Volunteering

The details of two referees must be provided on your application form. Both referees must return their references to our Volunteering Office team within four weeks. Separate references will need to be provided for each person in your household for safer recruitment purposes.

We only ask for character references, so our recommendations are (but not limited to) friends, colleagues and neighbours - but if you’d like to include professional ones from educators or employers, this is fine too. However, we cannot accept referees that live with you, are related to you and those that have known you for less than two years.

Obtaining references is a safer recruitment practice; it supports us to gather a well-rounded view of anyone applying to be part of the Guide Dogs community - As our volunteers often come into contact with vulnerable people, our dogs, and the public, we have to do our due diligence to protect others from harm by ensuring the right people are representing us.

Sometimes our roles (and our dogs!) have certain requirements that people can’t meet. If this is the case for you, we will provide you with clear reasons as to why and if suitable, we can discuss other roles that might be a better fit.

There will be a unique answer every role and individual – some roles have criteria that must be met for the welfare and development of our dogs and puppies. Regardless of the reason, it will be explained to you clearly and sensitively.

Some of our roles require an enhanced level disclosure check to be completed (or PVG in Scotland). These checks form part of our safer recruitment practices and are required for staff or volunteers working with vulnerable groups in certain roles. If this is a requirement of the role it will be stated on the role description.

After application, you will be sent a link to a form to complete which gives you the opportunity to disclose any unspent/non-filtered convictions and give your consent to do the required check.

If you make any disclosures that were not required (e.g. if they are spent), we will not use this information as part of our recruitment process.

We recommend that you read the appropriate guidance prior to making any disclosures:

• England and Wales: NACRO criminal records guidance and Do I need to Disclose?

• Scotland: Offences that must be disclosed

• Northern Ireland: Access NI criminal disclosure checks (Information disclosed in a criminal record check)

To supply you with a volunteering ID badge. We value safety and security during volunteering activities so our volunteers being easily identifiable to the public and the public having confidence that our volunteers are who they claim to be is crucial.

We also like to think it promotes a sense of belonging and confidence in our volunteers!

We open our booking calendars 20 days ahead of time, so there will likely be a timeslot to suit you but if you’re struggling, please contact our Volunteering Care team to discuss options on VolunteeringCareCoordinators@guidedogs.org.uk or give them a call on 0161 619 0960.

For all roles:

• Ensure your internet connection is working and that you have Microsoft Teams downloaded to your chosen device. Activate [this link] [NW6.1]for our instructional guide.

• Please have your ID documents within easy reach for your virtual ID check.

For dog-supporting roles only:

• Ensure everyone in your household has applied and is available during your selected interview slot so you can be together. This will save your household a lot of time!

• Read through our virtual home check booklet, which will be provided in your booking email - this will provide you with what our team need to view and record for our dog experts to review. It will also provide you with information on how any video-capture data is handled.

• If you are applying for a Puppy Raiser or Puppy Fosterer role, ensure you have read the information booklet which will be provided in your booking email.

Your ID should be government-issued and have a photo and ideally your current address. The following are the most commonly available types of ID used:

• Passport

• New style driving licence

• New style provisional driving licence

• National identity card · Citizen card

• eVisas

If you can only provide a form of ID that doesn’t contain your address (i.e. passport), please also expect to be asked to provide an extra piece of documentation that lists your current address.

If you cannot provide a form of ID with a photograph, we may ask for several pieces of documentation to ensure we can verify your name and address.