An event at the heart of the king’s coronation festivities is at risk of being a “damp squib” because of a volunteering crisis across Britain, the government has been warned.
The Big Help Out is inviting people across the country to mark the occasion by signing up to volunteer in their communities on the one-off bank holiday Monday on 8 May in the hope of inspiring more people to start volunteering amid record shortages.
Volunteering experts warned that the initiative could fail. Richard Harries, associate director at the Institute for Community Studies at the Young Foundation, said: “My fear is that it will be a damp squib and that will further undermine efforts to get people engaged. I obviously hope it’s not going to be.”
Volunteering was in “steady decline”, a trend that without government intervention was likely to continue. “You look at levels of volunteering over the last decade and it’s just been relentlessly downhill,” he added. “It’s hard to put a gloss on it.”
Volunteering is at a historic low in England, government research shows. In 2021-22, 34% of respondents to the Community Life Survey volunteered at least once a month, down from 41% the year before and 44% in 2013-14.
The latest figures mark the lowest ever participation recorded by the survey, which has been running for a decade.
Organisations suffering as a result include the Scouts, who have 90,000 young people on their waiting list and are struggling to recruit volunteers, according to the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. The Charity Retail Association, representing charity shops, said its volunteer numbers have dropped from 230,000 to 186,000 since the pandemic.
The London 2012 Olympics recruited thousands of volunteers, but the effects were not lasting and Harries pointed out that had been years in the making. David Cameron’s “big society” vision did not turn into a reality, he claimed, because there hasn’t been sufficient political will or funding since the start of Conservative rule in 2010.
The Big Help Out – which people can sign up for on a dedicated app or online – comes at a time when charities have been under significant pressure to fill gaps created by the cost of living crisis and government cuts.
Sabine Goodwin, coordinator of Independent Food Aid Network (Ifan), which represents 1,172 food banks across Britain, said volunteers were needed “more than ever”. But, she added: “No amount of goodwill and generosity can replace a person’s right to be able to afford a decent standard of living. Compassion is vital but a day of volunteering can’t address the poverty and inequality crises in the UK today.”
Grassroots organisations said that since the end of lockdown, enthusiasm among volunteers – particularly professionals – has plummeted, while the cost of living crisis has made it harder for people on lower incomes to help.
There have also been gaps created by volunteers from older age groups who stopped for health reasons during the pandemic and didn’t return.
At the height of the pandemic, Shanelle Webb, 25, who runs the Soul Shack, a Black and youth-led social enterprise in the London borough of Lambeth, had a roster of willing volunteers. Now she struggles to find drivers to help with food bank deliveries.
Some volunteers have moved out of London, while others have had to get rid of their cars because they were too expensive to run. While she supported initiatives that encourage volunteering, Webb did not think the Big Help Out should be tied to the coronation or take place over a bank holiday, which for many on lower incomes would be a working day.
“There should be something for real working-class people who aren’t able to do bank holidays so that they can have the space to take time off and volunteer,” said Webb. “It would be good for people who are more time-poor but want to know what’s happening in their communities.”
Among people in their teens and 20s there is plenty of interest in volunteering but the struggle to earn a steady income can be inhibiting.
Matthew Flinders, professor of politics at the University of Sheffield, said the Big Help Out had considerable potential. But he fears it will not be fulfilled, in part because the government is not providing the right “mood music”.
“The royal family still provide a really important form of cultural glue that does unite British society in a broadly positive way,” he added. “But unless it’s embedded within a broader, more strategic long-term ambition, it will just be a day, and that’s the sadly missed opportunity.”
Catherine Johnstone, the chief executive of Royal Voluntary Service and co-creator of the Big Help Out, said the initiative was “an innovative and maybe even a disruptive idea that’s encouraging us to start making the changes in the sector that are necessary for us to start seeing different results”.
“It’s challenging us to work together to create more straightforward pathways for people to be able to give their time, their skills and their expertise, that we hope will last far beyond the coronation,” she added. “We have been excited to see such a breadth and depth of charities and local community organisations get involved with the Big Help Out – there has been nothing quite like it before to bring the whole sector along.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said: “The coronation will be a spectacular national occasion with the Big Help Out giving people the opportunity to support a cause they care about and we are confident this will be a huge success.
“There are currently more than 8,800 events, 30,000 organisations and 55,000 people registered on the Big Help Out app and we are working closely with organisers to ensure the successful delivery of this project. On top of this we have invested up to £30m through the Know Your Neighbourhood fund to open up access to volunteering and tackle loneliness.”
