Volunteers’ healthcare success recognised nationally
“Absolutely delighted” is how healthcare staff have described being nationally recognised for their outstanding work with volunteers to provide care across the county.
Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) has just received an ‘Investing in Volunteers’ accreditation – the UK’s quality standard for all organisations which work with volunteers.
The accolade recognises organisations which value and support volunteers, and demonstrates the enormous contribution made to the Trust by volunteers.
NHFT has around 250 active volunteers, working across 12 sites, covering four main areas. These include mental health and community services, Volunteer to Career Programme, telephone befriending services and hospice volunteering.
It’s the second time the Trust has received the award, having initially been awarded the three-year accreditation in 2019.
Mandy Woolf (pictured), voluntary services manager at NHFT, said: “I am absolutely delighted that we have achieved the Investors in Volunteers standard for a second time. We have made significant progress since we first achieved this standard in 2019, one of the highlights was seeing our Befriending Service shortlisted at last year’s HSJ (Health Services Journal) Partnership awards after making 8,000 calls to lonely and vulnerable individuals during the pandemic.”
Investing in Volunteers aims to improve the quality of the volunteering experience for all volunteers. It assesses six quality areas (Vision for Volunteering, Planning for Volunteers, Volunteer inclusion, Recruiting and welcoming volunteers, Supporting volunteers and Valuing and developing volunteers) – all of which the Trust was found to excel in.
During the assessment, nearly 30 volunteers were interviewed along with Mandy Woolf, voluntary services manager, and voluntary services staff, NHFT senior business partner Liz O’Leary, and chief executive Angela Hillery. The staff and volunteers interviewed talked about the welcoming and supportive atmosphere for volunteers, with many talking about how the organisation had adapted to their needs. When asked about the strengths of the volunteering programme, the following quote was provided by one of the volunteers:
“The support is always there. There are regular meetings online and you can ring at any time. The staff are always available for support and are incredibly patient. They are incredibly good – you can’t fault them. They are a wonderful bunch of people.”
Mandy added: “In June 2021, we launched a successful ‘volunteer to career pathway’ to provide a pipeline for volunteers interested in paid employment, but for a range of reasons such as long-term unemployment, disability, neurodiversity or lack of experience, weren’t able to access the standard channels for recruitment. We are delighted to receive this standard and for our achievements to have been recognised by Investors in Volunteers.”
Find out more about Investors in Volunteers at www.investinginvolunteers.co.uk