Volunteering (Hansard, 6 June 1995)

§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Blatch)

The report prepared by the Make a Difference Team,Make a Difference: An Outline Volunteering Strategy for the UK, was published today. Copies have been placed in the Library. We are very grateful to the members of the Make a Difference Team for their hard work and commitment in producing such a thorough report, with a wide range of recommendations.

Together with the report's publications, we announced the Government's response to the key recommendations it contained.

We have today set out an action plan: we will fund the creation of local volunteer development agencies in those parts of the country where no equivalent bodies exist now; our intention is to ensure country-wide coverage before the end of the century;

the establishment of a new national body in England, the Volunteering Partnership; its key tasks will be to advise us on promoting volunteering specially by young and older people, to stimulate the development of the local agencies and to ensure the development of opportunities for young people;

we are putting in place Youth Challenge, a scheme to ensure that by the end of 1997 there will be volunteering opportunities for all 15 to 25 year-olds who wish to volunteer;

individual applications have been invited for grants of up to £30,000 for 50 imaginative projects to promote volunteering by young and older people;

a new UK-wide Make a Difference award to recognise outstanding contributions by volunteering organisations;

a publicity campaign to promote volunteering.

Volunteers make a contribution of immeasurable value to this country. People who give up their time to help others greatly enrich their communities. Many millions already volunteer in this country, and many organisations 93WA support them. But there remains great untapped potential in those who could volunteer but choose not to. Our announcement today, which stresses that Every Hour Makes a Difference, will directly help to realise that potential.