VOLUNTEERING INFRASTRUCTURE

The Scottish governmentbudget for the voluntarysector in 2012-13 is ofapproximately £24 million.5. Other stakeholdersApproximately 15% of volunteering currently takes place within the public sector in Scotland.With the Scottish government, Volunteer Development Scotland was a key development anddelivery partner for the Volunteering Strategy for the National Health Service. The public sectormay represent the next “emerging market” in volunteering.Volunteering also takes place within local government (Scotland has 32 “local authorities”).Volunteer Development Scotland is working with local government to develop volunteering inthese areas.There is also a growing interest from the corporate sector in developing Employer SupportedVolunteering programmes.6. Funding opportunitiesThe Scottish government helps to fund Volunteer Development Scotlandand the Third Sector Interfaces (mentioned above). The Scottish governmentalso provides funding to enable criminal record checks for volunteers in thevoluntary sector to be carried out free of charge.As mentioned above public sector contracts and grants make up about42% of the voluntary non-profit) sector’s funding. This is a mixture ofcommercial contracts to deliver services and small grants. However, ithas been estimated that 95% of the total funding to the sector goes to just 7% of the largestorganisations.Administered by the Voluntary Action Fund, the Scottish government also provides grantfunding for small community based volunteering programmes and opportunities.The Scottish government budget for the voluntary sector in 2012-13 is approximately £24million.7. Regular andsystematic researchAs mentioned above the main source of data on volunteering is the Scottish household surveyproduced annually by the Scottish government.Volunteer Development Scotland is currently undertaking a major programme of new researchwhich may well be of interest for the theme of this publication, when it is complete.417 Volunteering infrastructure in Europe 29 UK - Scotland