Volunteers are an integral part of our community and the duties that they undertake are worth millions of dollars.

An ABS study showed that volunteers in Australia provide over 704 million hours of help worth billions of dollars to community organisations each year. And it is rising according to the last major study.

We all need volunteers, as without them many community groups would not be able to survive. Even groups that have the capacity to pay staff, need volunteers to perform many of the tasks.

No organisation wants its staff or volunteers to be at any risk, and neither does it want anybody to be at risk from your staff. Frankly, it's best to consider volunteers as staff, even if they're unpaid staff, because if you think of them that way you're thinking of them the way the law does.

Your organisation has recruited them, you've given them the authority of your organisation, and you've put them out in contact with the public or working within your organisation with a task to do.

You're responsible for them and although they are giving of their time for free, there are a number of responsibilities you have to your volunteers. In turn they also must observe the rules, regulations and certain levels of behaviour expected of your organisation.

Yes, there are additional difficulties involved in working with volunteers. The obvious difficulties are:

1. they are not paid, and thus have no financial incentive to do what you say;
2. they may not stay for long, and so it's not financially sensible to give them intensive training; and
3. they have not had to undergo a competitive selection procedure, and so are of unknown competence.

It is your job to overcome these difficulties and to find tasks that sit with the level of involvement and competence of your volunteers.

If your volunteers are unreliable, you may be able to find them jobs to do that have very little possibility of going wrong. If you are staffing essential positions with volunteers, then you have to hold them to the standards that the positions require. Their commitment, morale, and dedication will depend to a considerable extent on the quality of the management and leadership provided.

There are many jobs involved in community organisations that have little possible downside and where even if mistakes are made, they are of a minor nature.

At the other end of the scale, we have recently seen the extraordinarily destructive effects across many institutions of a failure to adequately supervise people working with children. When a volunteer is independently in a position of responsibility over vulnerable groups in our society there can be no argument that they must measure up to the highest standards.

For community organisations, the chance of volunteers causing serious problems is extremely rare. The vast majority of prospective volunteers have no possible objections on checks to see if they have a police record. For example, in 1998 the Queensland police ran 4,011 checks on volunteers and turned up two positives. So there's no need to panic, or to lose perspective, or to inflate the problem.

When things do go wrong, however, they can go spectacularly wrong, and if you're dealing with a very small chance of a very large damage it's sensible to take reasonable precautions. You want to have procedures in place that as far as possible cover your clients and your organisation from avoidable risks without chilling or discouraging recruitment.

Which is why a standard screening process for volunteer recruits is a good way of checking up on possible volunteers without embarrassment or risk of losing their support.

Why do we need to screen?

You need to think about screening potential volunteers because:

• You're going to be assessing prospective volunteers to see if they fit the needs of your organisation - to see whether they're competent, whether they get along with people, whether they have the skills you're looking for and fit the position description. You need to assess their trustworthiness as part of the process.
• You never know. All sorts of people can do wrong things. There can be no real guarantees about anybody, whether they've been screened or not. However, if a volunteer does go wrong and you hadn't screened, then your organisation could be prosecuted and sued, your public liability insurers will want an explanation as will the press and your supporters.
• In some Australian states, in some situations, the law says you have to. Even where there's no specific legislation, you have a duty of care to the people you have dealings with, and that means you must exercise reasonable care with respect to their interests, including protecting them from harm.
• It protects all volunteers. Prospective volunteers will want assurance that all volunteers working for your organisation have previously been screened. They want to feel comfortable that existing volunteers are trustworthy, just as existing volunteers want to know the same thing about them

How much screening do we need to do?

This depends on the possible risk to others. How much screening you do may also be determined by legislation. Areas of possible concern are:

Dealing with money
If a volunteer is handling money, you will want to know that they will leave it as they found it and will not divert it sideways. Some money handling is relatively small scale and low risk (shaking the tin, for example) while some (banking cheques, for example) is larger scale and therefore higher risk.

Calculate the level of risk for your organisation and ensure that you put in place risk minimisation strategies such as a well-documented and appropriately supervised set of financial procedures for everybody. You also need processes such as the need for two signatures on cheques.

Sensitive information and intellectual property
If the volunteer is going to be able to access confidential personal data or your organisation's intellectual property, you'll need to be confident that they will observe the organisation's privacy and confidentiality policies. It is worthwhile having all people working in your organisation both paid staff and volunteers, sign a confidentiality agreement.

Positions of trust
If a volunteer is placed in a position of trust by the organisation - a position where he or she is placed in a position of authority (formal or informal) over another person in an ongoing relationship, then this presents the (remote) possibility of abuse. A position of trust implies that the volunteer has some degree of power over the client and that the relationship is unequal.

Ensure that all members of your organisation have access to, are fiamiliar with and understand your equal opportunity and harassment policies.

Vulnerable Clients
If the volunteer is dealing with vulnerable clients, he or she will need to satisfy stricter standards. Clients are vulnerable if they have difficulty protecting themselves and are at greater risk of harm than the general population. Clients may be vulnerable because of their age, because they have a disability or a handicap, or because of their circumstances. Vulnerability may be a temporary or a permanent condition. This definition is fairly broad, including (among other groups) children, youth, older people, people with physical, developmental, social, emotional, or other disabilities, and people who have been victims of trauma, crime or torture.

What kind of screening do we need?

Step 1. The position description
For each position, undertake a risk assessment and determine the level of protection you need. Include a description of the risk and the level of screening required into the position description.

