1. Volunteering in Social
Care
John Eversley and Belinda Pratten
ppre CIC

2. About ppre
• Set up January 2003
• Public policy research, education and
consultancy
• Partnerships with universities, NGOs
• Range of projects and methods
– Quantitative research using administrative data
– ‘Emancipatory’ research
– E.g. Informal and ad hoc Interpreters

3. Definitions of
volunteering 1
United Nations: 3 defining characteristics
• Activity not undertaken for financial reward
• Activity undertaken voluntarily (free will)
• Activity of benefit to someone else or society
Main types of activity
– Mutual aid or self help;
– Philanthropy or service to others
– Participation or civic engagement
– Advocacy or campaigning

4. Definitions of
volunteering 2
United Kingdom: no common definition, broadly:
• ‘an unpaid activity where someone gives their
help to an organisation or an individual to whom
they are not related.’ (Volunteering
England)
UK Citizenship Survey
• Formal volunteering: unpaid help given as part of a
group, club or organisation...
• Informal volunteering: unpaid help given as an
individual to someone who is not a relative

5. Formal volunteering by
organisation

6. The voluntary
principle
• Must be freely chosen, ‘no strings attached’
• Must be distinct from paid work, not a
substitute for it
• Issues re benefit / minimum wage entitlements
and contractual obligations – that may also
impact on accreditation
• Volunteering in health and social care – not a
cheap option

7. Volunteering in health
and social care
Coalition Government policy:
“Our vision is of a society in which social action
and reciprocity are the norm and where
volunteering is encouraged, promoted and
supported because it has the power to
enhance quality; reduce inequality; or improve
outcomes in health, public health and social
care.”
Department of Health, 2011, Strategic vision for volunteering

8. Health and Social Care
Volunteering Fund
• Set up in November 2010 to help ‘recruit,
support and celebrate volunteers and
volunteering’
• Grants to support projects that help meet
government objectives in relation to:
– Empowering patients
– Improving individual and community health outcomes
– Improving health and social care
• Evaluation of these projects will be used to
strengthen the evidence-base on volunteering in
health and social care

9. Carers
• ‘Any unpaid help, looking after or supporting
family members, friends, neighbours or others
because of long-term physical or mental ill-health
or disability or problems related to old age’
• A continuum, from making or receiving a phone
call – “caring about” - through to living with
someone and giving them support twenty-four
hours a day – “caring for”
• Who Cares? Women, BME Communities, poorer
people, ‘the pivot generation’
• 4.3m , 2001 , 5.5m by 2030

10. Informal and ad hoc
interpreters Context:
• Social: demography e.g. 230 languages in
London
• Political: attitudes to Minority languages
• Legal: No ‘Official’ language in England; right
to Interpreter; right to healthcare
• Ethical: use of children as interpreters

11. Informal and ad hoc
interpreters Context:
• Economic; the costs and benefits of (not)
having paid, trained mediators or bilingual
professionals; who pays for it
• Technical: models and standards of
mediation; How it is organised

12. Informal and ad hoc
interpreters
• Bangladeshi
– 29/50 patients had used informal or ad hoc
interpreter
– 8/50 used<under 18
– Felt more comfortable with and more reliable
• Turkish
– 17/27 use an interpreter: pd/informal depends on
availability and level of concern with respect to
their health

13. Findings: UK Informal
and ad hoc interpreters
• Bangladeshi
– 41/50 had done it
– 18 < 18 years old: embarrassment, pressure,
missing school
• Turkish
– 36/53 had done it
– 16 < 18 years old: responsibility incl reassurance,
pressure lack of vocabulary and training; not being
believed