Volunteer code of conduct

The rule: the Commission expects a code where there are staff or volunteers

The Charity Commission’s guidance Safeguarding and protecting people for charities and trustees is the source of the expectation: “If you have staff or volunteers you should have a clear code of conduct which sets out: your charity’s culture and values; how people in your charity should behave”. It sits in the section on the policies and procedures every charity needs, which says those policies should be “put into practice”, “responsive to change”, “reviewed as necessary, always following a serious incident and at least once a year” and “available to the public”, and that trustees should “Make all trustees, staff, volunteers, partners and beneficiaries aware of your policies. They all need to know how to apply them.”

No Act requires charities in general to adopt a volunteer code of conduct by that name, and the Commission’s word is “should”. But the code is how the trustees show they have met duties that are not optional: protecting the people who come into contact with the charity, managing its resources and reputation, and having the policies the Commission asks about after a serious incident. Alongside the Charity Governance Code, the Commission points trustees to NCVO’s Charity Ethical Principles when writing one. Those four principles – beneficiaries first, integrity, openness and the right to be safe – are “complementary to existing sector codes” and, in NCVO’s words, “not a substitute for charities’ own codes of conduct”.

Trustees usually have their own code, because their duties are different; the guide to a trustee code of conduct covers it. This guide is about the people who do the charity’s work: volunteers and, where the charity has them, staff.

What a volunteer and staff code of conduct should cover

A code people will read is short, specific to the charity’s work and written in plain words. For a fictional charity, Northbrook Community Food Network, which runs food banks and a delivery service with volunteers and three staff, it would cover:

1. Scope. Who the code applies to – volunteers, staff, sessional workers and students on placement – and when: on shift, online, and whenever someone represents the charity.
2. Our values. What the charity is for and the few values everyone works by, with a line on NCVO’s four ethical principles.
3. Respect and fairness. Treating beneficiaries, colleagues and the public with dignity; no bullying, harassment or discrimination; how to challenge it.
4. Safeguarding and boundaries. Following the safeguarding policy; not giving out personal contact details to people the charity supports, not accepting their friend requests and not meeting them outside the role; extra care with children or adults at risk; and reporting a worry about someone as soon as possible, to the named safeguarding lead.
5. Confidentiality and personal information. What volunteers may see and must not share, including beneficiaries’ names, addresses and circumstances; using only approved routes for personal information.
6. Messaging and social media. Which channels are used for the charity’s work, what may be said about the charity on personal social media, and photographs of beneficiaries only with consent.
7. Money, gifts and property. Handling cash and donations with a second person, declaring gifts and hospitality, using the charity’s equipment and vehicles only for its work.
8. Conflicts of interest. Declaring a personal connection with a beneficiary, supplier or decision.
9. Health and safety, alcohol and drugs. Following safe working instructions, and never volunteering or working under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
10. Representing the charity. Who may speak for it to the press, funders or the council.
11. Raising concerns. How to raise a concern about a person, a practice or the code itself, including the whistleblowing route for staff.
12. If the code is not followed. For volunteers, the problem-solving process; for staff, the disciplinary procedure; and the safeguarding and reporting steps that apply to both.

Write each point as what the charity expects and why, give everyone a copy, cover it in training, and link to the full policy rather than repeating it: the safeguarding policy, the social media policy, the data protection policy, the health and safety arrangements. The code is the summary everyone reads on their first day; the policies are where the detail lives.

One code, two consequences: staff and volunteers

The behaviour expected of a paid support worker and a volunteer driver delivering the same food parcel is the same. The legal relationship is not, and the code has to respect the difference.

For staff, the code is part of the employer’s rules. The Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures says rules and procedures for handling disciplinary situations “should be set down in writing, be specific and clear”, that employees should be helped to understand “what the rules and procedures are, where they can be found and how they are to be used”, and that “Disciplinary rules should give examples of acts which the employer regards as acts of gross misconduct”, such as “theft or fraud, physical violence, gross negligence or serious insubordination”. The government’s guidance on the written statement of employment particulars says employers must give employees and workers a wider written statement “within 2 months of the start of employment”, including information about “disciplinary and grievance procedures”. A staff code of conduct that the disciplinary procedure refers to is how a charity meets those expectations.

For volunteers, the same words can create a problem. The Commission’s guidance How to manage your charity’s volunteers warns that “It’s possible for volunteers to claim they have the same rights as employees, including claiming unfair dismissal for example”, and that a role description “must not require volunteers to work particular hours”. NCVO’s guidance on volunteers’ employment status explains that what matters “is whether or not there is a contract between the organisation and its volunteers”, and that a volunteer working under a contract would be entitled to protection under the Equality Act 2010 and the Working Time Regulations 1998 and could be owed the minimum wage. Its guidance on writing a volunteer agreement says to describe the relationship “based on hopes and expectations”, avoid language “that sounds like a contract”, and that “You can also say in the agreement that it isn’t a legal contract with the volunteer.”

So the volunteer version of the code says “we expect” and “we ask”, not “you must” and “failure to comply will result in”, and it points to a problem-solving process rather than the staff disciplinary procedure. The standard of behaviour does not drop; the language and the process change.

Adopting the code and recording who has read it

The trustees approve the code, minute the decision and set a review date; the Commission’s safeguarding guidance expects policies to be reviewed “at least once a year” and always after a serious incident. Consult staff and volunteers on the draft, as NCVO recommends for a volunteer policy, because the people who do the work know where the real boundary questions arise.

