Frequently Asked Questions

Almost certainly. All packs are designed to be used across a broad range of volunteer-involving organisations — charities, NHS trusts, housing associations, CVS bodies, community groups, charity retail, and more. The case studies and scenario exercises cover a wide cross-section of volunteer roles and service users.

The PowerPoint and (where available) Word files are fully editable, so you can adapt examples, swap in your organisation’s name and branding, and tailor scenarios to your specific context. If you need case studies for a particular specialism, get in touch — we have a broader bank of material we can direct you to.

Completely. We know from experience that our packs are used in many different ways. The resources should become your resource — not a prescriptive regime you have to follow exactly.

Most activities can be delivered as standalone sessions and work well as additions to support meetings, team briefings, or as a focused 20-minute filler in a longer agenda. You can mix and match activities from different packs to create a fully customised training session around a specific theme or need. The self-study versions also allow volunteers to work through material independently if group delivery isn’t possible on a given week.

Yes, within the terms of your licence. All packs are copyright and we ask you to respect the licence terms, but for active licence holders the permitted uses are generous.

You can print and photocopy any material from the packs for use within your own organisation for each training session you deliver. Handout sheets can be printed in as many copies as you need for participants. What you should not do is transfer copies to other organisations for their use — each organisation needs its own licence.

For full details on what your licence permits and what it doesn’t, see the Terms & Conditions.

No — the packs are not accredited qualifications. Formal accreditation typically requires a much longer learning programme (usually 30+ guided hours) with assessment and external verification, which is beyond the scope of what these resources are designed to deliver.

The packs fulfil a different but equally important need: high-quality, practical, first-step training that equips volunteers for their roles quickly and effectively. They are an excellent foundation for volunteers who later wish to pursue accredited training, and can be used to evidence prior learning and development. If you need information about accredited training pathways, contact us and we can point you in the right direction.

We firmly believe all volunteers need proper induction training plus any topic-specific training relevant to their role. For a small organisation building its training programme from scratch, we would recommend starting with:

• An Introduction to Working with the Organisation — the foundation for every volunteer’s induction
• Working Safely — essential from day one in any role
• Confidentiality — critical for anyone working with people or personal information
• Dealing with Difficult Behaviour — practical and immediately applicable

Those four packs would give you everything you need for a solid initial training programme. For coordinators who are new in post, First Steps to Successful Volunteer Management would also be an early priority, alongside the relevant toolkits.

Yes. You can download a complete free training pack from our Free Resources page — no payment, no subscription required. The free pack is a full pack in the standard library format, not an edited or cut-down sample, so you can properly assess the quality, depth, and style before making any decision.

We also provide a number of free guides covering key areas of volunteer management. All are available from the Free Resources page.

Immediately. Access is granted as soon as payment is confirmed — you can download your first pack within minutes of subscribing. There is no setup, no onboarding call, and no waiting period. Most coordinators are ready to deliver their first session within an hour of downloading their chosen pack.

You will also receive an email with direct links to your materials and portal access. If you have any difficulties, the support team is on hand to help.

Everything you have downloaded during your licence year is yours to keep permanently. You retain every pack, toolkit, and workbook you have downloaded and can continue to use them within your organisation indefinitely.

What renewing provides is continued access to the online learning portal, any new packs released after your renewal date, and updated versions of existing packs reflecting changes in UK legislation or sector practice. As the law and guidance evolve, only licence holders have access to the current versions.

Unlimited. There are no per-volunteer fees and no restriction on how many volunteers you train using the materials. You can run the same session once or a hundred times; you can train five volunteers or five hundred — the licence covers all of it.

The facilitator seat limit (∼10 for the Single Organisation Licence) applies only to internal staff who access the learning portal directly. It does not restrict the number of volunteers you can train in sessions, remotely, or through self-study materials.

Yes. All licence holders can adapt content for local context — add your organisation’s name and logo to presentations, replace generic examples with ones relevant to your service area, and tailor scenario exercises to reflect your volunteers’ actual experiences.

All licences include editable PowerPoint files. Editable Word file versions for deeper structural customisation are available with the Network / Umbrella Licence. All licences permit internal use and adaptation — materials may not be redistributed externally, resold, or shared with other organisations.

Yes — the Network / Umbrella Licence is specifically designed for CVS bodies, national networks, and umbrella organisations that want to provide access to multiple independent member organisations under a single agreement.

It includes governance reporting, bespoke branding on materials, central oversight capability, and tools not available on single licences. Pricing is tailored to your network’s scale. Contact us to discuss your structure and get a proposal.

Yes — individual packs are available as one-off purchases at £50 per pack. These are static PDF downloads; they do not include portal access or future updates, but contain the same content as the library version at the time of purchase.

For context: the full library licence at £295 gives you all 54+ packs, which works out at under £6 per pack. For organisations running more than a handful of training sessions a year, the licence is significantly better value — and you also get the toolkits, workbooks, workshops, and year-round updates that aren’t available on single-pack purchases. Browse all available packs →

Yes. All packs containing content that may be affected by UK legislation, sector guidance, or significant research developments are monitored and updated when relevant changes occur. Updates are released to active subscribers at no extra cost throughout the licence year.

This is one of the most important reasons to maintain an active licence. Packs downloaded in a previous licence year may no longer reflect current law or best practice — the portal always holds the most current version. The 2026 edition has been comprehensively updated to reflect the Worker Protection Act 2023, revised safeguarding guidance, updated UK GDPR practice, and current NCVO research.

Yes. All materials are designed to support in-person, hybrid, and fully remote delivery. Trainer notes include guidance on virtual facilitation, activities are structured to work via screen share, and self-study workbooks allow volunteers to complete learning independently at their own pace.

For online delivery, you can share slides via Zoom, Teams, or any video platform, distribute handouts as PDFs in advance, and run activities in breakout rooms or via shared documents. The format is entirely flexible.

Most packs are designed to fill a two to three hour session, though timing varies by pack. Each trainer guide includes suggested timings for every activity, and most are modular enough to be split across two shorter sessions if needed.

Individual activities within a pack typically run from 15 to 45 minutes each, so it is straightforward to use a single activity as a quick team meeting addition without committing to a full session. The trainer notes will always make the timing expectations clear.

Every pack includes a self-study version specifically for this situation. The self-study materials allow volunteers to work through the content independently — reading, reflecting, and completing activities at their own pace, without needing a facilitator present.

Self-study versions are particularly useful for volunteers who work remotely, join mid-programme, have caring responsibilities that limit availability, or simply prefer to learn independently. The content is identical to the group version; only the facilitated activities are restructured for individual completion.

Subscribe via our website through the secure payment portal — the process takes under five minutes. Once payment is confirmed, access to your licence is granted immediately. You will receive an email with direct links to your materials and login details for the learning portal.

Materials can be downloaded from the course area within your account straightaway. If you have any issues at any point, contact us and we will resolve them promptly.

Yes — use the code VOLUNTEER26 at checkout for 10% off your first year’s licence. The code can be applied to any licence tier.

From year two onwards, renewing subscribers automatically receive approximately 35% off the first-year price as a loyalty discount — so a Single Organisation Licence renews at around £195 rather than £295.

Yes. If your organisation requires a formal invoice or needs to pay via purchase order rather than card, contact us and we will arrange this for you. Many NHS trusts, councils, and larger charities use this route and we are well used to supporting procurement processes.