Establishing Volunteering

Establishing volunteering – guidance for organisers

If you are thinking of participating or organising volunteering activity you can apply the same principles that Warwick Volunteers does when deciding to recognise a provider or activity:

Making sure the activity is appropriately organised

Before Warwick Volunteers will offer to advertise a volunteering activity, a member of staff will undertake the following checks:

The activity is with a not-for-profit organisation or state run (ie state school).
The activity is of direct benefit to the community.
The activity is based in an area where Warwick students live (generally Coventry or Warwickshire) or can be carried out from home (eg online).
The activity offers a personal development opportunity to volunteers or is a one-off event that is likely to be of interest.
If the opportunity involves a volunteer collecting money, the money must be paid directly to the charity for whom it has been raised and not come through the University.
The activity does not require volunteers to work alone in the community e.g. home visits to the elderly or mentoring meetings in local cafes.
The organisation has a clear policy on paying expenses such as Travel. An organisation which does not reimburse expenses (often small, local community organisations) may be supported if it provides an opportunity likely to be of particular interest to students and this information will be clearly stated on the advertisement.
There are no obvious concerns about the nature of, or management of, the activity, such as negative reports from previous volunteers.
Volunteer roles comply with UK employment law. (eg. Minimum wage does not apply).
Volunteer role does not duplicate or replace a paid role.
The activity is not for the purpose of political campaigning or for direct promotion of religion.

If Warwick Volunteers are working more closely with provider, such as organising groups of students to attend, staff will do further checks:

The organisation has appropriate policies in place for:

Health and Safety management including risk assessments.
Public Liability Insurance which covers volunteers of at least £5m (policy details should be included on the form or a copy of the certificate provided).
Induction and training for the tasks to be done, with ongoing access to support and supervision.

That the organisation complies has data sharing policies.
The organisation has a risk assessment in place for the activity. But Warwick Volunteers will not comment on the contents of any risk assessment, in line with direction from UoW Insurance Services to limit vicarious liability.

Screening when working with Children or Adults at Risk

When volunteers work regularly with children or adults at risk there is a need to complete a DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check; and, if the volunteer has lived outside the UK for more than 6 months in the last 5 years, a Certificate of Good Conduct from the country they have lived in. These enable organisations to check the criminal records of volunteers, to ascertain whether they are suitable to work with vulnerable individuals.

Those advertising or organising volunteering should be aware that there is no central facility at the University of Warwick for undertaking DBS, areas of the university, including Warwick Volunteers, only process DBS for their own activities and Certificates of Good Conduct must be sort from countries in person or at embassies. External organisations may be willing to process DBS on behalf of volunteers, but organisers should ascertain this in advance.

It is important that appropriate safeguarding is undertaken, whilst most activity hosts will have appropriate systems in place, organisers should remember that they too have a responsibility to ensure effective safeguarding is undertaken.

Warwick Volunteers recommendation is to design volunteering in a way that limits safeguarding requirements. This means that volunteering can occur more quickly without significant administration and that international students can participate on equal terms with UK resident students.

Volunteering that does not involve repeated interactions with vulnerable individuals and activities that ensure volunteers are never left unsupervised will reduce the requirements. For example, rather than planning weekly one-to-one mentoring sessions with children, consider one of group presentations with teachers present.

Warwick Volunteers are always happy to share our expertise with students and staff of the University of Warwick.

Travel Insurance

We strongly recommend that you take out a comprehensive travel insurance policy before you travel abroad whilst undertaking any activity when you are a Warwick student.

The University offers emergency health travel insurance for all current students studying abroad with a recognised programme through a recognised scheme. This does not include any summer work placements, any group activities abroad which are privately arranged and involving Warwick students, or any departmentally organised placements. Foreign trips organised by University of Warwick Student Union recognised societies may/may not have coverage arranged. If you need clarification on whether you are entitled to use this insurance policy for the duration of your time abroad, please contact the Insurance Services Team.