Standing for Office: Time-Off Entitlements – A consultation

Ian Jones — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 05:39:59 +0000

Communities Secretary Hazel Blears has outlined plans to make it easier for more people, from all walks of life, to volunteer for key roles in their local community. Ms Blears wants to modernise the list of activities that entitle people to time off from work to better reflect the kind of roles available and encourage more people to participate – also helping to widen the pool of skills, expertise and experience available. Magistrates, school governors and members of health bodies or police authorities already have time off entitlements. But Hazel Blears wants to take a fresh look at whether this should be extended to other roles to better reflect modern life and the needs of local communities.

The focus of this consultation paper is twofold. Firstly it is about extending time off entitlements to encourage more and different people to take up specific civic roles, thereby enabling people to get involved in decision making which affects their local communities. Secondly it is focusing on governance roles which are located within third sector organisations. We are not proposing adding them to the list of roles legally entitled to time off but seeking views on what else can be done to encourage participation.

Cornwall Voluntary Sector Forum » volunteering

Standing for Office: Time-Off Entitlements – A consultation