New government report examining the value of volunteering. It’s a bit of a long read, but I’ll be looking to digest it over the next few days for further discussion.
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I’ll wait til the film version comes out
As far as RAFAC is concerned… volunteers are priceless, but treated as though they are worthless.
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rock
18 July 2025 02:09
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could not agree with you more especially C.Is
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Everyone; CIs, Civ Com, Uniformed Staff. All equally worthless.
From the exec summary
The cost of replacing volunteers with paid staff in England in 2021/22 (the replacement cost) was estimated at £16.43 billion.
The value for the replacement cost of volunteering was driven predominantly by the most frequent volunteers (those who volunteered at least once a week), with 63% of the total impact originating from that group. This result highlights the importance of retaining the most frequent volunteers, and encouraging more frequent volunteering, to maximise the impact of volunteers.
The replacement cost of formal volunteering in 2021/22 was equivalent to £1,339 per volunteer.
The monetised value of the wellbeing benefits experienced by volunteers in England in 2021/22 was estimated at £8.26 billion.
This wellbeing benefit was equivalent to £673 per volunteer.
Volunteering at least once a year leads to a 0.033-unit increase in volunteers’ life satisfaction on a 1 to 7-point scale. This effect is largest for those who volunteer at least once a month but less than once a week (a 0.061-unit increase).
We identified limited evidence to suggest that volunteering increases the likelihood of paid employment one year after becoming a volunteer, but it has a positive impact on employment two and three years after becoming a volunteer. We found a positive effect on employment for those aged 16 to 25, but a negative for those aged 46 to 65. These results suggest that volunteering may act as a pathway to work, particularly for younger people, although our analysis does not identify specific factors that would cause this employment effect (such as building skills).
Volunteering in the last 12 months is associated with 1.2% lower pay than non-volunteers in the following year. This effect is strongest for those who volunteer at least once a week, as this is associated with a 2.8% lower hourly pay in the next year, compared to non-volunteers. However, the effect does not persist over time, except for those who volunteer at least once a week. In addition, this effect may not be causal, as external factors may both increase volunteering incidence and affect individuals having lower hourly pay, such as an increase in a partner’s wages.
We identified weak evidence that volunteering leads to a small decrease in the number of hours worked by volunteers in paid employment (by around 8 minutes per week), but only for volunteers over the age of 25. Those aged under 25 work for more hours after volunteering, which suggests that volunteering may complement paid work for younger people but act as a substitute for paid work for older people (albeit to a limited extent).
We examined the impact of volunteering on the number of healthcare appointments for volunteers to understand how their improved health outcomes could decrease government healthcare costs. We identified weak evidence to suggest that volunteering leads to a small decrease in the number of days spent by volunteers as an inpatient, but there was limited evidence to suggest that volunteering affects the number of GP appointments or outpatient visits of volunteers.
Volunteers are 2.4 percentage points more likely than non-volunteers to agree that they feel a sense of belonging to their neighbourhood and are 10.4 percentage points more likely to express a willingness to improve their neighbourhood. However, these results cannot be treated as a causal effect, as these factors may also cause individuals to start volunteering.
There is very weak evidence to suggest that volunteers are more likely to report feeling isolated, having a lack of companionship, feeling left out or feeling lonely than non-volunteers.
It kinda suggest that regular volunteers is beneficial short term in 20s but not in later life.
Those lesson handouts won’t print themselves you know
One where the data can be interpreted a number of ways I guess. How many people at the older end volunteer because they have more time, can ‘afford’ it (mortgage paid off, kids out earning for themselves) or are reducing hours or taking on a less stressful work role for lifestyle or health reasons?
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