Episode 13: Volunteering across the UK during the pandemic

The voluntary sector in the UK is huge. According to the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) there are approximately 163,000 charities in the UK, and their work involves 21m volunteers. The estimated value of their work is £23.9bn.

In this episode we hear about a project that has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) which will look at how this sector has responded to the pandemic, and the differences in the response in each of the UK’s four nations.

The project developed from an Eastern Arc workshop that took place in 2019. It included three of the project investigators, who came together to explore areas of common and complementary interests.

We hear from four members of the team about the project, and the wider context of how the government works – or doesn’t work – with voluntary organisations in each jurisdiction. Taking part are:

• Jurgen Grotz, the Director of the Institute for Volunteering Research (IVR) at the University of East Anglia;
• Eddy Hogg, a Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of Kent;
• Ewen Speed, Professor of Medical Sociology at the University of Essex; and
• Irene Hardill, the principal investigator for the project and Professor of Public Policy at Northumbria University.

 

Photo by Joel Muniz on Unsplash