New DCMS Guidance Regarding Volunteers

The DCMS has released some new guidance regarding volunteers and the pandemic.

‘You will have seen the Prime Minister has announced tougher national restrictions in England from Thursday. We are aware that you may have questions around what these new restrictions mean for volunteering.

The new restrictions come into effect on Thursday 5 November. Until then, the current local COVID alert level restrictions apply. The implications of the new restrictions for volunteering are outlined below:

Where possible, people should volunteer from home. If they cannot do so, they can volunteer outside their home if they follow the social distancing guidance and no one in their household has symptoms of coronavirus or has tested positive for coronavirus.

Voluntary and charitable activities are exempt from a number of the new restrictions. This means that, where volunteers are able to volunteer outside their home (see above) they can:

• meet in groups of any size indoors or outdoors while volunteering
• travel to vol unteer or while volunteering

As always, it should be a volunteer’s personal choice whether they wish to volunteer, including outside their home, and they should not be compelled to do so by their organisation or group.

Volunteer-involving organisations must ensure their workplaces meet coronavirus safety standards.

People over the age of 60 and those who are clinically vulnerable do not face any specific restrictions on volunteering and should follow the same guidelines as above. However, as this group could be at higher risk of severe illness from coronavirus, they may need additional support to follow social distancing rules and minimise contact with others.

There is a further group of people who are defined, on medical grounds, as clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) to coronavirus – that is, people with specific serious health conditions. Clinically extremely vulnerable people can volunteer from home; they are advised not to volunteer outside their home. As set out on GOV.UK, the full new (general coronavirus rather than volunteering-specific) guidance for CEV people will be published today and the Government will write to everybody who is clinically extremely vulnerable to set out detailed advice while the new restrictions are in place.

Existing GOV.UK coronavirus volunteering guidance pages will be updated in line with the new announcements later this week when the new rules come into effect. We will also work to bring forward the launch of our new guidance for volu nteer-involving organisations and groups (referred to in my previous email) and publish it as soon as possible. This guidance will help organisations and groups understand how to involve volunteers safely in their work during the coronavirus pandemic.’