Agenda item

That the Volunteering Policy for Employees at Tewkesbury Borough Council be approved with effect from 1 December 2015

That the Volunteering Policy for Employees at Tewkesbury Borough Council be APPROVED with effect from 8 December 2015.

54.1           The report of the Corporate Services Group Manager, circulated at Pages No. 62-80, attached a Volunteering Policy for Employees at Tewkesbury Borough Council which Members were asked to approve. 

54.2           The Deputy Chief Executive advised the Committee that promoting and enabling healthy and active communities was a key priority for the Council given the need to reduce dependency on traditional state services and to build self-reliance. The Council’s employees played an important role in supporting the Borough’s many and varied communities as part of its day to day duties; however staff could also play a greater direct role in assisting community projects through an active volunteering approach. The Government had signalled its intention, within the current term of Parliament, to make it compulsory for all employers to offer schemes to employees to allow them to be volunteers; the Council was preparing for that policy requirement by introducing a workforce policy to encourage volunteering by its staff. There were significant benefits for both the individual employee and the wider community and employee volunteering was well established within a number of national businesses as a significant managerial tool to increase efficiency and maximise workforce potential.

54.3           There were many large corporations in the private sector that already had policies in place, i.e. Asda, Walmart and Zurich Insurance etc., and it was felt that this not only demonstrated a corporate social responsibility but also benefited the staff in understanding the community in which they worked. In order to manage the process, and to ensure staff time was effectively channelled into projects which directly assisted the outcome of community projects within the Borough, it was recommended that the Council joined ‘Involve Gloucestershire’. It was proposed that the Council allowed up to ten members of staff to take part in up to two challenge volunteering days in a year. This would involve a team activity for a one off practical task which was completed by a group of employees in one day. The activity would be designed to offer great team building opportunities and give employees a day away from their usual working environment where they could learn new skills and gain a real sense of achievement. It was anticipated that the projects would be things like painting buildings, undertaking a community garden project or cleaning an area. Involve Gloucestershire would act as a brokerage of volunteering opportunities between the employer and local groups and would actively support the Council in promoting employee volunteering to its workforce and local businesses.

54.4           In terms of Involve Gloucestershire, Members were advised that it was a social enterprise that had been formed in 2015 in order to safeguard the country’s historic volunteering bureau services but also to move those services to a more financially sustainable model. Using experience from other areas, and particularly Swindon, Involve Gloucestershire aimed to sign up businesses across both the public and private sectors. The research it had conducted had shown that many large and medium businesses currently struggled to find effective volunteering opportunities for their staff, despite their commitment to encourage corporate social responsibility, and would be keen to pay for that essential service. Both Zurich Insurance and GCHQ had already signed up and were contributing to start-up costs to enable Involve Gloucestershire to become operational within the County and to offer other services. Tewkesbury Borough Council was being asked to sign up to Involve Gloucestershire for three years in order to broker volunteering opportunities, arrange challenge events for staff, train and develop employee understanding around volunteering and to promote the approach to local businesses. The Council’s Economic Development Team would develop successful case studies from the challenge days and those would be used to promote the benefits to the local community and local businesses to demonstrate how easy it was to get involved. In addition, that information would be widely communicated through the business e-newsletter, social media, business events, the Borough News and local business networks. It was also intended that Officers would work with the other partners within the Council Offices building to try and get them involved.

54.5           During the discussion which ensued, a Member indicated that he was aware that GCHQ encouraged its entire staff to do three days paid volunteer work each year. It was felt that the benefits were two-fold as it encouraged staff to get out into the community and gave them a certain sense of achievement once they had done something which was of benefit to the community. Referring to Paragraph 10.1 of the Volunteering Policy, a Member advised that, as she understood it, the rules on Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks had been relaxed and only those that worked on a one-to-one basis with young people or vulnerable adults needed to have an enhanced check. In addition, if the check was needed for volunteering work it could be gained free of charge. The Human Resources Adviser undertook to investigate this; it was currently in the policy just in case the host organisation required it but this could be reviewed as necessary.

54.6           One Member felt that this was a good idea but he had concerns about the views of staff. He felt that the Council’s staff worked hard, with some working over weekends, and he would not want them to feel pressurised into doing extra, especially if it could affect their general wellbeing. In response, the Deputy Chief Executive explained that the Volunteering Policy would not be imposed on staff but would give them an opportunity to be involved should they so wish. The proposed number of two events over a year was quite limited so there was no reason that staff should feel under pressure. The idea had been discussed at recent staff briefings and had been positively received which was encouraging. It was agreed that it was essential to recognise the health and wellbeing of staff and it was hoped that the Volunteering Policy would be of additional benefit and would provide support for a broadening of skills. Another Member indicated that initially she had had similar reservations but the Policy had been scaled back somewhat from that which had originally been discussed and she was now happy that it could work well and be of benefit to staff rather than an additional drain on their time.

54.7           Having considered the report provided, it was