More than 70% of the respondents to the organisation’s online poll voted in favour of a move towards a more professional status for volunteer managers, despite some fears that this could damage the voluntary ethos of the sector.

Barbara Regnier, director of volunteering management and leadership at Volunteering England, said: “In a world where success is increasingly measured by impact and output, it is essential that volunteer-involving organisations have sufficient resources and expertise to operate in a professional manner.

“Although some may object to what they see as distancing from the sector’s core values, the reality is that professionalisation does not preclude passion.” Regnier said that by investing in training and learning from others in the charity and volunteering sectors, those who manage volunteers could be confident that they were providing a quality service for their beneficiaries without sacrificing the good intentions that lie at the heart of their cause.

Janet Langstreth, outreach worker at the Volunteer Centre Bolton, which has three full time staff and manages 20 volunteers, dismissed suggestions that a professional approach would damage the ethos of volunteering. “Some people claim that the formalisation of volunteer management detracts from the image of the well-intentioned amateur, but I think it remains about the person,” she said. “Being skilled doesn’t stop you caring, it just enables you to choose from a wider range of tools to do something about it proficiently.”

But national volunteering charity Community Service Volunteers said it was already making use of volunteers’ existing professional and management skills.

“Volunteers are found in all areas of public life,” said Arnie Wickens, assistant director of CSV. “Our experience from the Institute of Advanced Volunteer Management is that most volunteers work alongside and are supported by staff whose jobs are by no means exclusive to the task of managing volunteers. They are health workers, librarians, teachers or criminal justice workers.”