Community Safety Conference 2010
Volunteer sector more important than ever before
- There are many opportunities for volunteer work within the criminal justice system. To find out more click here
January 25, 2010
VOLUNTEERS and volunteer organisations will become increasingly important for ensuring the continued delivery of services as the public sector is squeezed by spending cuts, a major conference has been told.
The Community Safety Conference, part funded by the Kent Criminal Justice Board and held in Ashford on Friday, January 22, had Volunteering A Hidden Narrative as its theme.
Keynote speaker Debra Allcock-Tyler, chief executive at the Directory of Social Change, an in
dependent charity set up in 1974 which wants to see the voluntary sector at the heart of social change, pictured left, warned senior public sector managers not to expect a rush of people coming forward to volunteer their services on hearing that their local council, health trust or other public sector body was strapped for cash.
The public sector needed to know what motivated people to volunteer their time and services.
She said people volunteered because they cared about other people in their community, were passionate about an issue or had personal experience that led them to want to help others in a similar situation.
She said statistics showed that 41 per cent of adults volunteered at least once a year and cited the hospice movement, which is worth £120m a year to the NHS, as an example of how the volunteer sector was at the heart of social care.
Debra said: “The public sector needs to insist money is used to make it easy for people to volunteer. Voluntary organisations need to be funded.”
She also said it was time to re-invigorate small, locally-based charities because it was these small local groups that "galvanise and get people caring about their community.” and warned larger charities and voluntary organisations not to become too bureaucratic and distant
She praised volunteers, who she said were people who emphasised a responsibility to give rather than a right to receive.
- There are many opportunities for volunteers within the criminal justice system. To find out more click here
Peter Gilroy, chief executive of Kent County Council, pictured below, in what was billed as his last speech to a conference before he retires in a few month’s time, praised the voluntary sector as “where ordinary people do extraordinary things.”
He too forecast a period of stringent financial controls and urged the charity sector to share its resources. He said that in a economic climate, organisations could either “slash and cut or be imaginative” adding: “the volunteer movement has always been imaginative.”
He urged the public, private and voluntary sector organisations represented at the conference: “Do not be victims of this recession, rather invent the future.”
Assistant Chief Constable of Kent Police, Gary Beautridge told the conference that a key reason for the force’s success in making the county a safe place to live and work was its strong links to the voluntary sector and volunteers.
He said: “Policing is very much about working with partners in a collaborative way. We have multi-agency teams across the county. We know that the fear of crime far outstrips the reality and one of our biggest challenges is to make our communities more confident.”
He said that in Kent there were countless people who devoted time to help with community safety and cited Neighbourhood Watch, which now covers more that 55 per cent of homes in the county, Crimestoppers and Victim Support, as being examples of volunteers being at the heart of community safety and the criminal justice system.
There were 406 volunteers working within Kent Police in roles ranging from receptionists to mystery shoppers. Special Constables, volunteer police officers trained to the same demanding standards as their full time colleagues, last year gave 88,000 hours of unpaid time to the Kent force.
Special Constable Terry Connolly, who runs his own business coaching firm, told the conference: “Specials deal with every conceivable incident. We are not treated any differently from the rest of the force. I’m not in this to be a hobby-Bobby, I want to be in at the sharp end.”
KCJB board member Angela Slaven, pictured below, who is Director of Youth and Community Services at Kent County Council, gave the 
conference a whistle-stop tour of some of the many volunteering opportunities within agencies working within the criminal justice system.
She said there were around 3,000 volunteers working within the criminal justice system in Kent alone.To find out more about volunteering opportunities within the criminal justice system click here.
Chief executive of Crimestoppers, Mick Laurie, highlighted numerous success stories involving his organisations which enables people to provide information about crime anonymously by telephone or online which is them passed on to the police. On average 250 packages of actionable intelligence are passed on to the police every day. Last year there were 89 murder charges as a result.
The internet means that Crimestoppers is now global with pictures of Britain’s Most Wanted criminals recently resulting in 35 arrests in Spain.
Future plans include a confidential anti-doping line for the 2012 London Olympics. Crimestoppers has a national staff of 80 supported by around 450 volunteers at county level.
Lesley Piggott of Kent Victim Support told the conference how she became involved with the charity after witnessing at first-hand how one of its volunteers helped a family member who became a victim of crime.
She said: “We all handle being the victim of crime differently, but we all need somebody to support us.”
Victim Support offers practical advice and support for victims and witnesses before, during and after court proceedings.
Magistrate, Trevor Perkins, told the conference about the Magistrates in the Community initiative which has seen him and his fellow Justices of the Peace working with schools and colleges and talking to social groups and organisations to create a wider knowledge and understanding of how our locally-based courts system works.
There are around 900 magistrates in Kent, all of them unpaid volunteers from within their local communities, who deal with around 95 per cent of criminal cases. They also preside at Family Courts a Youth Courts.
Trevor and his colleagues are keen to recruit more young and employed people to the magistrates’ bench. The minimum age to become a magistrate is 18 and employers are bound by law to allow their staff time-off to complete their duties as a magistrate, which involves a minimum of 26 half-day court sessions per year.
- There are many opportunities for volunteers within the criminal justice system. Find out more by clicking here
In his closing address Mark Gilmartin, chief executive of Kent Police Authority, said that he was humbled and impressed by the extent and quality of volunteering in Kent and said that volunteers were essential to a civilised society. He said the public sector needed to engage with the volunteer sector with a practical and positive approach.
Other speakers at the conference were Charlie Hendry, Kent Fire and Rescue Service’s chief officer, volunteer road safety campaigner Spencer Ashton, who gave an inspirational account of his fight back from severe brain injury after a car crash that left him in a coma, Kent County Council cabinet member for community safety Mike Hill, Assistant Director of Strategic Partnerships for Eastern and Central Kent PCT, Caroline Davis and Thanet vicar Mike Andrea who, along with members of his team, gave a presentation about the Pipeline Youth Initiative's outreach work among vulnerable young people.