Managing staff and volunteers
Whether the people who do the work in your group are paid or unpaid, it’s important that they receive support and respect for their contribution. This section will help you find out what your legal responsibilities are if you employ people and think about how to keep your staff and volunteers involved.
Click on the Links tab at the top of this page for details of other local organisations with useful advice and information on managing staff and volunteers.
Equality and diversity policies for small groups
Planning and writing an equality and diversity policy for small volunteer-run community groups.
Health and safety for community groups
An introduction to health and safety for community groups run by volunteers.
Involving people in your group
How do you get lots of people along to your meetings and events? How do you make sure that more than a handful of you are doing the bulk of the work?
Responsibilities of the Management Committee
A guide to the key responsibilities of an organisation’s management committee, trustees or other governing body.
Risk assessment
Safeguarding
Information for small community groups about safeguarding policies and practices
Using the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
Information for community groups about criminal records checks for volunteers and employees.
Data protection for community groups
A plain-English summary of data protection responsibilities for small, volunteer-run community groups, including how to comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
These books are available at the Resource Centre, to borrow or to use in the Centre.
- Charity and Voluntary Workers - A guide to health and safety at work
- Charity essentials (for Pre-schools)
- Community Matters: Reference Manual for Community Organisations Advisers
- Equality Matters: A good practice guide
- First steps - a guide to developing out of school clubs for community associations or similar groups
- Giving a little time
- Governance & Participation: Developing democratic governance - factsheets
- Governance & Participation: Development toolkit CD ROM
- Just about managing? Effective management for voluntary organisations and community groups
- Recruitment, selection and induction of volunteers
- Risk Toolkit: How to take care of risk in volunteering
- Simply Governance: A comprehensive guide to understanding the systems & processes concerned with the running of a sustainable community enterprise
- Starting a crèche - a guide for community groups
- The Complete Volunteer Management Handbook
- The good guide to employment for the voluntary sector
- Voluntary matters: a guide to management and good practice in the voluntary sector (booklet)
- Voluntary matters: management and good practice in the voluntary sector
- Voluntary Sector Legal Handbook
- Volunteers and the law
- You're not listening to me! Dealing with disputes: mediation and its benefits for voluntary organisations
The services listed below are not provided by the Resource Centre. These are websites and services we feel are particularly useful for small groups in Brighton & Hove, and which are not easy to find by searching the internet.
Most useful services for local groups
Services provided:
Finding volunteers, Help with developing policies and sample policies, Help with fundraising, Information about managing volunteers, Information on funding sources, Information on managing community and voluntary sector groups, Information on running a group, Networking and finding other community groups, One to one support with managing money, Providers of example equal opportunities policies, Statistics and data, Training for community groups, Training in book-keeping
Services provided:
Finding volunteers, Information on funding sources, Information on rooms for hire, Mailing address, Office space
Notes:
Community Base provides office space for local voluntary sector groups. To join the waiting list for office space, email [email protected]
They also provide the following services for all local groups:
Services provided:
Information on being an employer
Notes:
Run a Human Resources advisory service for small to medium size voluntary orgnaisations. This includes the chance to post questions via email or post, and the opportunity to work with volunteer professionals on more complex matters.
- Accounts, book keeping and payroll
- Advice about equality and diversity
- Finding volunteers
- First Aid courses
- Getting outside help with running a sports group
- Health and Safety Information
- Help with developing a safeguarding policy
- Help with developing policies and sample policies
- Help with group decision making
- Information about managing volunteers
- Information and training about safeguarding
- Information on being an employer
- Information on insurance
- Information on legal issues
- Information on managing community and voluntary sector groups
- Information on running childrens groups
- Legal advice
- Mediation for community groups
- Minibus driver training and advice
- Office space
- Paintballing
- Risk Assessment (Financial and Organisational)
- Tax and insurance training
- Training for community groups
- Umbrella bodies for DBS checking
Notes:
Community Works runs the following projects for the voluntary sector in Brighton & Hove:
They have an electronic voting system which is available to hire. This consists of hand-held pads which can be used by people in a meeting to vote. The results are then displayed instantly on a laptop. They also have a wooden ballot box, which groups can borrow.