Measuring Digital Volunteering as Social Value in Adult Social Care
Digital volunteering is a practical social value issue because adult social care services increasingly work with volunteers, community groups and local partners through online or hybrid routes. Providers working within the Social Value Knowledge Hub need to evidence how digital volunteering reduces isolation, widens opportunity and strengthens community connection safely.
Strong providers use social value measurement and reporting to evidence volunteering outcomes, while linking digital volunteering to social value policy and national priorities such as inclusion, wellbeing, prevention, community participation and responsible partnership working.
Digital volunteering should not be measured only by hours donated. Strong evidence shows whether people experience better connection, confidence, skills, choice and meaningful community involvement.
What Digital Volunteering Means
Digital volunteering means using online or technology-enabled routes for volunteers to support people, services or community activity. In adult social care, this may include remote befriending, online activity groups, digital skills coaching, community history projects, virtual reading sessions, employment mentoring, accessible hobby groups or family-carer support networks.
The social value comes from connection and contribution. Strong providers demonstrate that digital volunteering is safe, purposeful, accessible and linked to outcomes that matter to people using services.
Why It Matters in Real Services
Many people experience isolation because of transport barriers, anxiety, mobility needs, rurality, health conditions or limited staffing capacity for wider community activity. Digital volunteering can widen access to people, interests and skills that would otherwise be unavailable.
If poorly managed, it can also create safeguarding risks, unclear boundaries or superficial contact. Strong services evidence how volunteers are matched, trained, supervised and reviewed so digital involvement is safe and meaningful.
What Good Looks Like
Strong services evidence digital volunteering through needs assessment, careful matching, consent, safeguarding checks, volunteer guidance, feedback, outcome tracking and governance.
Providers should be able to evidence why digital volunteering was introduced, how people were matched, what support was provided and what changed. This creates a clear line of sight from volunteering activity to social value impact.
Operational Example 1: Remote Befriending to Reduce Isolation
Context: A supported living provider identified that one person had become socially isolated after a close relative moved away. The person wanted more regular conversation but did not want to attend large groups.
Support approach: The provider worked with a local volunteer organisation to arrange remote befriending through scheduled video calls, with consent, safeguarding and review arrangements in place.
Five practical steps:
- Identify the person’s wishes, interests, communication needs and preferred contact style.
- Confirm consent, boundaries, safeguarding arrangements and volunteer checks.
- Match the volunteer around shared interests rather than availability alone.
- Support initial calls while protecting privacy and independence.
- Review mood, confidence, contact quality and any safeguarding concerns.
Day-to-day delivery detail: Staff helped the person prepare topics, set up the device and choose whether staff stayed nearby. The volunteer was briefed on boundaries, recording concerns and not making private arrangements outside the agreed route.
How effectiveness was evidenced: The provider evidenced improved mood, regular contact, reduced loneliness indicators and positive feedback from the person. This demonstrated social value through safe connection and meaningful relationship-building.
Deepening the Digital Volunteering Evidence Pathway
Digital volunteering evidence is strongest when it shows impact on wellbeing, confidence or participation. Providers should avoid reporting volunteer hours without explaining what those hours achieved.
Guidance on measuring social value outcomes in adult social care reinforces the need to connect activity with impact. Digital volunteering evidence strengthens this by showing how community contribution translates into outcomes for people and services.
Operational Example 2: Volunteer-Led Digital Skills Coaching
Context: A day opportunities service supported several people who wanted to use tablets for hobbies, video calls and online groups but lacked confidence and became frustrated when staff completed tasks for them.
Support approach: The provider partnered with trained digital volunteers who offered short coaching sessions focused on practical goals chosen by each person.
Five practical steps:
- Identify each person’s digital goal and current confidence level.
- Match volunteers with clear role boundaries and safeguarding guidance.
- Use short, repeatable coaching sessions linked to real-life tasks.
- Record progress in confidence, independence and support needed.
- Review whether people use the skills outside the coaching session.
Day-to-day delivery detail: Volunteers supported people to practise sending messages, joining hobby groups and using accessibility settings. Staff stayed available for support but avoided taking over unless the person requested help.
How effectiveness was evidenced: The provider evidenced increased independent tablet use, improved confidence, wider participation in online groups and reduced staff-led task completion. This showed social value through skills, access and independence.
Systems, Workforce and Consistency
Teams apply digital volunteering well when staff understand that volunteers complement, not replace, paid support. Volunteer involvement should be planned, recorded and reviewed through ordinary service systems.
Supervision should review matching quality, safeguarding concerns, boundaries, feedback and whether volunteering supports agreed outcomes. Handovers should include current volunteer arrangements where they affect routines or wellbeing. Managers should check that volunteers receive enough guidance and that people can stop or change involvement without pressure.
This also supports commissioner confidence. Wider explanation of social value in UK public sector commissioning shows why providers need evidence that volunteering creates public value through inclusion, prevention and stronger community links.
Operational Example 3: Online Community Storytelling Project
Context: A residential service joined a local digital history project where volunteers supported older adults and people with disabilities to share memories, photographs and local stories online.
Support approach: The provider used the project to support identity, communication, confidence and community contribution, while checking consent for any information shared publicly.
Five practical steps:
- Identify people who want to contribute stories, memories or creative work.
- Explain how digital sharing works and confirm consent for each item.
- Support preparation using photos, prompts, objects or conversation.
- Work with volunteers to capture contributions respectfully.
- Review pride, engagement, community response and any privacy concerns.
Day-to-day delivery detail: Staff helped people choose what to share and what to keep private. Volunteers supported recording and editing, while managers checked consent and ensured people were credited only where they wished.
How effectiveness was evidenced: The provider evidenced increased engagement, improved confidence, positive community feedback and stronger personal history work in care planning. This demonstrated social value through contribution, identity and community recognition.
Governance and Evidence
Governance gives digital volunteering evidence credibility. Providers should maintain an audit trail showing volunteer checks, role descriptions, consent, matching decisions, safeguarding guidance, feedback, outcomes and review actions.
Data may include volunteer participation, contact frequency, reduced loneliness indicators, improved digital confidence, activity engagement, safeguarding concerns and satisfaction feedback. Qualitative evidence explains belonging, reassurance, confidence, contribution and trust.
Strong services demonstrate how digital volunteering evidence informs care planning, community partnership review, safeguarding, supervision, commissioner reporting, quality assurance and board oversight. This creates a clear line of sight from support model to action to outcome.
Commissioner and CQC Expectations
Commissioners expect providers to evidence meaningful community contribution, prevention and inclusion. Digital volunteering evidence helps show that providers build social value beyond direct care hours while maintaining safety and purpose.
CQC expectations focus on safe, caring, responsive and well-led care. Digital volunteering supports this when leaders protect people from harm, respect consent, involve communities and review whether involvement improves people’s lives.
Common Pitfalls
- Counting volunteer hours without evidencing outcomes.
- Matching volunteers by availability rather than interests and needs.
- Failing to set digital boundaries and safeguarding routes.
- Using volunteers to replace core paid support.
- Sharing stories, images or information without clear consent.
- Reporting community involvement without governance or lived-experience evidence.
Conclusion
Measuring digital volunteering as social value in adult social care means showing how online and hybrid volunteering improves connection, skills, confidence and community contribution. Strong providers demonstrate this through safe matching, consent, staff oversight, outcome evidence and governance. When evidence is credible, digital volunteering becomes a strong social value measure because it shows how adult social care can reduce isolation, widen opportunity and connect people with communities in practical, meaningful ways.