The topic for our session on 1 March was volunteer recruitment and our guests were at varying stages. Some were struggling to find new volunteers where others had a plentiful supply. There are also some areas where volunteers and visitors have not as yet been allowed back on the wards.

One Trust has had a huge increase in 16+ student volunteers. They are also working with The Women’s Work Lab who support Mums to get back into work. This has had a really positive outcome as three volunteers have since become employed by the Trust.

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One of the biggest hold-ups in the application process appears to be around getting personal references. In some cases there have been delays of up to 5 months due to outstanding references. One Trust is hoping to be able to use TRAC shortly to help speed up the process.

One of our guests has tried to speed up the process by accepting a reference over the phone and making a note on the volunteers record for audit purposes.

Volunteering in the emergency department has been very popular in one Trust and they now have 30 volunteers. Due to the nature of the role as well as the mandatory training they are also receiving one to one specialist training.

In another emergency department they are trialling a new Digital Streaming service. On arrival patients are asked to login on an iPad. This service is supported by volunteers and aims to take the pressure off the triage area by re-directing those patients who do not require emergency treatment to an appropriate service, taking the congestion out of the emergency department.

All network members are welcome to come along and join us at a virtual discussion session. For details of future events please go to our Events Page.