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Leading the Way

1. The Scottish Executive greatly welcomes the Dalgleish Report. In 2004 we launched our broader strategy on volunteering, of which environmental volunteering is but a part. That strategy has given an excellent framework for encouraging volunteering and it is now beginning to yield useful results. However a special initiative on environmental volunteering, recognising its distinctive features, is desirable and we believe that the Executive should take the lead. We believe that such an approach will further develop the environmental good citizenship that we want to see become embedded within Scotland in all age groups and in all geographical areas of Scotland. We aim to be the best small country in the world in standing up for environmental justice both within the country and promoting this ideal elsewhere. Encouraging people to take up or do more environmental volunteering will play a crucial part in developing an approach to environmental citizenship that achieves worldwide recognition.

2. The Dalgleish Report notes the close involvement which Ministers and officials have had for some years with environmental volunteering. Over the last 3 years, the Executive has, through the Community Environmental Renewal Scheme ( CERS), supported many local community initiatives to help those areas affected by quarrying. Many of these projects have not only been generated by the desire of local people to improve their areas but have included volunteering activity by community members. In addition some CERS Grants have been made to bodies such as the RSPB which operate across Scotland and are some of the major promoters of volunteering on the environment. Similarly, our Sustainable Action Fund has assisted community-based volunteering projects, for example in Ferguslie Park in Paisley and in East Kilbride, to restore local greenspace to areas which can support improved biodiversity and improved access. In recent months we have also been able to assist Greenspace Scotland, the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers ( BTCV) and Community Service Volunteers ( CSV) with projects which support volunteering. A particular emphasis in the projects has been our desire to bring into volunteering people who are not normally thought of as the most likely to participate in such environmental initiatives. These include those from more deprived communities, the young and asylum seekers.

3. While the Scottish Executive has supported a significant number and range of individual environmental volunteering projects, the Dalgleish Report rightly suggests a different and broader approach to the issue. We can improve the quality and quantity of environmental volunteering in Scotland if we develop a more strategic framework for environmental volunteering. That means a clearer statement of purpose and a clear set of actions which could be followed to ensure a better record on environmental volunteering in Scotland. However Scottish Executive leadership needs support from all relevant government and non-government organisations. To be successful the voluntary bodies must preserve their own ideals, expertise, commitment and, above all, independence from Government. The way forward is through a partnership between Government and voluntary bodies, and one where intervention by the Executive should only be made where we can genuinely add value, where we can make a difference.

4. In the light of this, it would not, for example, be appropriate for Government to become the only or, indeed, the main financial supporter of environmental volunteering. On the other hand it would be entirely appropriate for the Executive to consider how it spends its budgets and whether we can achieve our environmental and our volunteering objectives by spending our budgets in a different way and using environmental volunteering to derive best value from the funds expended. In that regard our involvement needs to go beyond the support of individual projects to the support of a wider culture of environmental volunteering, where the Executive makes progress with others where progress would not be possible without us. The Dalgleish Report states that it is crucial that the Executive takes a clear leadership role in this area and help deliver a coherent and organised response from the public sector as a whole. We agree that we can and should try to make a difference.

5. In our Volunteering Strategy in 2004 we addressed the issue "Dismantling the Barriers to Volunteering". The strategy recognised that the barriers to entry into volunteering were not straightforward. While significant numbers of people do come forward to do volunteer work, there were particular difficulties in reaching certain groups, groups which arguably could benefit most from the volunteering experience. While it may well be the case that many of the barriers to volunteering are the same in the environmental sector as for others, we are also aware that there may be important differences. For example, is there a mismatch between those areas of Scotland where volunteering can bring the greatest benefit to our environment and the areas in which most potential volunteers live? Is there a problem in identifying and implementing environmental volunteering opportunities where people live or are there obstacles for those environmental bodies which have less experience of operating in towns and cities in identifying suitable projects to sponsor? Equally, is environmental volunteering perceived by the young and the unemployed and the socially excluded as a particularly "middle class" form of volunteering which they would require very special reasons for taking up? Similarly, is interest in environmental volunteering seen as a particularly "white" concern which puts off potential volunteers from the ethnic minorities? If the answers to any of these questions reveal concerns, then there may be a role for the Executive in trying to help resolve them.

6. At present each environmental volunteering organisation promotes its own opportunities for volunteering and there are some initiatives in which these bodies come together to promote the general concept of environmental volunteering. Are these efforts reaching all the targets including "difficult to reach" groups. Is this a matter in which the Executive's involvement could be especially helpful?

