Volunteer Scotland has produced the first of 3 Quarterly Bulletins which aim to track the impact of the cost of living crisis on people and third sector organisations (TSOs) in Scotland.

The bulletin emphasises key trend data from Scottish Government’s YouGov Tracker and the Scottish Third Sector Tracker, drawing out the implications for volunteering and volunteers over the last 12 months. The evidence highlights the seriousness of the following issues:

The crisis is not affecting people equally across Scotland.
Younger adults, those in social grades D and E, and the grouping of “students, the unemployed and those not working” are being disproportionately affected.
Volunteers’ own health and wellbeing is at serious risk.
TSOs have less resource to manage and support volunteers.
Volunteer shortages is the single biggest issue facing TSOs.
Nearly two-thirds of organisations are facing increased demand for services.
The potential substitution of paid roles by volunteers.
Long-term recovery from COVID-19 is being compromised.

The research builds upon Volunteer Scotland’s Testing Our Resilience report published in September 2022. Their blog post, Cost of Living Crisis – The Hard Facts, discusses some of the headline data and the volunteering issues arising from the research.

To view or download the Quarterly Bulletin, please visit the Volunteer Scotland website.

Volunteer Scotland welcomes feedback on the report regarding evidence, analysis and conclusions; to submit your feedback, contact Matthew Linning by email: matthew.linning@volunteerscotland.org.uk