VOLUNTEERING IN COMMUNITY LEARNING – CASE STUDY

Swindon Community Learning Partnership

Overview

Volunteering is central to Swindon Community Learning Partnership’s approach to community engagement. It is one of the key ways in which adult community learning contributes to delivering the wider strategic priorities of Swindon Borough Council (SBC). The Adult and Community Learning Service works with Health and Wellbeing colleagues and the Localities Team to run an integrated and sustainable volunteer programme based on an “ABC” model that recruits and trains volunteers to engage and progress some of the most excluded residents in the borough’s priority communities.

Background

The focus on volunteering within SBC is a dimension of the reorientation of public services in the borough. At a strategic level, the council aims to replace conventional service delivery models with a “place management” approach which moves beyond organisational silos to address what an area needs in a co-ordinated way. Fundamental to this approach is the devolution of power down to community level, where local need is best determined. In the context of austerity, this process has been accelerated by the need to withdraw provision in some areas. The council is therefore seeking to identify where there is potential for communities to take greater responsibility for services. A cross-council review of volunteering led by the Locality team in 2013 revealed that, while much activity was happening, each service supported its own volunteers in its own ways. The result was a lack of consistency, coherence and efficiency. It was recognised that, if the council was to achieve the kind of transformation it desired, then a more robust and consistent approach was needed. From the discussions and negotiations which followed, a clear vision for volunteering emerged and a new volunteering strategy and approach for SBC was agreed. In the longer term, it is hoped that the model will extend across all One Swindon public services.

Approach

The Swindon approach is based on an “ABC” model which involves recruiting and training local residents into three distinct roles:

  • Ambassadors (paid and contracted hours)
  • Befrienders (sessionally paid)
  • Champions (volunteers).

There are differing levels of responsibility, qualification levels and training associated with these three roles. However, those volunteers who wish to do so can progress through the organisation, from being a Champion to being a Befriender and on to being an Ambassador. Often, Champions work with individuals whom Ambassadors and Befrienders have identified would benefit from additional one-to-one support. Conversely, Champions work directly with local groups and agencies and might refer people whom they have engaged on to an Ambassador or Befriender for more specialised support. In some cases, Champions have been clients themselves and been on the receiving end of support and advice. The sense of wanting to give something back and share experiences is a strong motivation for some volunteers.

The Health and Wellbeing Ambassadors, Befrienders and Champions support the Health and Wellbeing team’s aim of promoting healthy lifestyle behaviour change planning, which includes using learning as a route to progressing back to work. Volunteer Champions act as a pool of people who are “on standby” to help in any way that is required. The team is clear that volunteers are not medical or learning professionals, and do not replace paid staff. Rather, they are there to offer guidance, encouragement and support and play a distinctive role in helping to bring about behaviour change by helping people set and work towards personal goals.

Champions’ roles include:

  • Supporting individuals who do not have the confidence to go alone to attend their first community learning class or session.
  • Organising and delivering informal learning activities, including ESOL, in local community settings.
  • Supporting individuals to attend appointments with GPs or other health professionals.
  • Supporting events and campaigns, where they act as the voice or face of a campaign within their communities and provide initial engagement through activities such as making personal contact and leafleting.
  • Attending specific learning events such as job fairs, Adult Learners’ Week events, and events taking place at Children’s Centres.
  • Taking part in focus groups where local communities are asked for their insights to inform service delivery. Their role involves both helping local people to articulate their views, and acting as a channel to communicate the strategic intent of voluntary and community organisations and other service providers into communities. For example, in May to July 2015 Swindon Community Learning Partnership will hold a series of focus groups which involve volunteers, and seek to identify what will engage local communities with regard to learning and volunteering. The findings will inform curriculum planning for 2015-16.
  • Working on a one-to-one basis in a range of roles to support individuals who have been identified as being at risk of social isolation. Around 100 volunteers are now matched to individuals through this scheme.

The Adult Learning Service is currently piloting a community led approach to provision planning and delivery, offering £1,000 learning grants through its Community Learning budget to encourage small, locally formed groups to build their own capacity to grow whatever they are doing. Grant holders include Swindon Foyer, which is developing its work to involve homeless people in the design of services, and self-led ESOL social practice groups. The Service hopes to expand this programme as lessons from this early phase emerge.

Supporting and developing volunteers

The Health and Wellbeing volunteer programme is funded from a range of sources: SBC core funding; Public Health; Community Learning; Cabinet Office Transformation Fund (Care Navigator programme); and Nesta Circles of Support. Co-ordinating this mosaic of funding not only makes it possible to support and develop volunteers appropriately, but also ensures that there is a focus on making funding streams work together, and hence on providing more joined-up services to residents.

