Coronavirus (COVID-19) volunteering - third sector perspectives: survey report

Footnotes

1. Fifteen responses to the infrastructure organisation questionnaire were recoded as volunteer-involving organisations, and their responses were considered as part of the overall qualitative analysis. One response from an individual volunteer – not representing an organisation – was also excluded from the infrastructure organisation responses.

2. National volunteering plan for coronavirus - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

3. Thanks for pandemic volunteers - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

4. Volunteering organisations and the Scottish Government are working together to co-produce a new Volunteering Action Plan which implements the aims set out in Volunteering for All, Scottish Government's volunteering strategy.

5. See National volunteering plan for coronavirus - gov.scot (www.gov.scot), Number of volunteer sign-ups passes 76,000 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) and Thanks for pandemic volunteers - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) for more information about Scotland Cares. Altogether there were more than 83,000 sign-ups to the campaign. 60,000 of these sign-ups were with the British Red Cross (25,172) and Volunteer Scotland (35,262) from people seeking to volunteer to support Scotland's public services and local communities. The remainder were NHS returning health and social care workers, including medical, nursing, midwifery and allied health professional students, who were asked through the campaign to consider returning to the workforce to support the NHS response.

6. The Scottish Government national outcomes framework for volunteering can be downloaded here: Volunteering for All: national framework.

7. SCVO estimates that there are some 40,000 voluntary organisations in Scotland, of which 19,884 are charities registered with OSCR: State of the Sector 2020: Scottish voluntary sector statistics – SCVO

8. SCVO does not provide a definition for 'local' in its 'State of the Sector' report, but contrasts 'local' with 'national' and 'international'.

9. Whilst there is no legal definition of a social enterprise, there are estimated to be 6025 social enterprises in Scotland, around 72% of which are also registered charities. The Scottish Charity Regulator reported that there were 24,020 registered charities in Scotland in 2021. See the most recent Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) report An Overview of the Scottish Charity Sector 2021, p.17 for more information about the relationship between registered charities and social enterprises.

10. According to Scotland's Charity Regulator, around half of Scottish registered charities have income of less than £25,000, and two fifths (39%) have income of less than £9,999. See the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) report An Overview of the Scottish Charity Sector 2021, p.14 for more information about charity income in Scotland.

11. Mutual Aid is a site dedicated to listing mutual aid groups in the UK. It lists and maps 2067 groups across the UK, with 134 in Scotland. Another site Covid-19 Mutual Aid UK has mapped over 300 groups in Scotland. Much of this mapping was undertaken at the height of the pandemic, and at the time of writing, it is unclear how many of these groups are still active.

12. See National volunteering plan for coronavirus - gov.scot (www.gov.scot), Number of volunteer sign-ups passes 76,000 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) and Thanks for pandemic volunteers - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) for more information about Scotland Cares. See also UK Government (2019) established guidelines for the management of spontaneous volunteering in emergencies, 'Planning the coordination of spontaneous volunteers in emergencies'.

13. The remainder of the 83,000 sign-ups were NHS returning health and social care workers, including medical, nursing, midwifery and allied health professional students, who were asked through the campaign to consider returning to the workforce to support the NHS response.

14. Note: Organisations could select as many options as necessary to describe the overall impact on their projects and programmes, which is why the percentages sum to more than 100%.

15. Volunteering organisations and the Scottish Government are working together to co-produce a new Volunteering Action Plan which implements the aims set out in Volunteering for All, Scottish Government's volunteering strategy.