Volunteering Wales platform to launch with emergency volunteer bank

The Volunteering Wales platform is to launch in March 2023 with a bank of "emergency volunteers", the Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA) has said. Volunteers will be able to sign up and record any relevant skills, and organisations with emergency response volunteer capability will be encouraged to register their details¹.

The platform follows a project led by the British Red Cross to develop a framework for coordinating volunteers in civil emergencies in Wales. The work was supported by the Wales Community Resilience Group, a forum including third sector partners, the Welsh Government and the four Local Resilience Forums in Wales, funded by a Welsh Government Volunteering Wales Strategic Grant and undertaken by Richard Newton Consulting¹. The report, Framework for Co-ordination of volunteers in emergency response situations (Wales), was published in July 2022¹.

The framework aims to ensure direct representation of the voluntary sector on key planning fora and within incident specific recovery teams. It recommends relying on existing rather than new structures, including increased deployment of emergency focussed volunteers from national and local voluntary organisations, and highlights the need for mapping and documenting the capability and capacity of voluntary sector organisations to contribute to civil emergency response¹.

The WCVA describes the platform as a resource to support those who lead on emergency response, enabling targeted and coordinated local voluntary action¹. The article gives no further detail on how the platform will work, how volunteers will be called on, or what checks or training will apply; these have not been reported.

Why it matters for households

The platform is intended to give emergency planners in Wales a documented picture of who is available and what they can do, and to give volunteers a route into emergency response work. The WCVA describes the emergency response volunteer role as being on call at agreed times and ready to provide practical and psychosocial support to people after an incident. One volunteer describes driving a Red Cross vehicle equipped with batteries, lights, blankets, clothing, water and a water boiler, volunteering in pairs, with staff support available 24/7 and training that includes role play of emergency situations, some mandatory and some optional¹.

The framework applies to Wales and its four Local Resilience Forums, which work with national and local partners in line with the requirements of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004¹. Households elsewhere in the UK are not covered by this announcement. For groups considering registering, the site's guides on safeguarding rules for emergency volunteer groups and whether emergency volunteers need insurance set out the questions such organisations commonly face.

What happens next

The platform is due to launch in March 2023¹. Separately, the WCVA reports that the Welsh Government, with emergency planning colleagues from the Local Resilience Forums, is undertaking a national review of resilience structures in Wales, which the British Red Cross says gives the chance to feed the report's recommendations into the conversation¹. No date has been reported for that review.