Employee volunteering can bring a wealth of benefits to the Council, to the volunteering employee and to the wider community. It is a traditional way to support the development of key skills such as communication, team working, project management as well as providing an opportunity to give practical and specialized support to local groups.

Scope

The procedure includes all employees who either wish to become or who are already involved in volunteering within the borough except:

• those based in Schools

Provisions of the Scheme

Employees may request up to two days of special leave (pro-rata for part-time employees) to participate in qualifying volunteering activities in an annual leave year.

Volunteering days cannot be carried forward to the next to leave year Special volunteering leave granted may be taken in whole or part days. The Employee should match the amount of special leave requested.

An Employee will only be released from duty if there will be no adverse impact on service delivery and no additional staffing costs are incurred.

Step 1: Eligibility - the Volunteering activity will be either:

• a short-term project/assignment in support of a voluntary/not-for-profit organisation
• continuing with an established or ongoing activity
• joining with other volunteers to complete a project or activity

and both of the following:

• make a meaningful contribution to the community and the Employee’s development
• be carried out in the Borough or bordering neighbourhoods

Step 2: Application - the employee will:

• discuss their volunteering request with their Manager Submit a special leave request on MyView
• set out the number of days/hours requested
• identify the name of the organisation along with contact details Provide a brief description of the proposed activity
• provide details of what they will doing in their own time

Step 3: Manager’s authorization – the manager will:

• ensure that suitable liability insurance is in place to cover the Employee/activity
• undertake a risk assessment to identify whether the activity is dangerous/hazardous Review what the Employee will be doing in their own time
• seek further advice from Risk/Insurance and/or Health and Safety
• discuss their decision with the Employee
• either authorise or decline the request on MyView

Step 4: Monitoring & Feedback – the manager and employee will:

• review including time taken by the Employee to match Volunteering leave

Key Points

Volunteering Principles

During the volunteering activity Employees are expected to:

• fulfil the commitment and inform the named contact in the Voluntary organisation and their line manager if they are unable to attend;
• comply with any standards of behaviour, procedures etc required by the organisation;
• report any problems immediately to their manager

The Council recommends that the Voluntary organisation is registered with the relevant Volunteer Centre for quality assurance purposes, for Bexley this would be the Volunteer Centre Bexley, Bexley Voluntary Service Council (BVSC). If the organisation is not registered, registration can be submitted for free. If the organisation is unlikely to register the organisation’s quality assurance and health and safety policies should be reviewed to ensure that they are adequate.

Expenses

Any expenses incurred should be met by the Voluntary organisation.