Two thirds of volunteering organisations don't fully understand who must register with the Vetting and Barring Scheme

Volunteering England's has conducted research on 94 organisations and found that only 33% of respondents said that they 'fully understood' which of their volunteers would need to be registered with the authority.

27% of organisations surveyed also said they weren't sure whether the schemem would mean that some of their activities would have to be stopped or cancelled.

56% of respondents thought the overall impact of the scheme would be 'increased bureaucracy, and 52% believed that the scheme would make it 'harder to recruit volunteers'.

Volunteering England said that some organisations expressed concern that volunteers will simply refuse to register with the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA), with one organisation commenting:

'Many of our volunteers are older people and may see the Vetting and Barring scheme introduction as a watershed moment to retire from their volunteering. This would affect many of our day services which are heavily reliant on volunteers'.

Mike locke, Director of Public Affairs for Volunteering England believes: 'these results are alarming. Many organisations are confused about how the Vetting and Barring scheme will affect them when it is introduced in this summers. Their lack of understanding risks creating inaccurate perceptions of the scheme. A third of those surveyed said that they would ensure all of their volunteers were registered with the scheme, even though blanket registration will be unnecessary for most organisations. We still believe the Vetting and Barring Scheme can in some ways improve volunteering organisations' work with children and vulnerable adults, but the ISA must not understand how the scheme will affect them'.

Volunteering England is the national volunteering development agency for England, committed to supporting, enabling and celebrating volunteering in all its diversity. Volunteering England has been working in consultation with the ISA over the new Vetting and Barring Scheme and commissioned this latest survey after concerns were voiced by their members over the imprementation of the scheme.