Hours contributed by museum volunteers down by 37% on pre-pandemic levels, finds survey

March 2023 -

Hours contributed by museum volunteers down by 37% on pre-pandemic levels: A major survey of non-national museums in England has found that the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the sector has not only been on income and the number of visitors returning, but also on the 'sustained damage to volunteer capacity within the sector'. The survey found that volunteer numbers were down 16% on pre-pandemic levels in the most recent survey, with the number of hours contributed by volunteers also down significantly, by 37%.

The research also found that organisations which operate multiple museums appear to have been the most affected, with the number of volunteers down 39% on 2019/20 levels. Micro museums were down 17%, with small/medium museums down 14% and large/largest museums down 15%.

When asked about the recruitment of volunteers, museums were relatively split on whether recruitment had risen or fallen over the last 12 months, with more than a third saying that more volunteers had been hired in the last 12 months (35%), however almost three in 10 said that the number has fallen (29%).

The Annual Museum Survey polled 765 non-national museums -- which are part of the Arts Council England's UK Museum Accreditation Scheme -- across nine regions of England, to provide information about their workforce, finance, audiences and insights and help understand how museums are recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 2022 survey found that virtually all of the museums polled relied on volunteers to some degree, with four volunteers for every one employee overall. The survey also found that 30% of museums polled had more than 50 volunteers, while 44% relied on up to 25 volunteers.

Three in 10 museums polled for the survey were volunteer run entirely, with this percentage even higher amongst micro museums (58%).

Recruitment

Looking at staffing levels over the last two years, the number of employed staff in the largest museums was down on 2019/20 levels, by 9%, found the research.

The survey also found that museums with paid staff were three times as likely to have reopened throughout 2021-22 than those run by volunteers, and while visitor numbers for 2021/22 are five times higher than they were in 2020/21, they are still 45% lower than they were in the pre-pandemic year.

Victoria Harding, Programme Manager at South West Museum Development, and lead on the Annual Museum Survey, said:

"The ongoing impact of the pandemic has been broadly universal, with poor visitor recovery and fewer volunteers returning. The precariousness of the volunteer workforce in the face of societal changes such as a longer working life, increased caring responsibilities, the financial squeeze facing households are not new. What is clear from this new research is that the pandemic has accelerated the situation at a time when the sector has limited capacity to adapt to this new world.”

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