7. It is clear that there is a broad and challenging agenda here. It is right that the Executive should take the lead in trying to answer some of these difficult questions. To begin with, we will establish an Implementation Group to investigate these matters further. It will be chaired by a senior official from the Environment Group and representatives of other interests in the Executive, other public bodies in the environment field, local authorities (via COSLA and the Sustainable Development Network), those NGOs which provide volunteering opportunities and representatives of business will be invited to participate. The work envisaged for this Implementation Group is an essential prerequisite to some of the decisions on what exactly the Executive can and should do to help promote environmental volunteering in a way which ensures that opportunities are increased and that more people take advantage of them to the benefit both of the volunteer and Scotland's environment. We want to move ahead quickly. The Implementation Group will produce its report by the end of May to allow those forming the Government after the elections earlier that month the opportunity to consider whether they wish to promote environmental volunteering as part of their core programme and, if so, where that intervention can have most effect.

8. The Dalgleish Report asks that we should produce a short statement of policy on environmental volunteering and also review the roles and responsibilities of public and publicly funded organisations (including local authorities) in the environmental volunteering sector. We recognise that such a statement of policy is desirable but it will be most useful when informed by the further work described above. This work will therefore be informed by the work of the Implementation Group when it is completed and Ministers have had a chance to consider its conclusions. While proceeding on this work, we note that there are many of the recommendations in the Dalgleish Report on which action can be taken now and, as will be seen from the rest of this paper, on which we are recommending that we move forward speedily.

Co-ordination and Partnerships

9. We agree that work on environmental volunteering should be outcome-based. We also recognise that the main creators of such outcomes are inevitably those existing players in the field. It is their priorities, ambitions and organisational arrangements which have created the volunteering world and the outcomes that we have today. It is of course possible that the involvement of the Scottish Executive will result in some changes in outcomes - and we talk later on in this paper about the future relationship between outcomes and funding arrangements - but environmental volunteering organisations are at the heart of any work on volunteering and it is in our view important that they take a central role in helping to define key outcomes. This may involve them in a review of their existing objectives to consider how these might in future be expressed and delivered in outcome terms. They could then engage with the Executive to determine how these outcomes related to the environmental and other priorities of the Executive.

10. We need clarity of purpose if we are to spread environmental volunteering across Scotland. Indeed, it should be part of the thinking and planning that thought is given to the role and purpose of all in the sector and whether this competes and duplicates with the work of others. If there is duplication, the result may be confusion in the minds of potential volunteers and an inefficient use of available resources. That contemplative exercise ought then to lead naturally to the sector considering what it is good at and what it is not, and also who it might need to link up with in order to work more strongly together.

11. This thinking should not be restricted to the voluntary sector. The Dalgleish Report advocates a review of the future roles and responsibilities of public bodies and the publicly funded organisations, including the local authorities. It is important that the voluntary sector is assisted by public bodies which have a clear purpose and thus avoid duplication. The Implementation Group remit will include the consideration of whether any changes are needed in the roles of public sector bodies.

12. The Environment Group within the Scottish Executive will provide the lead at the strategic level in seeking to move this all forward but the other public sector bodies and the voluntary organisations will be asked to consider how their own working and operational arrangements and their professional relationships between one another might be strengthened to facilitate greater working in partnership. It is also incumbent on all concerned to achieve the best distribution of, and productive return for, the public investment of funds. Like any partnership, this will require a genuine commitment to working together, with genuine attempts to find a common purpose and may involve some compromise.

13. If our aim to attract more people into environmental volunteering finds support and, within that, the particular aim to engage people from those groups and backgrounds not currently represented, then all bodies and organisations working in the field need to consider what presently fails to attract or turns people away. What are the barriers that need to be removed, the mindsets that need to be re-positioned and the paths that need to be smoothed? Are we too cosy and familiar with what we currently do, with our standard and proven approaches, and with our traditional sources of volunteer support?

14. If we are serious about mining new seams, ploughing new furrows and trawling new waters, we will need to accept that this could be a lengthy process. Resources, both financial and in manpower terms, may have to be diverted from current projects and programmes into others specifically tailored and targeted towards engaging with those presently excluded, and with an appreciation that there might not be an early return on the re-investment. Recognition of this points again to the need for the pooling of resources and the formation of new strategic partnerships with a focus on delivery of agreed outcomes.

