Adopt and Adapt: new service shares expertise to create bespoke services

19th April 2022

Helpforce’s Adopt and Adapt service does exactly what it says on the tin. It provides support to anyone who wants support to adopt and adapt tried, tested and evidenced volunteering interventions in their organisation.

We have been piloting the service for a year and have now put all the service’s support information on the Helpforce website. Also online are detailed case studies of different hospitals that have achieved their desired outcome using the service. With the service now live we have seen a large increase in the number of roles adopted by our clients over the last quarter, up from 8 up to 25.

The Adopt and Adapt service supports organisations to adopt and adapt volunteer service models. The online support includes guides, information and resources that share learning and best practice from tried and tested service models. This enables potential adopters to find out how the model works and how it can be adapted to their context. As part of the package Helpforce offers one to one support, online workshops and peer support.

The benefit of the Adopt and Adapt service is that it speeds up an organisation's ability to deliver a sustainable service, as some learning has already been achieved by other Trusts and good practice has been established. It helps get organisational buy-in because the service guides are evidence-based and show the benefits to patients, staff and volunteers that the service brings. This evidence can be used to convince senior leaders and secure funding. The programme reduces the risks associated with developing a new service or innovation as the impacts have already been demonstrated and evaluated.

The method that Helpforce programme managers use, working with Trusts, includes analysing the local context, and designing and managing the project. An important component is service design: the planning and organising of people, infrastructure, communication and material components of a service in order to improve the interaction between service provider and user.

In order to sign up for an Adopt and Adapt project the volunteer team must have the capacity to deliver their intended project. They will need to get buy-in from senior managers, and the volunteer team must be willing to share data, so that Helpforce can go on and help other volunteer services based on your experience.

Adopt and Adapt can be applied to all sorts of different volunteer services. We already have service guides on:

  • Response Volunteering

  • Mealtime companions

  • Discharge, including settling in service and volunteer drivers

  • Compassionate Community

  • End of Life -virtual and face to face support

  • Bereavement

  • Theatre companions

  • Activity and mobility service

  • Companionship/ befriending service

  • Restraint debrief


And we have guides on the following in the pipeline:

  • Falls prevention

  • Primary care companions

  • Waiting list support

  • Volunteer to career

  • Staff wellbeing

  • Trauma Ward Support


If you manage volunteers in health and care looking to grow or improve your volunteer service why not get in touch with us to see if the Adopt and Adapt service is right for you.