Yesterday, the sector secured an important win to ensure volunteering remains a choice.
At its Party Conference in 2025, Labour launched a proposal to reduce the time people must wait before qualifying for indefinite leave to remain (ILR), if they contributed to society through volunteering.
On the surface, it might’ve sounded like a positive way to encourage people to contribute to their communities. More community participation is, on paper, exactly what we want.
But for us, it raised a fundamental question: what happens to volunteering when it becomes a means to an end, rather than something freely given?
Our position was clear: volunteering should never be tied to immigration status.
Shortly after the policy was announced, we launched our #KeepVolunteeringVoluntary campaign, calling on the government to reconsider the proposal. We engaged with charities and voluntary organisations across the country, gathered evidence of the potential impact and made the case directly to government.
The concerns we heard when we spoke to our members were significant. We:
It was a sector-wide effort that showed the value of collective action and a united voice. Our campaign brought these concerns into the debate and the consultation closed in February 2026.
Yesterday, the government confirmed that volunteering will not be used to reduce settlement periods under the new earned settlement model.
Volunteering is built on freedom, choice and mutual benefit. It’s about people giving their time because they want to make a difference.
Linking it to settlement risked:
It also risked excluding people who face barriers to volunteering, whether through disability, caring responsibilities, work or other circumstances. It could have also introduced complex safeguarding and verification challenges for organisations already under considerable pressure.
The Home Office explicitly referenced the concerns raised by voluntary sector organisations as playing a role in its decision making, including safeguarding, verification and the risk of vulnerable people being pressured into unpaid activity.
This is an important policy win for us, for our members and for the wider voluntary sector. It demonstrates the power of collective action, and the power of our community.
More importantly, it’s a win for the principle at the heart of volunteering: giving your time should always be a free choice.
It’s a reminder of why an independent, representative voice for civil society matters.
Policy decisions, even those made with the best of intentions, can have profound consequences for charities, volunteers and the communities they serve. Bringing the sector’s experience and evidence into those decisions can make a real difference.
But more needs to be done to unlock the full potential of volunteering.
We know it can play an extraordinary role in building connection, belonging and trust. But the answer is to remove the barriers that prevent people from volunteering, not to make volunteering a condition of something else.
We’ll continue to work constructively with government to champion volunteering, strengthen civil society and ensure that the contribution people make to their communities is recognised and valued.
For now, this is a moment to celebrate.
