Ministers urged to back full-time youth volunteering programme
Tristan Donovan
Thursday, November 16, 2017
Creating a national full-time youth volunteering programme similar to ones in the USA and France could boost the UK economy by up to £119m a year, a report commissioned by youth charity City Year UK has estimated.
The report by Pro Bono Economics concluded that a programme that supported 10,000 young people to volunteer full-time the UK economy would gain £28m to £119m a year - equal to a return of £1.20 to £1.60 for every pound spent by government on the programme.
On the back of the report, former Labour Education Secretary Lord Blunkett and City Year UK have called for government to fund a year-long programme and a legal status for full-time volunteers.
A government-ordered review of full-time volunteering is currently being conducted and is due to report its findings to government in December.
The model adopted in the report assumed that the government would pay £3,000, or £250 a month towards the estimated £13,500 annual costs of the average volunteer.
In comparison, schemes like Service Civique in France gives 16- to 25-year-olds up to €688.21 a month, most of which is funded by the state, to undertake volunteer projects that last for between six and 12 months. In 2016 around 92,000 young people completed Service Civique programmes, which were on offer from more than 9,000 organisations.
City Year UK, which runs programmes where 18- to 25-year-olds volunteer in schools in disadvantaged areas, said the findings back up its calls for a national full-time youth volunteering programme and for full-time volunteers to be recognised in law rather than classed as not in employment, education and training.
"This report further proves the benefit to the government of a structured full-time volunteering programme," said Sophie Livingstone, chief executive of City Year UK.
"The case is clear; full-time volunteering benefits everyone, from the participants, to public services and the overall economy."
Lord Blunkett backed City Year UK's calls: "The success of the National Citizen Service and government-backed full-time volunteering programmes from Germany, France and the USA - which can engage up to 100,000 participants per year - has taught us one thing above all else, build it and they will come.
"Armed with the evidence from this report, the question must now shift from whether we can afford such a programme, to whether we can afford not to invest right away?"
