Important Information for Volunteers
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If you want your voluntary work to count towards any scheme or accreditation, please let us know when you register so that we can keep the necessary records.
We are happy to help.
We also participate in the Vinspired awards scheme (http://www.vinspired.com/awards), which officially recognises the benefit that your volunteering has on the community.
For more information about this please enquire in the office.
If you are told something in confidence while you are volunteering, you should respect that. If this puts you in a dilemma, seek advice from the person in charge of the project if appropriate or from one of SCA's staff.
Volunteers should not be left out of pocket by volunteering. We are able to reimburse travel expenses to any volunteer but this needs to be agreed in advance with the office staff.
If this applies to you, please apply for more information in the office.
Health and Safety is the shared concern and responsibility of everyone, and is a legal requirement of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974. Volunteers working on our own projects are issued with a Project Handbook, which contains health and safety guidelines. Copies of the health and safety policy for external projects can be seen at the SCA office.
For SCA-run projects, our Public Liability insurance covers most claims that could be made against you, but please note that unfortunately, volunteers have no personal insurance when volunteering. In over a decade our insurance has never been called upon. We refer volunteers only to organisations with appropriate insurance, but you should discuss any concerns you may have with the organisation you join.
Volunteers working on SCA projects must be prepared to undertake any necessary training. This is in your interest as well as ours. We realise that your free time is precious and limited so you can rest assured that we will not require you to waste it on anything unnecessary.
We currently provide regular training sessions in:
First Aid
Protection of vulnerable adults
Child Protection
Teaching (basic introduction)
If there is any training that you feel would be useful, please do not hesitate to suggest this in the office.
SCA internal projects have project leader who will provide direct support to volunteers involved in their own projects. Additionally, the SCA staff are always at hand to help out should any problems arise.
Please do let us know if you run into any problems with volunteering since we cannot continuously monitor your individual progress and rely on you to raise any pressing matters.
Do not hesitate to contact the office if you ever feel uncomfortable or unable to meet your commitments; it is much better to catch problems sooner rather than later.
We are here to support you and ensure that you enjoy your time with us.
