Published on 12, July, 2020
I see this old chestnut has come to the fore again. I can see problems with it.
Does the military want all these people for a year or so and what will they do with them?
If people are made to volunteer for things like life boats, special constables and library assistants, will it mean that the training for such things will outlast the service time?
Will real jobs be at risk because people are volunteering?
If theres no sanctions how will they make people do it?
Will it mean that those currently on benefits will be sanctioned for not "doing their bit"?
Will this idea have mission creep? If not enough people volunteer, will some kind of sanction be imposed?
It all sounds desperate to me, like a political party flailing about to find vote winning policies that are ill thought out.
It won't come in until 2029 anyway, just in time for another election, hmmm?
I was thinking this earlier, especially the bit about volunteering in the NHS. Can’t speak for the whole NHS but we don’t have any use for volunteers in my department and we’re also so snowed under with referrals that we need to take on 10 more members of clinical staff and that’s without thinking about the extra equipment needed for them to use to perform extra tests. We would rather see some of the estimated £2.5bn cost put into our budget!
Most NHS facilities I've been in recenlty. could use some extra cleaning and Maintenance people.