Step 2. Advertisement
When you're calling for volunteers, be sure to say that you do have a screening process. You do not want people getting upset in the office.

Step 3. Application form
As well as asking for contact information and (relevant) personal details, the form should ask about any special information you have decided you need for that position (medical clearance, driver's licence, criminal record) and ask the applicant's permission to check them. Remember, all this information must be held strictly confidential. Ask for referees. Check with referees.

Step 4. Interview
The interview has to cover much more than just security concerns, of course, and has to explore the whole range of issues about how well the needs of the prospective volunteer match the needs of the organisation, but along the way you will also want to explore any doubts you may have about their suitability. After the interview, do follow up their referees and check their references.

Step 5. Police Records Check
Obviously, this isn't going to be needed in all cases, or even in most. However, if you have volunteers working in positions of trust with vulnerable groups in circumstances where any abuse of their position is possible then, for the reasons given above, you must consider this option.

Remember, just because the police check brings up something does not mean that you are obliged to turn away the volunteer. The offence may be something that happened when he or she was young and foolish, something like non-payment of parking fines that isn't particularly applicable to the job at hand, or something that for whatever reason you regard as not relevant.

The responsible authority differs from state to state; in Victoria, the responsible agency is the Police Criminal Records Section Public Inquiry Service, while in NSW you go to an Approved Screening Service. Check with the Police Ministry in your state. Some states charge for the service, some do not.

Step 6. After Screening Service - Reject
If the screening process - form, interview, check - has thrown up information that has made you think again and reject the volunteer, you will need to advise the person that their application has been rejected

or

After Screening Service - Accept
Even if screening has indicated that applicants are in the clear, your organisation will still need a full range of protective policies and practices.

Even full police checks

• are only valid, at best, up to the day that they're processed
• don't pick up interstate or overseas convictions
• don't pick up cases who have managed to avoid prosecution

Step 7. Work design
It is possible to design work procedures and workplace layout to minimise the opportunity for abuse to take place, although this is of course only one of the considerations that you must take into account. You do not wish to make these fears the centre of your organisation's work

Step 8. Training
You should use the training period to observe the person working in the new situation of the workplace. Inform them of the policies and procedures to do with client protection. This should include those that engender a culture of respect for clients and their rights. If any concerns arise, discuss these with the volunteer.

Step 9. Supervision and evaluation
The amount of supervision that is provided will depend on, among other things, the level of risk that has been identified with the position. If there's a comparatively high risk, there needs to be a greater amount of supervision. This, of course, should be integrated, with the supervision necessary to give the person the best possible chance of achieving a successful job outcome.

Supervision can involve spot audits, checking reports, and monitoring outcomes. Volunteers should be aware that their work is under review. As with any supervision, feedback to the volunteer and evaluation are important. If any concerns arise, discuss these with the volunteer.

Reporting

Reporting procedures have two facets: encouraging clients and (paid and unpaid) workers to report incidents to you, and your responsibility to report incidents to the authorities.

Complaints

Your procedures should include a recognised way for people to make complaints, about the organisation or about its staff, directly or anonymously. If any concerns arise, discuss these with the volunteer. If there is a credible case, you will need to have a policy in place to ensure a fair but effective investigation, and a procedure for dispute resolution. These are serious matters, and whatever the rights and wrongs they have the potential to be enormously disruptive if not handled properly.

Mandatory reporting

Depending on the nature of your organisation and the applicable state law, you may or may not be subject to mandatory reporting of abuse. Check this out. If you are covered, inform staff and volunteers and draw up a reporting protocol that will record each step of the process.

This area is fraught with difficult ethical questions, and it is important to seek expert advice on your responsibilities.

Insurance

If you have public liability insurance cover, the policy will generally extend to your volunteers for as long as they are engaged in duties authorised and directly related to your organisation. Therefore, whether it is fundraising, maintenance or caring activities they will, generally be covered as long as it is an authorised activity of your organisation. To ensure that this cover is extended to volunteers check your policy or seek advice from your insurer.

Another form of insurance - personal accident insurance is another form of insurance that you may want to consider for your volunteers. Personal accident insurance (or as it is sometimes known - Volunteer Insurance) generally covers members, volunteers, officials or participants for any out-of-pocket expenses following accidental injury, disability or death while carrying out their work on behalf of the organisation. This type of insurance would normally cover loss of income if the injured party were unable to work through sickness or injury.

This policy complements public liability insurance. The public Liability insurance covers volunteers where there is negligence involved whereas the personal accident insurance covers the injured party where there is accidental (no negligent act) injury.

For more information relating to insurance issues for community groups visit the insurance centre at www.ourcommunity.com.au.

Over the coming months resources will expand rapidly together with a series of training seminars so continue to visit

http://www.ourcommunity.com.au/insurance/insurance_main.jsp.

For feedback on this help sheet or for suggestions for future help sheets send an email to: service@ourcommunity.com.au.

This material has been prepared with the support of the Victorian Government through the Community Support Fund.

DISCLAIMER

While all care has been taken in the preparation of this material, no responsibility is accepted by the author(s) or the Municipal Association of Victoria ("the MAV"), it's staff or volunteers, for any errors, omissions or inaccuracies. The material provided in this help sheet has been prepared to provide general information only. It is not intended to be relied upon or be a substitute for legal or other professional advice

No responsibility can be accepted by the author(s) or the MAV for any known or unknown consequences that may result from reliance on any information provided in this publication.