It seems just a little bit amazing but almost half of UK citizens volunteer at least once a month with charities, churches or local campaigning groups and whichever political party (or parties) are elected to power in our current general election all have plans to promote and support volunteering even more in the years ahead. Indeed, all political parties organise almost entirely with volunteers at a local level so I guess that’s not as surprising as it sounds.
So what are the key volunteering priorities of each political party?
The Labour Party:
- Will advocate the voluntary sector’s campaigning role and increase opportunities to volunteering.
- Encourage young people to participate in 50 hours of community action by the time they are 19.
- Provide funding through their ‘Community Assets’ and ‘Grassroots Grants’ programmes.
- Simplify and speed-up government’s grant-making processes to the voluntary sector.
Manifesto at: www.labour.org.uk
The Conservative Party:
- Will give central government employees leave to volunteer much in the same way that some private sector companies do.
- Create a National Citizen Service for Young People, run by charities and community groups.
- Their ‘Big Society Bank’ will fund charities, community organisations and social enterprises.
- Conservatives also say there’s too much regulation and monitoring imposed on the voluntary sector and will work to minimise this.
Manifesto: www.conservatives.com
The Liberal Democrats:
- Say they’ll promote benefits of volunteering as a means to develop new skills and gain experience.
- Support civil servants paid leave to volunteer encourage much greater take up of this.
- Persuade schools to actively promote the value of volunteering more.
- Will simplify the way the government funds the voluntary sector to ensure more funding reaches the front line.
Manifesto: www.libdems.org.uk
So not a huge amount of difference although in addition, both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats say that they are also keen to devolve power away from central government and down to neighbourhoods, communities and individuals in different ways.
Are you able to, and going to, vote on 6 May?
And if you are, who are you going to vote for… and why?
(My folks would never say who they voted for, saying politics was a private matter, so don’t feel under pressure to reveal, if you’d much rather not).
If you’re still floating you might want to check out the (free) website http://www.gotoquiz.com/results/which_uk_political_party_am_i which I found researching this little piece and seemed a pretty neat way to check how our views match (or don’t) with the main political party manifestos.
And of course I’ll be voting…
Jim
Tags: Election, volunteering
Posted by Jim Glennon