City Action

RESOURCES

City of London Corporation

City Action is one of a series of the City of London Corporation’s Corporate Responsibility and economic regeneration programmes.

Other City of London programmes and services of interest:

Health & Safety

City Action does not provide risk assessment services.

Community organisations will have their own health and safety procedures and risk assessments for particular activities. Companies should ensure that volunteers take responsibility for their own Health & Safety and appropriate conduct whilst volunteering.

Most of the volunteering opportunities offered by City Action do not require CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) checks; however, those that do (e.g. one-to-one mentoring with under 18s) will be administered by the host community organisation. (NB occasionally this will incur a small fee)

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) advises that:

‘In general, the same health and safety standards should be applied to voluntary workers as they would to employees exposed to the same risks.’

The HSE has compiled a book providing basic health and safety advice and information for charity and voluntary organisations: ‘Charity and voluntary workers: A guide to health and safety at work’. Click here for a link to the free pdf download.

Volunteering England provides a useful summary of risk assessment and health & safety.

Liability & Insurance

City Action checks that each of its community members has public liability insurance.

It is expected that companies will extend their employers liability insurance to cover their staff volunteering, including when they are volunteering off-site and out of work hours. If volunteering is part of an employer-sponsored project or programme, the employer has a 'duty of care' to do everything reasonable to protect their employees from coming to harm whilst volunteering.

City Action makes its community members aware that City business volunteers are offering their individual or team skills and experience, and are not providing professional services or advice in the name of their company.

Volunteering England provides a useful summary of public and employers liability insurance.

Research

The City of London Corporation Research Team focuses on the following themes: London and the UK Economy, City Industries and the EU, Competitiveness and Regulation and Infrastructure, Regeneration and Employment. Recent research includes

Volunteering – The Business Case: The Benefits of Corporate Volunteering Programmes in Education

Volunteering England has links to sector specific research, citizenship surveys and company reports.

Considerations for working cross-sector

Corporate and community organisations can have very different working cultures; take time to get to know how your partner organisation operates. For example, consider differences in communication style and format: While company employees may be largely desk-based and use email as a main method of communication, community organisation contacts may deliver direct services to community members and have little time at their computers.

Look for a “mission fit” between the company's product and values and those of the community organisation; the organisational culture should match. The better partners understand each other, the better equipped and engaged participants will be.

The best relationships will be those where there is a genuine balance between what all participants gain. Remember when raising your agenda to also make time to discuss with your partner organisation what they want to gain from the relationship.

Sample Staff Survey

City Action has compiled a sample staff survey which corporate members may wish to use to ascertain the volunteering experience and interests of their staff, in order to inform the focus of their employee volunteering programme.

Please click here for the word document.

Top Tips for developing an employee volunteering programme

City Action has compiled a sample staff survey which corporate members may wish to use to ascertain the volunteering experience and interests of their staff, in order to inform the focus of their employee volunteering programme.

Please click here for the word document.

Cass Centre for Charity Effectiveness

The Cass Centre for Charity Effectiveness exists to maximise the effectiveness of organisations and individuals within the voluntary and community sector.

City Action hosted a free workshop in collaboration with the CCCE on Tuesday 23rd November. The purpose of the workshop was to address, at a strategic level, the current challenges facing local community organsations, and explore ways in which these can be managed. The workshop covered three keys areas: Leadership and Management; Governance; the Big Society.

Click here to access presentation slides from the workshop.

Click here to access discussion notes from the workshop.

CASE STUDIES

Liquidnet & Sotheby Mews Day Centre

Liquidnet Europe Limited, a small asset management business, joined City Action following attendance on a Community Tour to Islington in June 2010. One of the community organisations visited was Age Concern Islington’s Sotheby Mews Day Centre, with whom Liquidnet have chosen to support a variety of social events for local older people.

Colt and Friendship Works

Colt have been building their CSR programme from scratch since 2009. Selecting a charity partner was one aspect of setting up their community programme - the other aspect was introducing an employee volunteering policy which they introduced at the end of 2009. Colt operates in 14 countries and in 2009 each country was asked to work with its employees to select a charity partner for the next two years.

City of London Corporation

City Action is one of a series of the City of London Corporation’s Corporate Responsibility and economic regeneration programmes.

Other City of London programmes and services of interest:

Heart of the City is a free support programme for businesses in the City and City fringes that are interested in developing a Corporate Social Responsibility programme.

The team can support and advise you on:

• What CSR involves - community, environment, diversity, employee wellbeing, responsible procurement

• Developing and implementing a CSR Programme

• Maintaining the momentum of your existing CSR activities

• How to measure and communicate success

The City Procurement Project provides City-based businesses with information and advice when considering the local impacts of their purchasing decisions.

The Partnerships team works with City businesses to maximise access to employment opportunities for City fringe residents.

Health & Safety

City Action does not provide risk assessment services.

Community organisations will have their own health and safety procedures and risk assessments for particular activities. Companies should ensure that volunteers take responsibility for their own Health & Safety and appropriate conduct whilst volunteering.

Most of the volunteering opportunities offered by City Action do not require CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) checks; however, those that do (e.g. one-to-one mentoring with under 18s) will be administered by the host community organisation. (NB occasionally this will incur a small fee)

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) advises that:

‘In general, the same health and safety standards should be applied to voluntary workers as they would to employees exposed to the same risks.’

The HSE has compiled a book providing basic health and safety advice and information for charity and voluntary organisations: ‘Charity and voluntary workers: A guide to health and safety at work’. Click here for a link to the free pdf download.

Volunteering England provides a useful summary of risk assessment and health & safety.

Liability & Insurance

City Action checks that each of its community members has public liability insurance.

City Action makes its community members aware that City business volunteers are offering their individual or team skills and experience, and are not providing professional services or advice in the name of their company.

Volunteering England provides a useful summary of public and employers liability insurance.

Research

The City of London Corporation Research Team focuses on the following themes: London and the UK Economy, City Industries and the EU, Competitiveness and Regulation and Infrastructure, Regeneration and Employment. Recent research includes

Volunteering England has links to sector specific research, citizenship surveys and company reports.

Considerations for working cross-sector

Look for a “mission fit” between the company's product and values and those of the community organisation; the organisational culture should match. The better partners understand each other, the better equipped and engaged participants will be.

The best relationships will be those where there is a genuine balance between what all participants gain. Remember when raising your agenda to also make time to discuss with your partner organisation what they want to gain from the relationship.

Sample Staff Survey

City Action has compiled a sample staff survey which corporate members may wish to use to ascertain the volunteering experience and interests of their staff, in order to inform the focus of their employee volunteering programme.

Please click here for the word document.

Top Tips for developing an employee volunteering programme

City Action has compiled a sample staff survey which corporate members may wish to use to ascertain the volunteering experience and interests of their staff, in order to inform the focus of their employee volunteering programme.

Please click here for the word document.

Cass Centre for Charity Effectiveness

The Cass Centre for Charity Effectiveness exists to maximise the effectiveness of organisations and individuals within the voluntary and community sector.

Click here to access presentation slides from the workshop.

Click here to access discussion notes from the workshop.

Liquidnet & Sotheby Mews Day Centre

Colt and Friendship Works

• What CSR involves - community, environment, diversity, employee wellbeing,
responsible procurement