Volunteers, usually parents and carers, have always been a rich resource in primary schools in the UK. When used well, they can be distinct and invaluable members of a team of adults working with children; when used badly - untrained, unsupported, doing menial tasks - they are relegated to pot-washers and message-takers. In adult basic education, volunteer tutors are often the bedrock on which the service survives, supporting part-tlme tutors by working one-to-one with students.

As programmes and strategies developed in Derbyshire, more and more adults and children became involved as volunteers: as 'Buddy Readers' for younger children; as intensive 'Reading Partners' for individual children; as 'Care Leaver Buddies' to support others through the public care system; in Storysack groups, making resources for local nurseries; or as mentors for young offenders. ROWA! data from the past six years has shown how volunteering impacts on children and adults, and on schools and communities - on test scores, on levels of confidence, on the skills levels of families. For example, the latest data on a Better Reading Partnership project shows an average of 9.54 months gain in reading age over 10 weeks, with an average gain of 14.18 months in Year 6.

Volunteering also impacts on the volunteers themselves: young people with poor literacy improve their own skills and become re-engaged with learning; parents acting as Reading Partners clamour for "something else to do"; employees ask for courses to improve their own skills. Gradually, over the past six years, the potential of volunteering as a way to engage those who struggle with their own poor basic skills became clear. As William, now aged 16, said: "When I was 14 I had a reading age of nine. I got involved in Buddy Reading because I wanted to help others who weren't doing very well. I improved my score [reading age] so much that I wanted to do something with my life."

Volunteers work in a variety of settings, with a comprehensive programme of support, from six hours of sessions on sharing books to two days of intensive training to be a 'Talking Partner'. Further development opportunities are available, for example, on dyslexia, basic skills awareness and first aid. We have trained staff in supermarkets and factories, midday supervisors, young people in residential care and youth clubs, and members of 15 Women's Institutes. Our volunteers currently include a vicar, a fireman, three caretakers and a retired colonel, as well as 48 young people who have left public care and many parents and carers.

Bill and Doris Mills began working at Lenthal Infants in north Derbyshire in 1999, retiring recently due to ill health. Having initially agreed to give two hours a week, they ended up spending 12 hours between them, and would now recommend voluntary work to all retired people. They were surprised to find how much can be achieved in a 15-minute one-to-one reading session, from fostering a curiosity to explore books to allaying fears of tackling strange words. They also had great fun: "Every day there would be at least one anecdote - the four-year-old who wanted to demonstrate to Doris how he used his new Y-fronts; the girl who, having noticed that Doris had three rings said, 'Have you got three boyfriends?'; and the lad who asked Bill why his teeth were yellow!"

We lose our volunteers all the time - they get jobs as classroom assistants in schools, they leave the factory floor for 'better jobs', they sign on to full-time courses. Others continue to fit volunteering in around the rest of their lives, and get great pleasure from helping others. As Paul, the caretaker at a local school and one of our Reading Champions, said: "I get a great feeling when I've worked with one of the lads and the teacher tells me how much he's improved; I get an even better feeling when he's waiting for me at lunchtime with a new book he wants to tell me about."

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