Arthritis Care in Scotland

Name of Organisation

Why did you decide to go for Investing in Volunteers?

Volunteers are crucial to the success of the work we do as an organisation across Scotland, and we wanted to ensure we had the procedures in place to develop best practice in continuing to support them. As an organisation of people with arthritis, working on behalf of all people with arthritis we aim to become a working example of best practice in supporting volunteers who have a long term condition, to manage a workload and gain confidence in their abilities.

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

The exercise itself was a very valuable one. Going through the checklist and identifying our strengths as well as our weaknesses has been very valuable in focusing our minds on what we really need to achieve in supporting volunteers. In addition, in many cases it helped us to formalise existing good practice and highlight the need to continue its development.

How did the assessment work in your organisation?

A working group made up of staff and volunteers was set up to take forward the assessment, with input from the Scotland Director and Head of Human Resources for Arthritis Care UK. This has enabled the UK organisation to develop the appropriate policies and will enable the other national offices to develop their own practice and seek accreditation when appropriate.

The working group have become the key point of contact for the IiV accreditation process, and will continue to meet to take forward volunteering issues generally within Arthritis Care in Scotland.

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

We followed the ‘Step guidelines as outlined by IiV and found them helpful every step of the way! The working group as set out in the ‘Step’ guidelines proved to be essential .The Scottish staff team were very committed and enthusiastic regarding the assessment process – having the support of the full team is important to the final outcome.

What training/learning did you require to help you meet the standards and where did you source it ? e.g.VDS, local Volunteer Centre, local college

With Human Resources support from Arthritis Care UK existing policies were updated; with new policies developed where gaps were identified. It became clear early on in the process that the members of the working group contained the required skills and motivation to complete the tasks required.

Arthritis Care UK has benefited from the policies and procedures developed to support the Investing in Volunteers accreditation in Scotland