Social Cohesion and Community during Periods of Change

Baroness Morgan of Drefelin Excerpts

Friday 6th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Morgan of Drefelin (Lab)]

My Lords, wow—what a thought-provoking debate, and we are not even half way through. I thank the most reverend Primate for securing this debate. I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Sharma, on what was an outstanding and sobering maiden speech. I look forward to hearing when there might be more time to discuss the issues he raised. It was also lovely to be reminded of the legacy of Baroness Kinnock. What a lovely debate so far.

I want to focus on something of quite a practical nature: the role of volunteering in bringing communities together, especially at times of change and in this time of global uncertainty. I declare an interest as the chair of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations—the NCVO. It is the largest membership organisation for the voluntary sector in England and speaks up on behalf of 16,000 members, from the very largest charities down to very small local community groups. We know that these organisations are often at the heart and soul of our communities. Like the noble Baroness, Lady Bottomley, by communities, I mean communities in the widest sense—communities of interest, communities of concern and communities that bring together those with shared values, not just communities rooted in place.

Resilience for our charities and for our communities go hand in hand. Local charities are deeply rooted in our towns and villages, as we know. They create spaces for us to connect and support local causes. As we have heard, during the pandemic, after the invasion of Ukraine and, as the most reverend Primate said, following the summer riots, we saw how crucial it was for people to come out on to the streets to support their communities and tidy up—to do those very basic things, and hold each other in creating a sense of hope. The contributions of communities and volunteers extend beyond crisis, although they are perhaps most visible in crisis; they represent the spirit of citizenship, which, as we have already heard, is so vital.

Volunteering is a cornerstone of civic participation. Research from 2023 showed that children who volunteer are more likely to become active voters, even if they come from homes where politics is not a big topic around the kitchen table. Who cannot have been encouraged to hear on the radio only recently about the Scouts going out delivering Christmas cards and doing all the things that young groups do with such incredible enthusiasm?

Unfortunately, formal volunteering is in decline. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Community Life Survey showed a drop in monthly volunteering from one in four people in 2019-20 to one in six people in 2021-22. That is a significant change. Pro Bono Economics highlights a longer-term downward trend, with a decline of over 10% in formal volunteering since 2015. This is worrying for small grass-roots charities which depend heavily on volunteers, as well as for the larger, more famous groups. Recent data from the VCSE Data and Insights National Observatory at Nottingham Trent University shows that six out of 10 charities are struggling to recruit volunteers.

We have an opportunity to turn that round, with the right approach to policy-making. The NCVO’s Time Well Spent survey gives us some insights as to why fewer people are volunteering and what might help to reverse the trend. Flexibility is key. Many non-volunteers said that they would be more likely to volunteer if opportunities were more flexible. Satisfaction is lower among disabled volunteers, those from deprived areas and people from minority backgrounds. This suggests we can make volunteering more inclusive. Financial concerns also play a role, especially among young volunteers, with only half feeling confident that their expenses would be reimbursed. We know from the Community Life Survey that people from deprived areas are less likely to volunteer with the high cost of living playing heavily on their minds. This could be something that the Government need to worry about getting worse.

Despite these challenges, there is a lot of untapped potential, as 62% of people who have not volunteered in the last three years said that they could be encouraged to volunteer. There is a huge opportunity for government to support the voluntary sector. I would like the Minister and those he collaborates with in government to think about a few policy areas.

I am not expecting any rabbits out of the hat today, but the first thing we should look at is the right to request paid leave for volunteering. I have worked with many blue-chip companies around the UK that want to support their staff to volunteer, so let us make this something really easy for people to request. That would allow more people to give their time without putting too much pressure on business and public services.

Secondly, we should look at amending Section 50 of the Employment Rights Act, to ensure that reasonable time off for trustee duties could be allowed. We do this for school governors, who already get time off under this legislation. Trustees could play a vital role in improving the levels of volunteering. They are the ones who lead charities; let us give them, as we do school governors, some time off to do that vital job. There are currently 100,000 trustee vacancies, so that could be improved with positive policy thinking.

Thirdly, we need to ensure that everyone—and this is a big one—claiming benefits can volunteer without fearing they will lose their benefits. Volunteering should not be seen as something that undermines a person’s availability to work. It is not something that means that they are less likely to find their way back into work. Volunteering can build confidence and experience, and allow people to make a valuable contribution to the community. Let us think about that in a positive way.

Policy decisions can, I am sure, have an impact on volunteering. Volunteering is essential to safeguarding our social cohesion; as we have heard, it is the glue that keeps our communities together. So, volunteering is vital for the future of our communities. We need to turn the decline around and I am absolutely positive that, with the commitment of this Labour Government, that can be done, to draw on their collaborations across government and to think of volunteering as a positive, not a challenge, to our communities. Thank you.