The Volunteer Centre Sutton has a Good Practice Team which works with Community and Voluntary groups to implement high standards of Volunteer Management. We believe that the better the management of volunteers the more likely they are to stay and the more effective their contribution to an organisation will be.

Volunteer Centre Sutton runs training for local volunteer co-ordinators from the voluntary and statutory sector around “Good Practice in Volunteer Management.” Training is designed around feedback from local Volunteer Involving Organisations.

 Support and advice can be offered in the following areas;
• Drafting a volunteer advert for the national volunteering website www.do-it.org and the centre’s own database.
• Drafting and revising documents relating to volunteerss.
• Developing role descriptions for volunteers
• Volunteer Management, e.g. how to screen volunteers, rewarding volunteers and dealing with difficult volunteers.
• Relationships between staff and volunteers.

The centre is an Investing in Volunteers partner; this is the nationwide Quality Standard for Volunteer Management. As a Partner we work to; promote the standard to local organisations, support those groups working towards the award and promote recognition of success in achieving the award.

Goldstar Exemplar Centre in Volunteer Management
The effectiveness and quality of our Good Practice work was recognised in 2006 when we were awarded Goldstar Exemplar funding from the Cabinet Office. This project aims to further disseminate Good Practice, to offer specialist advice on supporting excluded groups into volunteering and developing sport and leisure volunteering opportunities.

Training offered as part of this programme has included:
An Access to Volunteering Conference
Supporting volunteers with Disabilities

The Goldstar Co-ordinator works with groups to enable them to include volunteers from all backgrounds in their organisation. Recruitment and placement of volunteers from BME groups, those with a disability and those with no formal qualifications is central to this project, and we recognise that to do this groups must be helped in providing a positive volunteering experience for all.