“Your organisation’s culture is your biggest risk management tool”

Getting the basics right – investing in supervision and training

Listening to Joanna and Lucy, I recognised what we had in common. We all work for organisations that are willing to invest in supervision and training. This may seem such a basic part of our volunteering infrastructure. However, it is the glue that allows volunteers to provide truly added-value help to patients and staff and receive a positive volunteer experience.

At Rampton Hospital, a secure hospital managed by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, volunteers are working with potentially vulnerable and challenging patients. Working in a secure environment, volunteers are integrated into the existing safe systems of work. Managing the risk is no greater a burden for the organisation be it for staff or volunteers. In the hospital, they go through security check points and are escorted, so their safety is assured. Volunteers are willing to accept the training and procedures when the experience of their contribution to care is rewarding and recognised. They also have dedicated support from Joanna to discuss any difficult issues and Joanna will be in touch with them regularly. This allows volunteers to fully focus on providing emotional support to patients.

Similarly, for Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, Lucy and her team provide great training, co-designed with subject matter experts. The training allows volunteers to help patients eat and drink, aiding their recovery. There are also measures in place around supervision, to make sure volunteers are competent and confident with their roles. Volunteers love gaining new skills.

At my own trust, Yorkshire Ambulance Service, our volunteers provide unsupervised care prior to the arrival of a clinician. Risk is managed through good supervision, feedback and ongoing training for the volunteers. We work with subject matter experts to develop our risk framework, risk assessment documents, standard operating procedures and policies. All these tools allow us to assess risk and our capabilities, which gives us guidance on where to focus our effort to mitigate the more likely problems.

When our volunteer community responders arrive at patients’ home to provide initial support before the ambulance crew arrives, they remain in contact with clinicians in case they need further support.

This is a significant investment by the organisation. The return is justified, by the 200,000 volunteer hours in a year and over 21,000 patients cared for.

And, when our volunteer community responders arrive at someone’s home to provide initial support before the ambulance crew arrives, they remain in contact with clinicians in case they need further support.

These measures played a crucial part in all the services’ success:

• At Nottinghamshire Trust, 100% of volunteers would recommend the Trust as a great place to volunteer and 94% of staff are satisfied with the qualities of activities carried out by volunteers

• At Northern Care Alliance, 25% more patients had enough support to eat their meals when they received help from volunteers, and 100% of staff reported volunteer support was helpful in allowing them to deliver good care

• At Yorkshire ambulance service, 45% of patients who had fallen that volunteers attended were able to stay at home with appropriate advice and aftercare.

Your organisation’s culture is your biggest risk management tool - pushing the boundaries conversation by conversation

During the webinar, many attendees asked us variations on this question: How do we convince key decision makers to support new volunteering roles that they deem too risky?

From my experience, it has to start small, and we need to take time to work with colleagues and decision makers to address the perception of risks. Separating their concerns of the new from concrete examples of barriers helps shape the conversations. I also often ask questions, such as: “Have you previously seen this risk materialise?” If it didn’t, then that’s a perception risk.

Together, we need to look carefully at the impact if a risk did play out. Firstly, what is the likelihood of a patient or volunteer being harmed? Then, would patients or volunteers be upset, which may lead to complaints. To me, it’s important to avoid negative experiences for the volunteers who are giving their time for free and who may leave.

Joanna gave a short but impactful answer, as she shared her experience by asking the question: “Is there a policy that stops us from doing that? If there is, then we won’t do it. Otherwise, we do, which opens up endless possibilities.

Finally, Lucy’s answer really hit the spot: “If it’s something that a family member or a friend can do or a visitor can do, then it’s something that a volunteer could do. And it’s better as we can provide the training and all measurements to ensure everyone’s safety.”

Final thoughts

If you are a volunteering lead in a healthcare organisation, it’s completely normal to feel nervous about developing new volunteering roles. But once risks are well managed, the positive impacts on patients, staff, volunteers and the system are worthwhile.

Be ready to work things through with other teams and decision makers who have concerns. Keep learning from other volunteering leaders on what worked and what didn’t work for them. You may not be able to fully replicate their model, but you can pick out the elements that would work for your organisation. Just from attending the webinar with Helpforce Network and joining their dynamic online community, I have learned so much already about other volunteering roles I could introduce.

Finally, I would like to encourage you, rather than seeing risks as a barrier, to see them as leverage to start conversations with colleagues that will help shift the culture and allow your volunteering service to grow and develop.

To access presentations from all the speakers, please visit here.