Is it my imagination or are volunteers less forthcoming these days?

[Limesaregreen]

Have name changed. My youngest has left school now but I still get the odd call to 'help out'. Now when they were at school I was more than happy to help out, sat on the PTA at both primary and secondary, extra pair of hands on school trips, sports trips, school concerts, cycle proficiency etc. etc. as did loads of the other Mums and Dads whether they worked or not.
After my youngest left nursery, I heard that certain things that used to happen, no longer did in the same way (nursery eventually closed as no-one volunteered to be on the committee to run it). Cycling proficiency no longer happened after youngest left school as no-one wanted to get involved. Very few school trips seem to happen now and high school is struggling to get people to help for prom night and end of year show (hence the call).
I've said I'm not available. I've done my time and moved on and feel no guilt about that, it's for current parents to step up to the mark. But is this the new norm now??? What's it like for those still with kids at various ages in school??

Most people I know have to work (paid) as many hours as they possibly can now just to make ends meet-I’m not surprised they don’t have the time to volunteer.

I used to help when I was a SAHM but these days we're so busy with work I can't get out to man the tuck shop at 3.30pm.

I suspect with more and more families where both parents are working long hours just to keep a roof over heads, there will be less people available to volunteer.

I volunteered for a thankless task on parent council as they were desperate, but due to existing people taking weeks to answer e-mails and texts, after 9 months they still haven't handed over what I need to do the job so I'm ditching it to do other voluntary stuff where I feel it's appreciated. For that I'm very flexible and accommodating and have given up plenty of my own time. Essentially the difference is people are nice and friendly. Maybe that's lacking from the committee in question. I really enjoyed primary school parent council and made long standing friends so I'm disappointed high school parent council was just a miserable slog.

Recruiting anyone to work in support type roles has become much harder over the last few years, whether laid or volunteers.

There just isn't the pool of mums parents wanting to work a few hours a day to fitting with school time and to do it for very little pay.

A combination, I think, of people returning to work when DC are much younger, so they've already got childcare sorted and have a proper salary and increased wfh opportunities meaning they can keep their original career and still do the school run etc.

I volunteered for the DofE Award and Sustrans. I gave it up when I reached retirement age, the Sustrans no longer exist in my area and funding has largely stopped for the DofE !

I agree more parents have to work nowadays. When my children were little there were a lot of SAHMs around, 16ish years later there are hardly any.

I think it's a combination of there being more working parents, parents working longer hours, parents working more than one job and loads more form-filling and red tape.

Gone are the days of just creating an ad-hoc event to raise a bit of cash for school, nowadays it takes ages to organise anything as it all has to be run past so many hierarchies to be approved/signed off, health and safety etc.

I've also noticed that we've become a much more cashless society so little school events like bake sales don't raise as much money as they used to.

Have also noticed constant sneering at 'PTA mums' on mumsnet. So not sure I'd willingly sign up for unpaid work to then have other mums take the piss out of me for doing so.

It's not just schools having problems recruiting volunteers. I've got links to various art linked groups and we have trouble getting people to volunteer as well. And many of members are retired so the work reason can't be invoked.

There's certainly less willingness to volunteer which I think is very sad. Think the same applies for groups such as the Brownies, Scouts, Guides, sports groups. Plus those using these groups have very unrealistic expectations of the volunteer work force

Of course it's not your imagination. People of working age are well, working, these days. There's no other choice if you want to pay the bills. Not to mention the fact that working age, and age first child is born, is getting higher. In the old days you might have had retired grandparents helping out and doing the odd school run or volunteering. But now they're slogging it out too, till they're almost 70 and by then, ,quite rightly, they want a bit of a rest, and to get their life back, that's if they're not being unpaid childminder.

I work in a primary school and no, we can't run events without the volunteers. (Don't forget that the staff are volunteers too, by the way, for things run out of school time. TAs and office staff are poorly paid and worked really hard but end up having to give up their own free Saturdays to help run the school fair etc. I guess it comes with the job though.) But really, I totally understand any parent now who can't find the time or the energy to do a few hours extra a week. Cameron's Big Society idea was a joke. Things have changed radically since my own kids were young - everyone's working themselves to the bone just for the basics.

@SingingSands yes the bureaucracy was escalating even when I was there.