New people meet the code at induction. NCVO’s guidance on running a volunteer induction lists sharing “relevant policies and procedures, such as safeguarding, equal opportunities or data protection” and says “You should go through this information with the volunteer.” For each person, record:

• the version of the code they were given, and the date;
• that someone went through it with them, and who;
• their acknowledgement that they have read it and will ask if anything is unclear – for a volunteer, worded as an acknowledgement, not a contractual undertaking;
• the date they were given each revised version, and how;
• any role-specific additions, such as the driving rules for delivery volunteers or the lone-visit rules for befrienders.

Keep the acknowledgement with the person’s volunteer or staff record, and keep it for as long as you keep that record; the volunteer records guide covers retention. When the code changes, re-issue it and record that, too: the question after an incident is not whether a code existed but whether this person had been given this version.

When someone breaks the code

For volunteers, NCVO’s guidance on solving volunteer problems says to have a problem-solving process that is “separate from a disciplinary and grievance process for paid staff”, covering who handles what, the steps such as “fact-finding, an initial meeting, followed by a review meeting”, “what happens in the case of serious breaches in conduct” and “how volunteers can appeal”. When investigating, it advises: “avoid taking sides”, “try to stick to facts” and “avoid blame”. Its guidance on dismissing a volunteer calls asking someone to leave “a last resort”, except as “a necessary response to a serious breach of conduct”, and says to explain why, offer the chance to bring someone, and “keep the meeting short and follow it up in writing”. It adds that although volunteers “aren’t covered by employment law, you should treat volunteers with respect and should not discriminate against them”.

For staff, the Acas Code applies: establish the facts, tell the employee in writing, hold a meeting, allow them to be accompanied, decide, confirm in writing and offer an appeal.

Some breaches go further than either process. A breach that harms a beneficiary or puts one at risk is a safeguarding matter first, handled under the safeguarding policy and, where it is significant, reported to the Commission as a serious incident. And a charity that is a regulated activity provider has a legal duty, explained in the DBS guidance on making barring referrals, to refer a person to the Disclosure and Barring Service when it withdraws them from regulated activity, or would have done had they not left, and thinks they have harmed or put at risk a child or vulnerable adult; the guidance says this “applies even when a referral has also been made to a local authority safeguarding team”. The duty covers volunteers as well as staff.

The breach that happens in the volunteers’ group chat

A modern code of conduct is mostly broken in messages. A volunteer forwards a photo of a beneficiary’s delivery address to the drivers’ group to “save time”. A joke about a family who use the food bank lands in a group of forty volunteers. A volunteer who has been told not to share personal numbers is found messaging a seventeen-year-old helper late at night. A staff member is rude to a volunteer in a direct message, and the volunteer leaves. Each of those is the conduct the code exists for, and each happened somewhere the charity does not hold.

When the coordinator investigates, NCVO’s advice is to stick to facts. The facts are on volunteers’ personal phones, in a group the charity did not set up and cannot search, and they arrive as screenshots chosen by whoever is upset. The person accused may have deleted their messages; the person who complained may have left the group. A DBS referral or a serious incident report has to describe what happened, and the charity is describing it at second hand.

The question for the next trustees’ meeting is a short one: if a complaint about a volunteer’s messages arrived tomorrow, could the charity read the messages for itself, in the channel where they were sent, rather than relying on screenshots?

Questions people ask

Do volunteers have to sign a code of conduct?

No law requires volunteers to sign a code of conduct, but the Charity Commission expects a charity with staff or volunteers to have a clear code and to make sure everyone knows how to apply it, so recording that each volunteer has read it is good practice. Word the record as an acknowledgement rather than a contractual promise, because NCVO warns that volunteer documents which sound like contracts risk creating employment rights.

What are the regulations for volunteers in the UK?

No single law regulates volunteering: in England and Wales the government’s guidance Volunteer opportunities, rights and expenses says volunteers do not have a contract of employment and so “do not have the same rights as an employee or worker”. The rules that do apply come from the activity – DBS checks for work with children or adults at risk, health and safety, data protection, insurance – and from the charity’s own safeguarding and volunteer policies.

Do volunteer workers have any rights?

Volunteers usually have no employment rights, because they have no contract of employment, but NCVO explains that a volunteer found to be working under a contract may gain worker rights such as the minimum wage and Equality Act protection. NCVO also says that although volunteers are not covered by employment law, organisations “should treat volunteers with respect and should not discriminate against them”.

Can a charity dismiss a volunteer?

Yes: a charity can ask a volunteer to leave, and NCVO advises doing so as a last resort after a problem-solving process, or in response to a serious breach of conduct, in a private meeting where the reasons are explained and then confirmed in writing. If the volunteer was in regulated activity and is thought to have harmed or put at risk a child or vulnerable adult, the charity may also have a legal duty to refer them to the DBS.

Should staff and volunteers have the same code of conduct?

Staff and volunteers can share one code of conduct covering the same standards of behaviour, but the consequences of a breach should be set out separately: the staff disciplinary procedure, which the Acas Code expects to be written and clear, and a separate problem-solving process for volunteers, as NCVO recommends.

Official guidance and your next step

The primary sources are the Charity Commission’s Safeguarding and protecting people for charities and trustees and How to manage your charity’s volunteers, NCVO’s guidance on involving volunteers and its Charity Ethical Principles, the Acas Code of Practice for staff, and the DBS guidance on barring referrals. Your local safeguarding partnership’s procedures apply if you work with children or adults at risk.

This guide is a summary for England and Wales, not legal advice. Take employment advice before dismissing a member of staff or if a volunteer claims worker status.

Then do one thing: pick three current volunteers at random and check whether their records show which version of the code they were given, and when.