Let’s talk about developing a service with limited resources

14 May 2025

Thank you to the network members who joined this session. As always there was a great conversation, sharing ideas and concerns.

The challenges

The government's announcement to abolish NHS England has already had a huge impact on some services.

There will be a core requirement for Trusts to work with and support their local community. However, there are concerns that there will not be enough resources to do this.

Services are being cut and restructured with staff absorbing the workload of colleagues who have been made redundant.

The demand for volunteers has gone up.

With the recruitment freeze for all non-clinical roles some felt that there was a risk that they would be asked to cover vacant positions with volunteers.

Large numbers of active volunteers are being managed across various sites by one or two coordinators, so it is not always possible to give the volunteers the attention and support they deserve.

Budgets for Volunteers’ Week in some areas have been cut.

Managing volunteers is very different to managing staff.

Investment in professional development for staff in some areas has been paused.

Looking for funding opportunities

One of the biggest challenges being faced is sustaining projects where the funding has only been in place for one year.

To help sustain a project that was first externally funded one organisation made sure that the Exec Team were involved from the start. They were then invited to give updates and final findings. They then actively asked the Exec team how the success of the project could be sustained.

Discussed finding support and funding from hospital charities.

A monthly meeting with a local council resulted in them receiving a monthly report on funding opportunities.

Suggestion that local businesses and solicitors might be open to funding a project.

For more tips and ideas on funding take a look at previous network discussions:

Focused discussion - 10 January 2024

General discussion - 25 August 2022

Focused discussion on - November 2021

Learning to adapt to new situations

It’s important to talk and have those conversations about how hard it is and learn what can be done to adapt to a situation.

For some top tips take a look at the summary from a Focused Discussion held on 14 May 2025. Focused Discussion | Managing change in your organisation

Reminding your organisation how important volunteers are

Highlighting the benefits of having volunteers is key to justifying their existence.

Volunteers come from all walks of life and are often not seen for the valuable experience and skills that they bring with them.

Volunteers are an integral part of the workforce and give their time for free.

Make the case for volunteering and have data to share.

Retention and collaboration

Many are finding that the pool of people able to volunteer is getting smaller making retention vital.

There is a balance between recruitment and retention, and it was commented on how important they both are.

Recruitment needs to be wiser, and organisations of all sizes need to work together more.

Volunteer roles are being reviewed by staff and the role holders at one organisation. This has enabled everyone to give feedback on what is working or not working, and the roles can then be adjusted accordingly. This has built engagement between staff and volunteers and in turn has helped with retention.

Another organisation is trying to bring together volunteers from hospitals, hospices and community organisations across an ICB to see how they can help each other. The goal is to have a big pool of volunteers that they can call on when needed.

Collaboration is the key. Join networks that bring people together to support and share.

Finally - Celebrating your volunteers

Lots of work is going on in preparation for Volunteers’ Week with lots of internal awards happening, getting staff involved in the celebrations and sharing news stories of your amazing volunteers.