1. CSV Volunteers Supporting Families-
measuring the impact of volunteering
Jill Williams
Business Development Manager

2. CSV Volunteers Supporting Families
Background
The Volunteers in Child Protection project was initiated following the death of
Victoria Climbié
CSV believed there was a role for community volunteers in safeguarding children
We also believed that Social Workers alone should not be responsible for
keeping children safe
CSV convinced a large trust to fund two
pilot projects to develop the model
The parents of Victoria Climbié backed
the project right from the beginning.

3. CSV Volunteers Supporting Families
The VSF model
●Developed from CSV’s ground breaking ViCP Project
●Project staff co-located within Social Care Teams
●1 Project Manager - 25 volunteer/family relationships
●Volunteers commit for a minimum of 6 months
●Volunteer Involvement Plan provides framework for support
●Supervision and support and ongoing training
●Now in 12 areas-5 commissioned by Local Authorities and 7 funded by DfE

4. CSV Volunteers Supporting Families
Early Objectives
In 2007, the ViCP project had 2 objectives:
●to support families under stress and to help protect children from abuse
and neglect
●to test out the role volunteers could play alongside local authority staff
By 2009, we needed to know:
●much more about the actual impact volunteers had on families
●value for money
●what the experience was like for our volunteers
In 2011 we introduced the Family Star tool.

5. CSV Volunteers Supporting Families
Evaluation
Initial pilot project research by Professor Jane Tunstill concluded that:
● volunteers were regarded as ‘making an important contribution to the
well being of the children and families’
● ‘being co-located in the children’s services departments is crucial to
the credibility and viability of the project and maximises its chances of
eliciting referrals from social workers’
● ‘there is considerable value in prioritising the needs of the family over
the needs/preferences of the volunteer in order to create a ‘positive
match’
Jane Tunstill’s research Executive Summary (1997):
www.csv.org.uk/childprotection

6. CSV Volunteers Supporting Families
Evaluation
Anglia Ruskin University research (September 2011) found that:
● There was “compelling evidence” that ViCP delivers positive outcomes for:
● Children and families, enabling parents:
 to improve their parenting skills and family functioning, with children often
coming off child protections plans (CP)
 to engage with universal services, access health checks and improve
children’s school attendance
● That volunteers have a positive experience, are well managed and supported
by CSV and are valued by professional stakeholders throughout
● And other stakeholders, including social workers, welcome the extra resource
and the different approach
● That the project delivers undoubted value for money

7. CSV Volunteers Supporting Families
Outcomes and Impact
Our research has shown that:
● Children’s emotional and behavioural difficulties improve
● Family functioning improves
and the families are better
engaged with external
services
● Mothers’ well-being improves

8. CSV Volunteers Supporting Families
Service Aims
Families get regular individual support in the family home to enable them to meet
their Child Protection Plan
Improve family functioning
Improve children’s wellbeing
Reduce social isolation
Improve parents and children’s confidence and parenting skills
Help families to successfully come off their plans, to come out of Child Protection
altogether or step down and have continued support
Providing high quality training and a positive experience for volunteers

9. CSV Volunteers Supporting Families
What we measure and how
●Family Star tool-beginning and end
scores
●Children’s attendance at school
●Children coming off CP plans to
CIN and/or CIN to CAF and CAF to
universal services (reduced risk)
●Family and referrer evaluation form
●Number of family visits, number of hours spent with the family
●Number of volunteers, number of volunteers trained, training satisfaction
Family Star scores from
across CSV’s VSF projects
Scale Initial Final Change
Physical health 7.1 8.7 1.6
Emotional well-being 5.8 7.2 1.4
Keeping your children safe 7.2 8.7 1.5
Social networks 5.8 7.2 1.4
Education and learning 6.4 8.4 2.0
Boundaries and
behaviour 5.4 7.5 2.0
Family routine 7.0 8.2 1.2
Home and money 6.5 7.9 1.4
Average 6.4 8.0 1.6

10. CSV Volunteers Supporting Families
Summary
●External evaluation has been vital to give credibility to the service
●The project has clear aims and objectives that have been developed over time
●Continual review and learning ensures the project remains current
●Having data from tools such as the Family Star as well as case studies enables us
to measure the impact on families
Going forward
In response to requests from local authorities we will get:
●Quotes from children
●Information on training and employment in Social Care and related fields for
volunteers

11. CSV Volunteers Supporting Families

12. CSV Volunteers Supporting Families
“Being a volunteer helped to
improve my communication skills
and also helped to increase my
confidence. I also had a sense of
achievement from having been
able to support the family.”
‘I felt that I was able to provide support to these parents at this difficult time,
and I was very touched that Mum and Dad both wanted me to continue to visit.
Attending the children’s centre, vaccination appointments, the library and job
centre all felt like useful, practical activities, but as they said in their evaluation,
what they actually valued most was having someone to talk to’.
Most of our volunteers
are aged 25-44.
313 are female and 37
are men
This year we have had 287 applications and
trained 130 volunteers (Q1-3)

13. Thank you
Jill Williams
jwilliams@csv.org.uk
Tel 0207 643 1396
Mob 07950060117 www.csv.org.uk