University Hospital Sussex NHS Foundation Trusts ‘Big Hospital Experiment’ for Young Adults

Sarah joined the team at the University Hospital Sussex NHS Foundation Trust a number of years ago at a time the Trust was reviewing voluntary services. Sarah and her colleague have been on a journey to move volunteering into a paperless service including the development of a new database and more recently a second more improved database, bringing ease of recruitment and accessibility to volunteering within the Trust.

During this time Sarah and her team have developed the volunteer service into an innovative and inclusive department providing a range of new and exciting roles such as Pets as Therapy, Complementary Therapy, and the launch of the Big Hospital Experiment funded by HEE.

Whilst there are young people volunteering within the NHS, the BHE is a new innovative pathway, providing the opportunity for volunteers to spend up to 12-15 hours per week in the wards and departments. This higher intensity of placement enables the volunteer to integrate into the team and really formulate a good relationship with a wide range of health care professionals as well as providing a broad experience.

They currently intake students from 11 local colleges, and two universities as well as supported employment and those seeking experience for work. Furthermore, having a range of volunteering options such as 12-15 hours per week as well as the standard 4 hours per week over a seven day week provides flexible opportunities for young people to volunteer.

Sarah and her colleagues took part in developing initial standards for the National Volunteering Certificate with Helpforce playing an integral part in the formal framework setting and national roll out. Sarah is now successfully implementing the standards in the Big Hospital Experiment programme for young people aged 16-25.

The volunteering the young volunteers undertake supports the clinical teams in providing high quality care. Volunteers support patients day to day on the wards assisting with meals, company, making beds and helping the HCAs. The patients enjoy meeting the volunteers and the smiles say it all at the end of the day.

The HEE bid was successful in underpinning the pathway for the Big Hospital Experiment providing the opportunity for young people to gain experience in a range of clinical and non clinical areas for either gaining experience for their future studies or work experience.

As part of the programme the team have designed an Internal Handbook with a suite of supporting documents and certificates for Student Volunteers in order to help them complete Core standards for NVC.

During difficult times (Covid), Sarah was relentless in her approach to ensuring young people were engaged with volunteering at home and were provided with innovative learning experiences and opportunities to help the trust whilst waiting for their formal placement to start. In view of this Sarah and the team undertook a film session to record Dining Companion training that not only the young adult learners participated in but a session that can be used more widely for training for staff in the trust. Additionally they have filmed the Big Hospital Experiment Volunteers sharing their experience. This was particularly special as the three candidates have all been successful in going to University.

As a Team, supervised by Sarah, they are doing their best to support young people and to give them the opportunity to gain experience in hospital settings. Sarah has driven the team from a part time service operating non-digitally to a fun, professional and innovative service.

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