Volunteer recruitment is open and on-going. Through their day to day work, members of the team identify individuals whom they think would be suitable and support them to move into volunteering. Periodic recruitment drives are also undertaken, with the support of Voluntary Action Swindon and the local Volunteer Centre. Individuals are sought who know and understand their community and who have lived experiences that are relevant to what they will be doing “on the ground”. All Champions are registered as volunteers with SBC, and through that are able to access training and other requirements such as insurance. Volunteers then go through and induction programme that covers areas including roles and responsibilities, familiarisation with SBC and other provision, and safeguarding.

Once in post, volunteers receive on-going training together with one-to-one support from the volunteer manager within the Health and Wellbeing team. Through the good relationships that the team has developed with a range of partners and providers, it is able to offer bite-size learning opportunities, such as dementia awareness and autism awareness, for the ABC group. It is currently working with the IAPT team, LIFT Psychology, to develop mental health awareness training for the ABC team and community learning tutors.

Alongside the core support and generic training that are provided, volunteers who are linked to a specific project receive additional bespoke training and are “line managed” through that process. Those who progress to become Ambassadors do the Level 3 Health Trainer Award.

Impact

Multiple benefits have been identified from the development of volunteering.

  • Extending the reach and relevance of local public services

Champions live, work and socialise in the communities where they are active, which makes them uniquely placed to start informal conversations with very excluded individuals. This can set people on the path towards engaging with an agency that can provide the support they need, and so extend the reach of services into priority communities.

Supporting Swindon’s Goan Community
The work of Champions with Swindon’s Goan community illustrates the diversity and the importance of their role. Eighteen- to twenty-thousand Goans currently live in the town centre area, the largest concentration outside of Goa itself and 50 per cent of all BME residents in Swindon. Many have very limited employment-related skills and training, and consequently find it difficult to access the local labour market. Language barriers mean that the Health and Wellbeing team, including the Adult and Community Learning Service, relies on volunteers to broker conversations on the issues that it wants to address. For example, informal ESOL groups run by paid staff with the support of volunteers have been established for the parents of children in local schools. Similarly, an ESOL lunch club for community elders has been set up, with young adults supporting it as volunteers. Linked to these initiatives is a family learning group, through which opportunities have been created for other agencies that are struggling to engage with this community to make contact with them. For example, links have been made to the community nurse to provide guidance and support for parents on weaning. Using the ABC volunteer framework has enabled delivery of some really important interventions that statutory authorities find it hard to deliver, because there is not an established route to engage with the community.

At a strategic level, mapping is being carried out to help the Locality and Health and Wellbeing teams to understand better which routes into public services people with complex needs are most likely to use. It is probable that the volunteers will emerge as an important factor for success in such interventions. The outcomes of this research will influence how services are commissioned and directed in the future.

  • Securing better outcomes for individuals

When volunteers engage with someone and then refer them on to Befrienders and Ambassadors, the Befrienders and Ambassadors will agree an action plan. Monitoring data on the impact of these action plans shows that 69 per cent of the goals agreed by individuals are achieved. In addition, individuals’ wellbeing scores are measured at the beginning and end of the intervention, and 37 per cent show an average improvement in their self reported wellbeing.

  • Adding value

As part of SBC’s initial review of volunteering, it was identified that around 2,000 volunteers were active across the delivery aspects of the council’s business, providing volunteering with equivalent financial value of around £2. 4 million. In the last twelve months, the Localities team has identified that there are around 2,000 volunteers supporting its work alone.

All Community Learning delivery is contracted out. Pound Plus data collected from sub-contractors for 2014-15 indicated that volunteers contributed resource equivalent to an additional 14p for every pound of Community Learning funding.

Francisco’s story

Francisco is a volunteer from the Goan Community in Swindon. He works in the Broadgreen neighbourhood, to help people arriving from Goa integrate into the neighbourhood. Francisco has helped many local people with their issues and queries. He assists and directs them to the right agency that can provide the services they need to improve their well-being. Francisco encourages those he comes into contact with to contribute back to the community. For example, he was instrumental in involving local people to help redecorate a meeting room in their community centre.

Francisco (far right)

Nagen’s story

Someone who is a great example of the potential of volunteering is Nepalese Doctor – Nagendra. Nagen has been in the UK for 6 months now and aims to live and work here permanently. He qualified in 2008 and worked in very different hospitals all around Nepal. Nagen was looking for a chance to bring his skills to this country and especially to help people from the most excluded communities.

Initially, Nagen was recruited as a Health and Wellbeing Champion and after receiving appropriate training he conducted Health Checks aimed at 40 to 74 year olds. Nagen progressed to a Befriending role in the Nepalese community and he now supports the local community nurse. Nagen can speak four languages and has good English. As a result of the voluntary work a local doctor offered Nagen a shadowing opportunity so that he is able to gain experience of work in a UK Health Centre or GP’s surgery. The ‘sky’s the limit’ for Nagen in his bid to make a real difference in this country.