my community channel

Volunteering England, the volunteer development agency, is calling for volunteers to comment on what they feel could be done to protect the rights of volunteers throughout the country.

The panel will consider the scope and scale of the issues that face volunteers as reports of serious incidents have threatened to undermine the goodwill and altruism that motivates volunteers.

Sukhvinder Kaur-Stubbs, chair of the Volunteer Rights Inquiry Panel, said: "The panel agreed that volunteering should be maintained as an activity distinct from paid employment.

"Volunteers do have certain rights and protection under current law. However, the over-riding concern was that volunteers did not demand equal employment rights but parity of esteem.

"This is as much about being treated with dignity, respect and fairness, as it is about proper management and good governance."

On this basis, the Volunteer Rights Inquiry Panel has three main aims, namely to clarify the rights and protections that already exist for volunteers and dispel some of the employment myths that interfere with good management, to promote good practice in the management and governance of volunteering and to explore what should happen when things go wrong.

The panel members hope to gather evidence in several ways on all these points and identify both the successes and challenges of volunteering. They want to hear people's thoughts on how volunteer involving organisations can prevent problems by treating volunteers well and what mechanisms could be put in place to provide an independent means of redress when, unfortunately, things do go wrong.

It is asking people who give their time as volunteers to spend a few moments to find out a little more about the inquiry on its website at www.volunteering.org.uk in the Policy section under the What We Do heading. Alternatively, a short video is available to watch online at www.youtube.com/volunteeringengland.

Volunteers are invited to give evidence at one of three sessions across the country.

On January 19, there will be a meeting in York, the London hearing will be held on January 27 and volunteers in the Midlands will get to have their say in Birmingham on February 2.

Anyone unable to get to one of these meetings, is invited to have their say by uploading a video to Volunteering England's YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/VolunteeringEngland. It is also possible to comment using Twitter at http://twitter.com/VolunteeringEng, or using the form on Volunteering England's website.

Volunteering England is the national volunteering development agency, to find out more about its work go to www.volunteering.org.uk.