service users, and noted the lack of sufficient mental health provision to be able to respond to these emerging needs.

Informal and mutual aid volunteering: future perspectives: An important question now facing volunteering support organisations and policy makers is how to build on the experience of informal and mutual aid volunteering during COVID-19. There are important questions about which organisational structures to invest in for the future, and the extent to which it may be possible to encourage new volunteers to stay involved in volunteering for the longer term.

Coordination and preparedness: building on positive changes: Many respondents noted the increased levels of coordination and partnership working around volunteering within their local areas that had emerged through the pandemic as a positive outcome. They felt that this could be an important legacy to support volunteering and other aspects of local response in the future. Respondents stressed the need to ensure local leadership and coordination of response wherever possible. There was also a sense that volunteering had gained recognition as an essential part of local and national emergency responses. Building volunteering and the third sector more explicitly into existing and future emergency preparedness and resilience arrangements was seen as essential, and organisations felt there were important steps to take now to ensure that volunteer readiness and capacity are better understood, and integrated into wider structures for future emergency situations.

Volunteering needs to be resourced: VIOs and infrastructure organisations repeatedly stressed that providing support and coordination for volunteers, ensuring their wellbeing, and operating hybrid on-line/in person models for volunteering and service delivery are resource-intensive activities. There was clear feedback that more dedicated funding is needed to support volunteering within volunteer-involving organisations and volunteering coordination and support capacity at the level of TSIs or local authorities. This was felt to be essential in order to ensure resilient volunteering capacities for the future.

3.1 Next steps

This report is testimony to the extraordinary and heroic work of organisations and individuals during an unprecedented time. It provides important evidence of the adaptability and effectiveness of volunteering in Scotland. The Scottish Government and Volunteer Scotland are reviewing all the findings from the survey. Findings will be shared and discussed within the Volunteering Action Plan working groups, and used to help inform and shape the development of the Scottish Government's volunteering policy, and the new Volunteering Action Plan for Scotland^[4] in particular. The findings will also help inform the wider policy response to the pandemic and lessons learned from it.