Volunteering

Published February 2022

This summary document outlines the key data and recent findings on volunteers and volunteering in sport. Volunteers are essential to the sporting sector in Scotland. Formal volunteering refers to unpaid work undertaken through an organisation to support people or a cause; informal volunteering refers to unpaid work undertaken as an individual to help people that are not relatives directly. Across all sectors, data from the 2020 Scottish Household Survey shows that 64% of adults volunteered in the last year. 56% took part in informal volunteering and 26% took part in formal volunteering[1]. Of those that had formally volunteered, 12% volunteered in the exercise, physical activity, and sport sector[2]. Data shows that men are more likely to volunteer in the sector than women (17% of men who formally volunteer, compared to 8% of women).

Volunteering and the Cost-of-Living Crisis

At present, the single biggest challenge facing Scottish third sector organisations (TSOs) is volunteer shortages. This is particularly evident among smaller TSOs (turnover <£100k). At the same time, the Scottish Third Sector Tracker indicates that overall demand for Volunteer Involving Organisations (VIOs) services is increasing. Whilst there is increased demand for volunteers, 22% of TSOs reported fewer active volunteers.

In light of the cost of living crisis, Volunteer Scotland suggests that a shortage of volunteers could be explained by:

Volunteering is no longer affordable, particularly when there is travel involved.
People have less time to volunteer due to working longer hours or multiple jobs.
Volunteers’ health and wellbeing may be adversely impacted on the cost-of-living crisis/Covid-19 pandemic.

Active Schools Volunteers

One of the key priorities of Active Schools is to ‘develop a network of volunteers to deliver activity sessions’. In the academic year 2021/22 11,000 volunteers supported the delivery of Active Schools sessions. Volunteers made up 88% of all Active Schools deliverers. In Dundee City Council and Orkney Islands Council, volunteers delivered all Active Schools sessions. Additionally, volunteers made up over 50% of deliverers in all Local Authorities in Scotland.

There are various types of Active Schools volunteers, the largest groups are teachers (34%), secondary pupils (29%) and family members (10%). 44% of our Active Schools volunteers hold a qualification.