The role of local authorities

15. Local authorities have a pivotal role to play with their overall responsibilities for education, communities, the environment and certain aspects of health at the local level. They not only have certain statutory obligations to fulfil but they are also obviously on the ground in each area of Scotland. They are commissioners of projects to improve the local environment and, of course, are a source of funding for bodies that are involved in these projects. Most authorities engage with the voluntary sector through community planning partnerships ( CPPs) where the aim is to generate genuine community involvement. They should consider how these strategic partnerships at local level might be strengthened to further support environmental volunteering in general and also to involve more of the local people. The aim should be to translate strategy from the CPPs into delivery on the ground. In turn, participation in delivery can help strengthen the strategic involvement at the grass roots.

16. As Jane Dalgleish indicates in her report, the local authorities have power, in terms of Section 20 of the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003: "To do anything which it considers is likely to promote or improve the well-being of (a) its area and persons within that area; or (b) either of those." Statutory Guidance on the "Power to Advance Well-Being" issued to local authorities in April 2004 under section 21 of the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003. No specific mention was made in that guidance to environmental volunteering but there were references to encouraging participation and community capacity building, improving and conserving the quality of the local environment and protecting, enhancing and promoting biodiversity. Steps to encourage and support environmental volunteering would certainly fit well with these objectives and could feature in any further non-statutory guidance that could issue to authorities, possibly following the Scottish Executive review.

Education

17. The local authorities currently participate in the work being led by Communities Scotland (Learning Connections) on community learning and development and in setting standards for community engagement. The National Standards for community engagement set out good practice in engagement processes which apply to a range of settings, including environmental issues. We understand that some environmental organisations are well aware of the standards and promote them through their networks.

18. The responsibility of local authorities for school education can also be a vital asset in promoting long-term volunteering. The school system can introduce pupils to the benefits and challenges of volunteering and inspire them to continue an interest in later life. Good progress is already being made; Scotland is leading the way in Europe through our high levels of participation in the "eco-schools" initiative. Participation in the BTCV Green Gymä initiatives in schools also has considerable potential both to raise environmental awareness and also to help tackle the problem of children taking insufficient exercise and the associated issue of obesity. Not all school pupils involved in such initiatives will go on to become environmental volunteers but the establishment of this as a specific objective by local authorities may yield useful long-term results. For those who have left school, environmental volunteering may not only provide an opportunity for enjoyment and personal fulfilment, it may also give an insight into wider environmental challenges such as the threat of climate change. Volunteers may change their way of living to make a personal contribution to helping combat such challenges and by becoming better environmental citizens.

The role of the voluntary organisations

19. At paragraph 10 above we touch on the VFM aspects of the voluntary organisations working together through co-ordination and co-operation and in seeking to avoid duplication. Irrespective of any engagement with the Executive, the local authorities and other public bodies - the voluntary sector itself should consider how it can work in closer partnership, and in a coherent, co-ordinated and strategic manner. What can appear to be sensible arrangements to those with a detailed knowledge of the environmental volunteering world may not always appear quite so straightforward to the interested outsider keen to volunteer but intimated by a sea of organisations and acronyms. Potential volunteers may feel that they are alone in a crowded landscape of organisations which they do not know or understand. This could adversely affect the numbers coming forward and the voluntary sector needs to consider whether the landscape can be cleared to help achieve the objectives we all seek. While the concept of a "one-stop shop" for environmental volunteering might, perhaps, prove a little too ambitious for delivery at this stage, the voluntary sector should at least consider whether more can be done to ensure that an enquiring potential volunteer can be directed to those which best suit his/her interests and requirements. One possibility is to build on work with the existing Volunteer Centre network. The website www.volunteerscotland.org.uk provides a search function for volunteering opportunities and a search can be narrowed both by area and by interest (including environment).

20. Jane Dalgleish suggested that a strengthened FEVA (Forum for Environmental Volunteering Associations), might present an appropriate discussion forum, and that among the opportunities for partnership might be co-operative work on site management and development. SNH are prepared to provide additional support to FEVA and other public agencies would, we expect, also be on call to assist with this, where thought useful and appropriate. We ask FEVA to consider its possible future role especially in the light of the work undertaken by the Implementation Group.

