The NCVO's Civil Society Almanac has exposed a critical need to rely on community volunteers and the sector must respond, says Paul Emery.

The release of NCVO’s latest UK Civil Society Almanac last week laid bare the impact of the economic difficulties on the voluntary sector. In 2009/10 spending was 99 per cent of income, meaning charities and voluntary organisations were already in a financially tight position. Unfortunately, since the end of 2010 – the latest year covered in the Almanac - the sector has been subjected to additional squeezes making the situation even tighter.

It seems therefore somewhat inconsistent that, as the government seeks to make further cutbacks across the public sector at local level and ‘open public services’, it is the voluntary sector that is increasingly being encouraged to fill the gap. So with depleted workforces and ever-decreasing funding, who can charities and voluntary organisations themselves turn to? Step forward the community volunteer.

While the latest Almanac reported a declining rate of formal volunteering during the recession, some of our own research offers a slightly more positive outlook.  Our second round of Tough Choices research conducted in spring 2011 showed that nearly a third (31 per cent) of people claimed they would be willing to volunteer to help community organisations deliver local services.

Following the Prime Minister’s pledge to foster a ‘culture of responsibility’ earlier that year, harnessing and encouraging this sentiment could present a solid base from which to work. Equally, additional YouGov research that we commissioned in December 2011 found that over half of respondents (55 per cent) said they had volunteered to help their local community in one form or other. 

In challenging economic times, community volunteering groups and individuals could be a valuable resource for the public sector and it is important that local authorities and the voluntary sector find ways of working together to maximise community involvement. Overcoming common barriers to participation, such as limited time, knowledge and guidance, will go some way to unlocking the potential support out there.

Knowing where to go for advice and information is a key challenge to surmount if engagement is to be enhanced. The Community Organisers scheme introduced in last year’s Giving White Paper presented plans to provide training for individuals and senior organisers.

But, on a more practical level, local charities and voluntary organisations could do more to team up with their local councils and use established channels of communication to increase awareness of activities that are already going on in the area. Concerns about issues like health and safety and red tape also need to be addressed, as the perception of overbearing bureaucracy may be turning people away. Resources such as our free online tool - mycommunitystarter.co.uk – go some of the way to dispelling the myths but more needs to be done collectively at local authority levels if greater numbers of would-be volunteers are to be found.

Of course, when local level volunteering is combined with public service delivery, there are certain risks involved and the relationships between individuals and the voluntary sector, and likewise the sector and local councils, need to be carefully balanced and managed. However, as our research suggested, there is appetite out there among people to lend a hand to their local communities. The challenge then is how to engage, inspire and empower communities to get involved in solving local problems for themselves. Importantly there is an underlying community energy and goodwill that can be harnessed - something that the voluntary sector could desperately need over the coming years.

Paul Emery is head of community and social organisations at Zurich Municipal