I think some retired folk have been reluctant to mix since covid as well, especially if they are more vulnerable.

My mum worked FT and volunteered lots (in the 80s). It meant she had to work longer days, evenings and weekends to make up the time, which she managed to do as she had family help. My grandparents did the school run, fed me dinner every night, had me overnight at least one night a week/on weekends. We don’t have any family help (which we manage just fine as never planned to have any), but it does mean that to volunteer at an event after school or in the evening, neither of us can be working - one to volunteer and one to be with dc, as one/both usually can’t come with us. We have so little time for friends or exercise or all the other priorities that it just comes pretty far down the list.

Plus those using these groups have very unrealistic expectations of the volunteer work force

There is that. I think there are huge numbers of people who don't realise which roles are voluntary, or if they do, they don't realise how much work it involves.

I think volunteering can also be a case of no good deed goes unpunished, plus all the politics of school life and just most families are having to work as much as they can just to keep themselves afloat and don't have the time to dedicate to this.

I would say it's often this.
I was a scout leader and the expectations are horrific. Half the parents think you are paid and treat you like shit.
I just got fed up of zero support and the expectation that we would give their kids the same awesome memories of camps that they had.
So, I left. Everyone loses.

I've done a fair bit of volunteering. It's like getting a proper job now.

The last place had appraisals & the leader got cross because the cafe wasn't run like she wanted the week she wasn't there. We (me & elderly lady) had been dealing with a serious fridge malfunction. Having a go at us did not end well.

Form filling & dbs checks are important but once I have to do lots of corporate stuff, I might as well get an actual job.

The bureaucracy; every form must be filled in, every box must be ticked. In your own time, f course.

The entitlement of service users who treat you like dirt under their feet and expect you to thank them for it.

The expectation of more, and more, and more.

The amount it actually costs one to volunteer, both financially and emotionally.

I did a lot when I was a sahm and when the DC were younger. Now that I'm working full time I just don't have the headspace

This has been a trajectory for years.

It's one of the by-products of the idea that to keep productivity up, we need to have as many people as possible in paid work. No one really factored in the fact that lots of the non-working people did actually provide a ton of value to society as a whole.

I think things have gotten to the stage where too much is expected of volunteers to the extent that it’s just not worth the hassle. Personally I was fine being a spare pair of hands with most activities being teacher led. But then more and more was being asked of me that took me way out my comfort zone. A lot of what volunteers do now used to be the responsibility of a paid employee.
In all my working life I never had to interview anyone - HR did that. But I’ve had to interview people twice because I was on a committee or parent council. Not sure I was qualified for that but we luckily got good people.

I also think volunteering is a lot less rewarding and fun than it used to be. You feel like you are being judged and walking on eggshells, there is a ton of administrative faff. So people don't want to do it.

I volunteer at one organisation and its lovely. Everyone is helpful, paid staff and volunteers are all treated equally in terms of being valued, respect, etc. Its made very clear that volunteers are there as support and I really enjoy it. They don't struggle to get volunteers and always have plenty of helpers for events and causes.

I did a few stints volunteering with a club my DD is involved with and will never volunteer with them again, they always struggle to get volunteers. All of the staff in thr club are volunteers but was very cliquey with established volunteers micro-managing newer volunteers, taking over tasks rather than explaining how to do them, setting volunteers up to fail by not properly explaining processes and then complaining when the processes weren't followed, and so on. It was unpleasant to be there.

A lot of what volunteers do now used to be the responsibility of a paid employee.

This is exactly it. Maybe in the past volunteering was more idyllic and a bit more laidback, but when I threw my hat in the ring a few years ago (after forms, interview, DBS check, etc), it ended up being a role with some of the greatest responsibility and number of duties I've ever had in my career. I couldn't believe that ultimately it was unpaid and felt taken advantage of. For the level of effort required from volunteers, it shouldn't have been unpaid. The role I did should have been a paid position from the start.

I guess that it might also depend on the lockdown schooling experience parents endured. If a school was providing little resource or support I can see a lot of families being pretty reluctant to help out.

As others have said:

• more bureaucracy and greater responsibility (and blame) for volunteers
• more people who work (less stay at home parents) so less free time
• easier ways to 'feel' connected over social media so less drive to meet new people