21. Jane Dalgleish also envisaged that Volunteer Development Scotland ( VDS), the Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations ( SCVO), the environmental NGOs and the Volunteer Centres should consider together how, through better linkages, to maximise the opportunities for environmental volunteering. Scottish Environmental LINK would also have a contribution to offer on this. We endorse this approach.

22. VDS is particularly well-placed for this task since it is a voluntary body with strong links with local government agencies. It supports the work of the Volunteer Centre Network Scotland across all 32 local authority areas. The Volunteer Centres act as the gateway to volunteering at a grassroots level. The partnership between VDS and the Volunteer Centres is supported by the Scottish Executive to develop and support volunteering development and opportunities, particularly through the implementation of the Scottish Executive's Volunteering Strategy (2004).

Funding

23. The Dalgleish Report rightly points out the problems involved in small project funding and recommends the funding of strategic programmes of work with agreed outcomes. We accept this recommendation. There is now a wider movement towards the setting of outcomes-based objectives in return for the provision of funding and so any objectives set for environmental volunteering should be broadly consistent with those applying elsewhere.

24. In recent months the Executive has been reviewing the range of funds available to support community environmental regeneration. This review has revealed that the large number of such funds both within and outwith the Executive, and with subtly different objectives, are often confusing to potential grant applicants and it is doubtful whether the division of available monies into such a number of discrete components offers either efficiency or effectiveness.

25. Accordingly we have made the first steps to move towards greater consolidation and clarity. We are setting up a new Environmental Justice Fund which, in addition to the new funds made available, will subsume the existing Community Environmental Renewal Grants and Sustainable Action Grants into one scheme. While the different components of the new grants scheme will retain some of their original characteristics, it will offer much greater synergy than existed before. These schemes will be promoted as a single entity and advice will be offered on the best ways of applying. We believe that this initiative is an important first step in meeting the terms of Jane Dalgleish's recommendations.

26. However, we are clear that it is only a first step. We believe that, in general, it is not the role of the Executive to directly support small community projects aiding local environmental regeneration. The Executive often does not have the necessary local knowledge to judge between the priorities to be attached to competing bids from different areas nor knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of local voluntary groups submitting the bid. It is right therefore that the Executive should move in the longer term yet further from the direct funding of local projects towards a more strategic approach. This would involve the allocation of funds to a set of outcomes set at either national level or that of a large region and inviting bids. There would also be an onus placed on applicant bodies to come forward with proposals on measurable outcomes. For example, delivery of innovative ways of attracting priority groups to environmental volunteering could be one way of attracting outcomes based funding.

27. We envisage that these outcomes should not be only environmental but would take full account of other Scottish Executive cross-cutting priorities such as social justice, equalities, lifelong learning and volunteering. Bids to manage the funds to achieve the objectives would be sought and it is most likely that the strongest bids would involve consortia able to bring specialist expertise in the specific topics covered by the outcomes. The nature of the individual projects assisted by our grant schemes is such that it would not be appropriate to insist that all had an environmental volunteering component. For example some projects will involve construction work where it is essential for public safety that work is carried out by specialist staff. However we do believe that it would be appropriate to include an environmental volunteering outcome for these grant schemes. This would mean that the schemes would be obliged to deliver specific volunteering outcomes in total and that under certain circumstances certain projects could be favoured because they included volunteering.

28. The level of our ambition here will depend to some extent on the amount of funds which are allocated to environmental regeneration projects. Shortly after the May 2007 elections the Scottish Executive will conduct its next Spending Review and that will give Scottish Ministers the opportunity to decide the sums of money they wish to allocate to environmental regeneration. 29. This new approach will present challenges both for the Executive and for the voluntary sector. Many organisations in the voluntary sector do not normally work in concert with other similar bodies. A move towards packaging the Executive's environmental expenditure into larger outcome-based units will inevitably mean that some environmental bodies will have to work in concert with similar other bodies and others from outwith the sector. This will be necessary to ensure the broad range of skills required to deliver the outcomes.

30. We also agree that environmental volunteering funders should adopt a standard approach to the collection of information by delivery organisations to enable better identification of trends. We shall seek to identify the key information sets in consultation with other providers and will consider this within the work of the Implementation Group and also within FEVA.

