I’ve been reading a report published by Volunteering England last week. Entitled On the Safe Side, it is the outcome of VE’s research into risk, risk management and volunteering.
They highlight several areas of concern – including ever increasing amounts of paperwork and bureaucracy, burdensome time and resources needed to complete risk assessment and health and safety activities for small organisations, the effort to keep up with new legislation and regulations, increasing cost of insurance, and external pressures towards excessive risk aversion.
It’s this last one which most struck a chord with me – small organisations feeling pressured towards excessive risk aversion. The report refers to “…several examples of smaller organisations having to restrict or cancel activities…” because of risk management concerns.
It’s something we were discussing just last week about Solent Youth Action‘s activities. The problem for us is that this effects us doubly – not only in our decisions about what activities to run, but also in our ability to find suitable activities for young people.
One of the things that makes SYA different from other Millennium Volunteers providers is that we also provide supported and supervised opportunities for young people who need additional help to get involved in their community – like under-16’s, or those with physical or learning difficulties. Unfortunately, some places that we try to arrange ‘placements’ or activities with, get nervous about the risks or Health & Safety implications of having these young people doing activities at their premises. A fear of being vulnerable to litigation or bad press if something goes wrong, and of the amount of paperwork and red tape they assume would be required is enough to put many of them off.
Looking at it like this, it could be argued that it’s far ‘safer’ for us to focus our efforts on providing volunteering opportunities to middle-class University students who can “look after themselves”. As a society, is that what we want to incentivize? It feels like risk management can become less about a concern for the welfare of the young people that we work with, and more about a concern for the legal and financial safety of those responsible for them.
Likewise, as mentioned in the VE report, similar pressures can come from organisations from whom we seek funding:
…the Catch 22 of funders ostensibly promoting innovation yet shying away at the prospect of taking any risks. Tried and tested approaches are replicated because they have a track record, while anything that pushes the boundaries is deemed too risky. Funding strategies are therefore reinforcing risk aversion and hampering enterprise and creativity in the sector…
The report raises many of the concerns which we have discussed many times, and it is good to see Volunteering England addressing these issues – including the provision of some new resources to support voluntary organisations.