The Latest Government Guidelines for Volunteering in the Covid-19 Pandemic
If you are volunteering, you must follow social distancing guidance. If you do not follow this advice, you could put yourself at risk of infection, or risk spreading it to others.
You must volunteer from home unless it is not reasonably possible for you to do so.
You can volunteer outside your home if:
- you cannot volunteer from home
- you follow the social distancing guidelines
- you’ve not been told to self-isolate by NHS test and trace
- you’re not self-isolating for any other reason
This also applies to clinically vulnerable people.
If you’re clinically extremely vulnerable, you should volunteer from home. You should not volunteer outside your home.
Where you are unable to volunteer from home, you are allowed to travel in order to volunteer or while volunteering. You should:
- where possible, stay local – meaning avoiding travelling outside of your village, town or the part of a city where you live, unless absolutely necessary
- walk or cycle if you can – where that is not possible, use public transport or drive
- plan ahead and avoid the busiest routes, as well as busy times
- follow the safer travel guidance.
Resources for safeguarding volunteers
Here are some resources around safeguarding volunteers under Covid-19. It includes a training manual from the Lewisham Local Personal Assistant project, and resources shared by Action for Refugees Lewisham (AFRIL) after they have adapted their policies and processes to consider the impact of Covid-19 on safeguarding and volunteers.
- NCVO slides from safeguarding volunteers training
Resources shared by AFRIL which can be used as templates:
- updated safeguarding policy
- safeguarding process for church volunteers
- safeguarding at AFRIL: a summary
- Template for safeguarding online
While each project will be different, these can be adapted as a template to help groups develop their own policies and processes.
If you have a resource that you would like to share with others, please email Fay@lewishamlocal.com.