Training

31. Jane Dalgleish rightly highlighted the importance that the availability of proper and tailored training provision, both for volunteers and the managers of volunteers would play for the further development of environmental volunteering. She urged that this should be given early priority and recommended that SNH should take a lead role in discussions, possibly within FEVA, around the co-ordination of appropriate training provision that would be of an accepted and universally recognised standard She identified bodies such as VDS, Lantra (the Sector Skills Council for the Environmental and Land-based Sector), and the other various training providers as potential partners in these discussions. Communities Scotland may have a role in taking forward discussions on a competency framework given their role in developing a skills framework for regeneration and the applicability of this and work related to capacity building organisations and communities.

32. Among the particular aspects that we would expect to be covered in these discussions are:-

• the commissioning of a skills audit, including an audit of skills shortages among environment and countryside employers, and the production of competency frameworks for volunteer managers.
• accreditation and professional recognition for environmental volunteer managers. VDS may have a role to play here. (It would appear to be more practical to graft any emerging professional organisation for volunteer managers onto an appropriate existing organisational structure rather than create - and finance - an entirely new one.)
• possible application of the "Investing in Volunteers" quality standard across the sector to establish good practice in volunteer management. VDS are responsible for promoting "Investing in Volunteers" in Scotland.
• the impact on environmental volunteering of health and safety, risk management and other occupational standards obligations because of the particular nature of the work that volunteers undertake (which affects the supervision role of volunteer managers).
• -the cost implications, particularly for the smaller-scale voluntary organisations, of a more robust training operation, and also the associated issue of compliance with statutory obligations.

Networking

33. The Dalgleish Report notes the need for better networking among and between the public and voluntary sector bodies involved. It is clear that if we are to make progress in this endeavour the main participants need to work together more closely. An essential first step is for all concerned to meet more productively to understand each other's perspectives, their ambitions and the difficulties they face. The Report recommends that SNH should support FEVA in assisting such networking. We do not believe that this support need necessarily be principally financial; the best assistance can be advice and logistical support. We also support Jane Dalgleish's further recommendation that participation in FEVA from its representative bodies should be at senior level to ensure organisational buy-in. FEVA is currently reviewing its remit and its future so this appears to be an appropriate time to reflect on the networking issue. Scottish Environmental LINK should also be involved in encouraging the promotion of greater networking.

34. Community groups embarking on local environmental improvement projects can understandably find the process difficult, indeed intimidating. They may have a good idea but how do they turn it into a firm plan? How do they organise themselves? Where do they get financial support? Support is available from networks such as CLAN (Community Local Action Network), managed by BTCV, and also from Forward Scotland Community Webnet. Local groups may see local authorities as their first point of contact and it will be important that local authorities are able not only to provide their own best advice but also to direct community volunteers to CLAN and Community Webnet. We shall work with BTCV and Forward Scotland to assess whether more needs to be done to promote these useful initiatives and ensure continuity.

Corporate Volunteering

35. We endorse Jane Dalgleish's views that companies and others in the private sector should be encouraged and facilitated to allow members of their workforce - and management - to take part in environmental volunteering projects, especially where these are situated within their surrounding localities. Through regular participation, what might start off from a perspective of addressing a corporate social responsibility obligation would hopefully come to be regarded as a valued mainstream associated activity. Using its links to employers, Scottish Business in the Community plays a very active role in co-ordinating the provision of advice and support to voluntary organisations on business related issues and progressing projects effectively and efficiently. This is a particularly good example for others to follow. There might also be opportunities for the business sector and the voluntary organisations to consider the prospects for establishing an arrangement similar to that currently administered by Arts and Business Scotland where businesses and arts organisations come together to create partnerships to benefit themselves and the community at large. Activities include sponsorship of events and projects, secondments and placements, access to training and the exchange of ideas, skills and experiences.

36. We also accept the expectation that the Scottish Executive, its Agencies and NDPBs should lead by example in this and have already taken significant steps to increase the numbers of our staff involved in volunteering. Since 2004-05 we have actively engaged in Employer Supported Volunteering by:

• promotion of the Executive's policy which allows staff one day's paid leave to volunteer, with additional days at line manager's discretion;
• development of systems to monitor uptake of paid leave for volunteering throughout the lifetime of the Volunteering Strategy;
• promotion of volunteering opportunities through regular articles in in-house newsletters and magazines; and
• civil servant participation in "Make A Difference Day".

