What you can expect from organisations you work with

Every organisation which involves volunteers is different, but below are some basic things which you should expect from any organisation we refer you to.

Commitment

• You might be asked to sign a volunteer agreement containing a confidentiality agreement and/or abide by the organisations confidentiality policy.
• You should be told what is expected of you and what your tasks are and when you are expected to attend.
• You should know who supervises you.
• The organisation should have a volunteering policy and an equal opportunities policy.
• The organisation should give you access to a complaints or grievance policy (often this is the same policy staff use).
• Because you are a volunteer and not an employee you will not usually get the same legal rights and statutory protection as an employee, but you should be treated as a part of the organisation where you are volunteering and your contribution should be valued.

Disclosure

• For some positions (mostly working one to one with children or vulnerable clients) there may be special requirements: you may be asked to disclose previous convictions or detention under the Mental Health Act, or bankruptcy. You may be required to consent to an enhanced police check - this can take several months and you may not be able to start volunteering until the check is complete.

Expenses

• You should usually be paid your travel and lunch expenses. Ideally you should be paid your childcare expenses as well, but some organisations have very limited resources and may not be able to afford this. You may be required to provide receipts to claim expenses.

What VCWF expects of Volunteer Involving Organisations (VIO's)

• Although we cannot be responsible for the organisations we refer you to, we will do our best to ensure you get fair treatment. We stipulate basic minimum requirements for all organisations registered with us
• We don't just work with volunteers - we also work with organisations to try and help them run their volunteering programmes well. We encourage good practice and have recently set up a good practice project - more about this can be found on the projects page.