DofE volunteering with the RSPCA

If you’re interested in volunteering with the RSPCA for your Bronze or Silver DofE, you can find out more below. Take a look at our great range of activities, learn a bit more about our programme, and see what your next steps will be.

What would you love to do?

Here at the RSPCA, we work hard to create a better world for animals. And you can help us! Take a look at the sort of activities you could choose.

Our activity library

Next steps

1 Before you continue... Are you registered with eDofE? If not, find out how to enrol.

2 Press the ‘Sign-up now’ button! This will take you to the sign-in page, where you can register to join our DofE volunteering programme.

3 Get your parent or carer involved. If you’re under 18, you’ll need your parent or carer’s consent to sign up to DofE and they’ll need to support and guide you.

4 Think about your pledge. Do you want to do three months of volunteering (that’s 13 hours in total) or six months (26 hours)? We’re flexible, though, so if you finish three months and want to carry on, please do. And when you’re halfway through six months, you could decide to stop there and complete the three-month challenge instead.

Choose your Assessor. The Assessor’s role is to check what you’re doing for each task and send a report to DofE. They don’t need any specific skills or qualifications, but must be over 18 years old, not a family member, and have an interest in the RSPCA or animals. When you’ve finished, you send them your evidence booklet and certificate – you’ll find out more about these when you sign up.

You can share these guidelines with your Assessor – they explain what they need to do and how much work is involved.

Keep safe

Whatever tasks you decide to do, keep your health and safety in mind. You’ll find more advice once you’ve signed up and chosen your activities.

We put animals first

We don’t offer any hands-on interaction with animals at our centres or branches as part of our DofE volunteering programme. This is because we care for animals who’ve had problems in their lives and it can be stressful for them to see too many people.

There are so many other ways you can help animals, though, and so many different kinds of animals to help. So do get on board!