Age Concern Enfield

Name of Organisation

Age Concern Enfield

Why did you decide to go for Investing in Volunteers?

Volunteers have always played a pivotal role in the services we provide and we pride ourselves on our commitment to volunteers. Fortunately, we have a large volunteer body with new enquiries all the time. Obtaining the IiV Quality Standard would demonstrate this commitment further, to existing and new volunteers.

What benefits have you found from working towards Investing in Volunteers?

Applying for the standard enabled us to review our existing volunteer policies and procedures and create new ones to ensure that we were operating within best practice guidelines to give our existing and new volunteers a positive experience volunteering with us.

Tell us about your experience of the assessment process in your organisation.

The assessment process was fairly straightforward. We met our assessor at an initial introductory meeting in August 2006 where we looked at the gaps we needed to complete in order to achieve the standard. We were quite fortunate in that a lot of the ground work had already been done and a lot of things just needed to be updated. We submitted the self- assessment form and provided the evidence and then our assessor came to visit us on 2 separate occasions to meet staff and volunteers. We found Our assessor to be extremely helpful and approachable and made our volunteers feel at ease and comfortable. The assessment process was overall very smooth and helped by our assessor’s professionalism and support.

5 Practical tips you would give another organisation working towards Investing in Volunteers

• Ideally, one or two people would co-ordinate the process and they would need to put sufficient time aside to do this. It really depends how much is in place in your organisation as to how much time commitment is needed. It may be useful to take some time away from the office to concentrate on the paperwork

• It is a really useful standard to work towards as it encourages us all to ensure we are operating within best practice guidelines and to support and manage our volunteers in a professional manner.

• Get your colleagues and volunteers on board and explain the benefits of IiV.

• You should be as honest as you can about your organisation in the self-assessment stage- it will only benefit you in the long run

• Make sure you back up everything with evidence