Youth social action review makes evidence call
Nina Jacobs
Friday, September 8, 2017
Young people and youth organisations are being asked to contribute to a government-commissioned consultation on the benefits and barriers to youth volunteering.
The call for evidence, published yesterday, will inform an independent review by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) to identify barriers to participation in full-time youth social action and recommend ways to overcome these.
The review, launched in March, aims to help the government meet its target to significantly boost youth volunteering levels by the end of the decade.
Under the call for evidence, respondents are also asked to describe their own experiences of volunteering either as a young person or as a provider in order to fill in some of the knowledge gaps uncovered by the independent review.
They will also consider the impact full-time volunteering has on young people compared with part-time social action opportunities.
The government defines full-time volunteering as, on average, at least 16 hours a week of activities for six months or more.
Respondents are also asked to give examples of barriers to full-time volunteering and suggestions as to how they might be tackled.
In addition, it will ask if they think full-time volunteering opportunities should be expanded and for evidence of unmet need or demand.
A further question will gather views on what three key factors would enable more full-time volunteering opportunities for young people.
The independent review's chair Steve Holliday, together with an independent expert advisory panel, is investigating the support required to increase participation among young people.
Panelists will act in a personal capacity rather than representing the views of their own organisation and will provide impartial advice to the government.
A series of roundtable events will be held with experts from the youth, voluntary, legal, finance, policy, business, education and public sectors.
The deadline for submissions to the call for evidence is 13 October, after which the review will make recommendations to the government by the end of December.
Research carried out in 2014 showed only 40 per cent of young people were involved in volunteering. The government subsequently pledged to increase this to 60 per cent by 2020.
At the launch of the review, former civil society minister Rob Wilson said the target could be achieved by creating more opportunities, enlisting more adult volunteers to offer support and inspiring more young people to take part in voluntary schemes.
