Over half of volunteering organisations believe the new Vetting and Barring Scheme will make it harder for them to recruit volunteers, according to research from Volunteering England.
Volunteering England quizzed 94 volunteer-involving organisations on the upcoming Vetting and Barring Scheme which, from this summer, will require volunteers and staff working with children and vulnerable adults to register with the Independent Safeguarding Authority.
It found only 33 per cent of respondents felt they “fully understood” which of their volunteers would need to be registered with the authority. Further, 37 per cent reported that they weren’t sure whether the scheme would mean that some of their activities would have to be stopped or cancelled.
Over half (56 per cent) of those surveyed thought the overall impact of the scheme would be “increased bureaucracy” and “increased difficulty in recruiting volunteers” (52 per cent).
Some volunteering organisations expressed concerns that volunteers would refuse to register with the ISA, with one organisation, who relied heavily on older volunteers, describing the scheme as “a watershed moment for their older volunteers to retire from their volunteering”.
More positively, however, 52 per said they believed the scheme would improve safeguarding for children and vulnerable adults.
Mike Locke, director of public affairs at Volunteering England said: "We still believe the Vetting and Barring Scheme can in some ways improve volunteering organisations' work with children and vulnerable adults, but the ISA must not underestimate the scale of the challenge they face in ensuring volunteering organisations understand how the scheme will affect them."
Elsewhere, NAVCA chief Kevin Curley has written to charities minister Angela Smith about the scheme, warning that it could “curtail the spontaneity and informality that characterises voluntary and community groups”.
The letter asks for statutory funding to help charities cover the administration costs of the scheme which has free registration for volunteers.
