Consultation response: Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020
/CHEX responded to this Scottish Government consultation in June 2024: Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 - Accredited body fees and proposals for discounting in relation to the PVG Scheme.
Our response focused on the proposal within the consultation to move to a fee discount structure for volunteers in Qualifying Voluntary Organisations (QVOs). At the moment PVG checks for volunteers in QVOs are free of charge.
This consultation is particularly relevant to community-led health organisations, as the type of volunteer work in this sector usually requires a PVG.
Funding and resources are already precarious in the community-led health sector, and none of these organisations have budget to cover PVG charges built into existing grant awards or contracts. The organisations either must meet these costs themselves to the detriment of other provision, seek additional funding or larger grant awards moving forwards and/or reduce or stop volunteer recruitment.
Feedback from our network illustrates possible impacts:
“The cost has not been built into funding agreements therefore it’s likely that this will need to come from unrestricted income through community fundraising. Again, our focus would be best placed delivering services, rather asking the community to fund the services that support them.”
“I had ambitions for further recruitment of volunteers, but there will now be cost implications that will create barriers.”
The consultation proposal also introduces the potential for increasing the complexity of the application process and more administrative work. Having to provide additional evidence of personal circumstances to potential employers may also present an additional barrier to potential PVG scheme applicants.
Volunteer Scotland’s response to the consultation (PDF) shares stakeholder evidence on the negative impacts of replacing the PVG fee waiver for QVO volunteers and suggests that this proposal could have a devastating impact on volunteers, organisations, and on the provision of services for some of the most vulnerable groups in Scotland.
Voluntary Health Scotland has useful information on this issue in their consultation response.
