Voluntary Work

(asked on 3rd September 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to his Department's Community Life Survey 2017-18, published on 26 July 2018, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the decrease in the percentage of people involved in social action in their local area at least once in the last year since 2013-14.


Answered by
Tracey Crouch Portrait
Tracey Crouch
This question was answered on 11th September 2018

The Community Life Survey 2017-18, published on 26 July 2018, reports a 4% decrease in the number of people involved in social action in their local area at least once in the last year since 2013-14, and a 5% decrease in the number of people taking part in formal volunteering at least once a month since 2013-14.

As a result of moving from a face-to-face interview to an online form, it is difficult to compare the Community Life Survey 2017-18 with the results from 2013-14 due to potential skews in the types of respondents and the absence of interviewer effects.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has invested significantly in programmes to increase meaningful volunteering and social action. These programmes focus on bringing people together and providing the tools, skills, knowledge and support networks to act as a catalyst for social action to develop (for example, Place Based Social Action, Community Organisers Expansion, Innovation in Democracy, Enabling Social Action).

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