Mandy Cleaver – Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust

Mandy Cleaver has been leading the volunteer service in Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust (SCFT) for 10 years having spent 25 years as a District Nurse, Midwife and Macmillan Nurse. She inherited a service with 80 volunteers who were working in community hospitals, coffee shops, reception areas and toy libraries. She has transformed the service and is now supported by four volunteer managers, administrators, and a volunteer coordinator. The volunteers support over 82 services, with 40 different roles, with 527 volunteers, plus 300 with charity partners. She has developed a Voluntary and Community Development Strategy which recognises that volunteers are a powerful way to promote healthier communities as well as delivering innovation in healthcare. She is currently working on the Investment in Volunteers Award to achieve the quality standard that is needed for the volunteer strategy. Recent innovations include students working with patients with dementia; health champions signposting and enabling patients through discharge; peer supporters in services such as breast feeding and aphasia; working with charitable partners to reduce impact on nursing time; and projects to reduce isolation and loneliness in the community. As part of a quality improvement initiative she is looking at how her service can reach all 360 teams and services within SCFT to see how volunteers can continue to make an impact and improve innovation and transformation.