Hello all

Please see below for news of some exciting development work starting in September - your input would be welcomed by NHSE/I:

“NHS England and NHS Improvement has commissioned a piece of research (Discovery) to start in early September to look into how the NHS recruits its volunteers and whether there may be a need and benefit to having a single place for NHS volunteer opportunities to be advertised. As part of this, we will want to hear views from as many of you as possible that are directly responsible for, or interested in recruiting volunteers into your services.

The research will include a survey that we will share and invite as many of you as possible to complete at the appropriate time in September/October and we anticipate this will only take about 15-20 mins max to complete. I hope you will all be able to help us by completing the survey.

In addition, we will want to talk to a group of you to conduct more in depth one time interviews (up to 1 hour approx), which are likely to take place around the weeks 20th and 27th September. We will also want to include some participants in a workshop (for up to approx 2hrs) to help us map the volunteer recruitment pathway(s) and explore some of the questions in more depth.

We are keen to engage with as many people as possible to help us to understand the volunteer recruitment process and understand the needs of people who recruit for volunteers to help inform decisions and possible new opportunities in this area. Any time you can therefore spare to help us will be invaluable.

Please can you let us know via england.voluntarypartnerships@nhs.net whether you would be willing to take part in the one-time interviews and/or the workshops if needed and confirm your consent to share your contact details with the researchers. You will all be given the opportunity to participate in the survey whether you’re available or selected to participate in the interviews or workshops.”