Tariro instilled confidence in all those involved

She simultaneously met with colleagues from occupational health, finance, communications, training, local volunteer centres, and other colleagues to streamline the recruitment process. This required her to set up new forms to re-define the parameters on various systems and test them. Drawing on her HR, recruitment and volunteer management background, she sought advice from our recruitment team on current guidelines and again redefined a process for our Covid response volunteers.

This nomination could very well be for any category as we all witnessed great leadership and teamwork. Even the chosen approach to then recruiting and managing the volunteers was innovative, constantly responding to the Covid changes. All the while Tariro instilled confidence to all those involved in the project.

Tariro’s expertise and humble approach saw her gain support from colleagues in various teams. She soon enlisted them through redeployment, quickly upskilled them and put them to task. She gained advocates and supporters who were keen to welcome volunteers within their services.

Tariro is not one to boast of her contribution. She is a strong team player and in this case always attributes the success of this response to the team. There is no doubt that everyone involved was instrumental but I honestly believe that the road would not have been as smooth without her leadership, knowledge and skills.

Her humbleness and humility is what confirms to me - and my colleagues no doubt – that Tariro deserves to be on the wall of fame. She deserves to know that she was key to offering hundreds of people within our communities an opportunity to make a difference, to know that her empowerment and respect for others was important as many colleagues confidently spoke about and supported volunteer recruitment and also for her to know that her openness and inclusive nature facilitated for some great innovative partnership working and collaborations with VCSE organisations.

We are grateful for the contribution she made to the Covid response and would really appreciate it if Helpforce could help us say a big THANK YOU!!!

Tariro demonstrated excellence throughout.

As mentioned, she immediately spotted the potential for volunteer impact early on. This led to a streamlined process where occupational health clearances were to be processed within two hours. Volunteer expenses being paid weekly directly to their bank accounts. Tariro was consistently re-iterating on the need to ensure that the process is efficient, simple and straightforward in order for our volunteers to have a positive experience.

She set up a steering group and then local/borough partnership groups to ensure local organisations were involved in steering the efforts. This promoted co-production and built relationships with various healthcare, non-healthcare and voluntary organisations.

As our volunteer service was in its infancy, Tariro required additional staff to support with processes. She devised a model that not only encouraged collaboration and support from internal staff but also partnership working with 3 sectors organisations. For example, one entry pathway involved a local volunteer centre raising awareness of the scheme, getting people to complete the forms and carrying out the initial long listing. They would then discuss this with Tariro and then forward these to another voluntary organisation experienced in recruiting and managing volunteers. They would carry out the interviews and once completed, pass to CNWL team for clearances. The process was seamless, considering that Tariro was managing multiple boroughs (CNWL covers from Milton Keynes to Hillingdon) it’s the hard work, determination and seeking excellence that enabled this collaboration. She was quick to spot key stakeholders to work with and equally so not afraid to empower colleagues to make decisions to move the project along. There is no one task – she was just exceptional.

Organised for our Executive team to welcome our volunteers virtually and address any reservations e.g. on PPE, current guidelines and to thank the volunteers for their contribution.

Being a mental health Trust most of the other mental health Trusts stood down their volunteers with many not reinstating or actively recruiting in response to Covid. CNWL was able to do that because Tariro kept up to date with guidance from NHSE, facilitating risk assessments to ensure areas were safe for volunteers and constantly and continuously researching, linking with Helpforce and other 3rd sector organisations to ensure we were abreast of advice and guidelines offered.

Because of this dedication, 400 food parcels were delivered to service users who were shielding. 240 hours in total. 110 Art therapy packs so that service users can continue therapy via zoom. A check in and chat service was successfully set up in 8 days at the beginning of May and this supported 131 patients from across the Trust, a total of 1,048 hours of chatting. Project Wingman was set up at 2 locations (Kings Cross & Hillingdon Riverside). Both have had a positive experience.

Her effort was enormous and so we would like to appreciate her hard work, determination and going above and beyond.

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