Introduction

This chapter draws on an evaluation of a Neighbourhood Care Scheme in Brighton and Hove. It presents a unique example of community and community spirit and demonstrates how volunteering can flourish in such a way that everyone benefits. Since 1998 the scheme has grown from 23 users and seven volunteers to involve over 300 users and 126 volunteers, representing in 2005–06 a total of over 2,812 visits and 5,098 volunteer hours. This scheme fits well with the philosophy of the White Paper Our Health, Our Care, Our Say: A New Direction for Community Services (DH, 2006), which calls for a more prominent role for the community and voluntary sectors in the delivery of social care.

The chapter questions, however, the capacity of volunteers to deliver such care on a consistent and long-term basis.

Background

The government has long recognised the important contribution the voluntary sector makes towards citizenship as a form of responsibility for others. As Charles Clarke pointed out when he was Home Secretary, ‘The voluntary and community sector is the invisible glue that holds society together, builds social capital and empowers individuals to make a difference in people's lives’ (ChangeUp and ChangeAhead, 2006). It is the ability of the community and voluntary sector to harness social capital within a network that helps create social cohesion. As Putman (2000, p 19) argues, ‘social capital’ calls attention to the fact that civic virtue is most powerful when embedded in a sense network of reciprocal social relations’. Perhaps because of the local nature of the community and voluntary sector it is in a unique position to create networks of trust that bind communities together and create opportunities for cooperative action (Cohen and Prusak, 2001, p 4). The community and voluntary sector is able to act flexibly and it is this that creates its strength by responding directly to the diversity of the community (Bowers et al, 2006).

As this chapter shows, the Neighbourhood Care Scheme (NCS) is well placed to create the opportunities necessary for people to volunteer and to provide a service that supports people within the community and helps in the fight against social exclusion. Perhaps because of its community ownership the scheme has the flexibility and also the concern of a small organisation; as one volunteer respondent suggested, ‘it is homely’.