This document summarizes a contribution through volunteering business model. It involves using trained community volunteers as mentors to support individuals with needs to volunteer. This enables participants to build skills and contribute to their communities while breaking down barriers. Studies found volunteering helps recovery and encourages community responsibility. The model was launched in Essex and reduced isolation from 700 to 511 people over 5 years at a cost of £1,012-£1,887 per person. Participants reported increased independence, control, and well-being from volunteering. The business model can influence commissioning practices and provide a cost-effective social intervention.

1. Contribution through Volunteering –
The Business Model
Jemma Mindham, Area Manager, CSV
jmindham@csv.org.uk
Douglas McKelvie, Partner, Symmetric
Partnership LLP
douglas.mckelvie@symmetricpartnership.co.uk

2. How to participate today

3. Jemma Mindham
CSV

4. Policy-Personalisation, Choice and Control
“Our overall vision is about promoting
people's wellbeing and independence
and enabling them to be active citizens”
Glen Mason, Director of People,
Communities and Local Government, DH
“There is a strong emphasis in the Care
Act on improving people's overall
wellbeing, which shifts the emphasis
from a remedial, 'deficit' based system,
to one which seeks to take pre-emptive,
preventive and supportive measures.”
Bridget Warr, CEO UK Home Care
Association and TLAP Board Member

5. Contribution through Volunteering
● Asset based approach to improving community
engagement, individual health and wellbeing, and
commissioning
● Enables individuals with a range of support needs to
contribute to their communities through volunteering with
the support of trained mentors from the local community
● Enables them to be trained to increase their skills and
enhance their ability to contribute
● Breaks down barriers and builds relationships through
using community volunteers as support mentors
5

6. Impact
● King’s Fund Volunteering in Health and Care (2013) - support
provided by volunteers/mentors is of particular value to those who
rely most heavily on services.
● CSV Reports On: Mental Health, Volunteering and Social Inclusion
(2008):
 more likely to have a positive outcome due to the informal nature of
the relationship and the responsibility it gives the service user for
their own recovery
 encourages community and peer responsibility
● Self-reported outcomes 12-13:
 93% increased independence
 65% more in control
 600 disabled people supported to volunteer

7. Douglas McKelvie
Symmetric Partnership

8. Process to date
● Reviewed models
● Launched with sector leaders
● Support from DH
● Developed business model with Essex CC
● Included in Strategic Partners Programme
● 3 regional workshops and Webinar
● 2nd
year of Programme: promote further, extend to
children’s and young people’s services
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9. Applied to Volunteering - Essex
● Isolated Older People in Tendring, Essex – 100 per annum
● Local volunteer mentors - 35
● 1 staff member for support
● 5 year programme
● 10 month maximum timed intervention
● Option to re-enter model as a volunteer
● Volunteers and Beneficiaries will drop out
● Beneficiaries may naturally become isolated again following an
intervention
● Assumptions made, but based on actual statistics on isolation from
Essex County Council

10. Results
● Reduction in number of isolated people:
from 700 to around 511 (759 without the scheme)
● •After five years, 426 people would have moved out of isolation
into a ‘connected’ state (including those still with a volunteer)
Average cost of:
● £1,012 per person who started the scheme
● £1,887 per reduction of one person in the “isolated” community
Next Steps –further work on cost effectiveness, including savings and
outcomes e.g. in context of existing tools, ASCOT, POET.

11. Our Learning – Health and Wellbeing
“Being a volunteer gives self esteem
and confidence – a sense of
purpose and makes me happy”
“I need to be included in
decisions; it’s about what I want”
“Help to build my skills up so I know
what I want to do and how to do it –
I want to do things properly and
well”
“My confidence has improved
and my social skills …without
CSV I would not have got
anywhere and would be sat at
home bored with nothing to do”

12. Our Learning – Impact and Outcomes
• Volunteering makes financial sense - DWP: Wellbeing
and Civil Society (2013) - social and economic benefits
of volunteering. Economic value of formal volunteering in
the UK 1.3% to 1.6% of GDP – around £23 billion.
● Strong link with Care Act 2014 and new prevention duty
this places on LA’s; community capacity; Better Care
Fund and integration.
● Business Model to influence commissioning practise
across health, care and beyond; provides a tool for
engaging with and convincing commissioners of impact
of social action and volunteering as a cost effective
intervention.

13. Any questions?

14. Further information
●www.in-control.org.uk/contributionthroughvolunteering
●www.in-control.org.uk/webinarschedule2014
●www.in-control.org.uk/stayconnected
●www.csv.org.uk/volunteering/supported