Hansard

The Scottish Socialist Party welcomes this morning's debate on volunteering because it gives us an opportunity to think about and discuss the many thousands of people in Scotland who give their time to help others, who could be close to home, many miles away or even on other continents. However, I agree with Christine Grahame's remarks about the nature and focus of the debate and I hope that the Minister for Communities will take those concerns on board.

Recent disasters such as the tsunami and the earthquake in Pakistan threw on to our television screens individuals and organisations who work around the clock to ensure that assistance reaches those in desperate need. Food, blankets, medicines and clothing are collected, packaged and delivered to other parts of the world. Volunteers also provide crucial support for people here in Scotland.

Like others in the chamber, I worked as a volunteer. I was an advocate at Equal Say and I worked as a volunteer councillor at ChildLine Scotland. I was subsequently employed as a supervisor at ChildLine Scotland. If people do not already know what that entails, they should be made aware of what is involved, how that relates to funding and where the problems lie.

Voluntary organisations train their volunteers to do their jobs. Equal Say and ChildLine delivered training that stood me in good stead for my job as an MSP. For example, the training gave me the ability to assist people who are in pain, people who are afraid and folk who are in a crisis and have no one else to turn to. MSPs will recognise those situations. I am extremely privileged to have the tools to know what to say and do at a time of crisis and I was given those skills by my trainers at ChildLine.

I was also given a unique insight into the difficulties that young people face. I learned how to handle casework, how to deal with paperwork, how to deal with the pain of a desperate child and how to seek appropriate help. My self-esteem and confidence improved enormously during the process. I am eternally grateful to ChildLine for that training, which gave me strings to my bow that I would not otherwise have had. However, the training took 12 weeks and it cost £1,500 to deliver. What did ChildLine get in return? I worked on the phone lines for a time and I stayed on as a supervisor, but then I moved on. A new volunteer had to go through the training and take my place and ChildLine incurred training costs again.

The turnover of volunteers costs organisations such as ChildLine and Equal Say a fortune and there is little or no recognition that people are being trained and given skills and confidence that enable them to participate in society. Workplaces benefit from that, as do society and the economy. Voluntary organisations provide a service to the child on the phone or the starving and cold in Pakistan but they also develop the skills of volunteers. I want us to recognise that those skills are transferable.

As Linda Fabiani pointed out, the voluntary sector comprises a huge network of organisations from global charities to local groups. Their work includes child care, education, youth work, care of the elderly, anti-poverty initiatives and the environmental initiatives that Patrick Harvie mentioned. The list of those who benefit is endless. The voluntary sector holds civic society together and we would grind to a standstill without its work and support.

When we praise volunteers, we must also recognise that the voluntary sector faces a constant battle for funding and resources. That has been said time and time again. I want the minister to hear it and to respond to it. Annually reviewed funding packages leave organisations and groups in a precarious situation and can affect volunteers' motivation. It has to be said that employees in the voluntary sector suffer from lower pay than their counterparts in the public sector.

We must not simply pat volunteers on the back; our job is to ensure that organisations that provide vital support and training have secure funding that fully recognises the vital role that they play in our society. The Scottish Executive should today make a commitment to ease the precarious nature of funding by establishing a four-year minimum funding period for all publicly funded projects and ensuring that funding takes account of inflation and staff training costs. That would surely reduce the atmosphere of uncertainty that constantly surrounds projects that are funded year to year.

Many members have said that they visit organisations and meet brilliant volunteers and employees, only to hear that some of those people may lose their jobs soon and that the services may be lost. The voluntary sector should seek not to duplicate services that local government should resource and provide. In recognising the people who give so much for others, we should promise those folk and those organisations support, security, respect and funding. That would be a true vote of thanks and support. It is incumbent on us to make that promise.

In his opening remarks, the minister said that the potential is limitless. That is not true: the future of many essential organisations hangs in the balance. The limits are therefore clear.