Also, the Executive currently has an arrangement with Project Scotland, whereby we undertake to provide 13 week (minimum) placements for volunteers identified by Project Scotland. The volunteering placement must be non-core and add value to the role or area in the placement takes place. Placements are on a 30-hour per week basis and volunteers receive a subsistence allowance of £55, which is funded by Project Scotland, and paid direct into their bank accounts on a weekly basis. Placements are already running within a number of Departments. Project Scotland also currently places volunteers with the Forestry Commission for Scotland. This could be extended and recommendations put to the Agencies and NDPBs etc that they might follow suit. Externally, there is an opportunity for Project Scotland to continue to seek to extend the numbers of employers participating in similar arrangements through liaison with employers' representative organisations such as Scottish Business in the Community.

37. Of course, there is also significant scope for the extension of part-time volunteering in this area. A cohesive volunteering policy covering both inward and outward volunteering for the Scottish Executive and associated agencies would be a good way to ensure clarity and begin to build on relationships with Volunteer Centres and the part-time volunteering programme for young people, MV Awards.

Development and Employability

38. We noted what the Dalgleish Report had to say about how environmental volunteering might help foster individual development, and to the extent that it might enhance opportunities for entry to employment. Linking volunteering and employability is a complex issue and one where it will be difficult to promise much, certainly in the early stages of deploying the new strategy and particularly until after any tailored training and associated accreditation processes are up and running. The commissioning of a research exercise to track the development of employability skills gained through volunteering through to a first, or improved, job might be something that the Implementation Group could consider in discussion with the Executive's Environment Analytical Services Division. Project Scotland, along with BTCV and other bodies - public, private and voluntary - who are themselves employers in the environmental and/or countryside sectors might be well placed to examine the possibilities here, in consultation with groups representative of employers and possibly also involving ETLLD's Transitions to Work Division and Business Interest and Improving Regulation Division.

Research

39. The Dalgleish Report commented on the comparative dearth of research material on environmental volunteering, particularly in respect of the social and economic value that it delivers and recommended that work might be commissioned to provide some relevant data to inform the position.

40. The Environment Analytical Services Division within the Environment Group, with input from ASD Social Justice (Social Inclusion), would lead on any study of environmental volunteering, including seeking any references to the value of environmental volunteering in economic terms. In considering the way forward on this they would intend in the first instance to discuss the research exercises into volunteering that SNH and Forestry Commission Scotland have recently been engaged in and then to consider how these might be built on. A study of the impacts of environmental volunteering in developing community activity and community cohesion may also be an option. A particular avenue that might be explored is what other countries may have done on environmental volunteering and whether there is anything particularly interesting that they have done in overcoming the barriers to volunteering that we could pick up on. They may also have defined environmental volunteering in various ways, and perhaps described how they have aligned and/or targeted their policies to match.

Monitoring and Statistics

41. Monitoring, evaluation and ongoing policy development is one of the 4 strands of the Scottish Executive Volunteering Policy. At a local level, effective monitoring and evaluation supports organisations in improving the volunteering experience and in reducing barriers - finding ways to involve more people from the harder to reach groups. This important work is supported at a national level by our partner organisation Volunteer Development Scotland ( VDS) through the provision of training and support in the use of the Volunteering Impact Assessment Toolkit. This will continue.

42. We need to measure the success of our role in environmental volunteering. As part of our biodiversity strategy we have statistics collected by SNH on the number of environmental volunteers and the hours they work as well as the specific work they do. Further indicators may be provided by the Scottish Household Survey which features a section that seeks a range of details on volunteering activity. However, we will discuss with FEVA and with the Environment Analytical Services Division whether there is any other suitable data available or whether anything more specific might need to be commissioned.

The Wider Picture

43. One issue we want to explore with experts in volunteering and perhaps through research is whether environmental volunteering appeals disproportionately to some age groups particularly the young and whether therefore such volunteering can be the entry point to a lifetime of volunteering across a broad range of sectors. If early entry to environmental volunteering on the environment is notably high, there is an important opportunity for the sector and also the responsibility of ensuring that the volunteering experience is good. If it is, the individual may be more encouraged to take on other volunteering opportunities later in life e.g. running sports teams involving their children. If the environmental volunteering sector can perform even better it could have the effect of improving Scotland's record in volunteering as a whole.

Conclusion

44. The Dalgleish Report provides a way forward to further develop environmental volunteering in Scotland. The Scottish Executive wants to play its part and help where it can. However the job will require the work of many organisations and the enthusiasm of thousands of individuals co-operating in this important task. We look forward to their help and guidance. Together we can make a difference

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