Frequent Questions and Answers

This is really up to you. We have volunteering opportunities that only take one hour per month, to five days a week - or more. 

Some roles are for one-off events, some are short term and others might need a six month commitment. 

You can volunteer at any time of the week, day or night. While much volunteering takes place in office hours, you can volunteer at evenings and weekends too, again depending on what you want to do. 

For some roles we ask for a particular commitment from volunteers while others we are able to take a more flexible approach. 

Certain roles like befriending require building up trust with someone, which is why a certain amount of commitment is required. 

Yes, we will cover some expenses for all volunteers including. 

• travel to and from your place of volunteering 

• travel during your volunteering 

• agreed in advance, the cost of materials involved in your volunteering 

• for some outreach events we will cover the costs of refreshments, as agreed in advance. 

Some of our volunteering opportunities require certain skills. If particular qualifications are needed in order to take up the volunteering role, the information should be listed on the Role Descriptions. 

More importantly, we are looking for personal skills, such as being able to get on with a wide variety of people, being reliable and having a good understanding of the challenges facing unpaid carers. 

We do provide training, depending on your role, some roles require little training, whilst others require quite a lot. Any training needed will be discussed with you before you start volunteering. 

You can be any age to volunteer – but some of our opportunities do have age restrictions. 

Depending on the nature of your criminal record, you may not be able to take up some volunteering roles but a variety of others would still be open to you.  Please call us to discuss, you can also find out more information on our criminal conviction declaration

Yes, of course. You are under no obligation to keep volunteering if you don’t like it. But it is always worth talking to somebody before stopping. We’d like the opportunity to allow you the space to discuss why you feel unhappy and what you feel would improve your time as a volunteer. Please refer to your volunteer agreement that explains expectations on both sides. 

Yes. Claimants of welfare benefits such as Jobseekers Allowance, Income Support, Employment and Support Allowance, Incapacity Benefit and Disability Living Allowance are allowed to volunteer without losing their benefits. However, you must make sure that you are available to meet the conditions of receiving those benefits. We recommend that you tell your volunteer coordinator that you are claiming benefits, especially if there is a chance your situation could change at short notice, for example if you are seeking paid work. 

We do not offer qualifications for volunteers however; we hope that you will gain valuable experience and develop new skills.  We do host volunteer evenings and present certificates for volunteering anniversaries.  We also offer a reference after 6 months of volunteering.  

If you would like to give time but are unable to turn up in person or have little free time then online volunteering could be the answer. Giving time over the web is convenient and flexible and allows you to get involved where you might not otherwise be able to. 

Tasks you can complete remotely include: 

• Helping with Social Media 

• Researching on the web 

• Help with our website and newsletter 

• Translating our publications 

• Redesigning our publications 

• Supporting production of our Annual Review document 

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You can be any age to volunteer – but some of our opportunities do have age restrictions. 

Just call and ask the team