Volunteer to Career Evaluation Report - October 2022

Volunteer to Career Evaluation Report

Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust - October 2022

Executive Summary

The Volunteer to Career (VTC) programme, funded by the Burdett Trust for Nursing, is designed to support volunteers who are looking to pursue a career in health and care. As part of Phase One of this programme Helpforce has worked alongside five NHS Trusts to set up, implement and evaluate volunteering projects which incorporate career pathways for volunteers.

The overarching strategic aim of the programme is to positively impact NHS workforce recruitment needs at a local level through the introduction of carefully designed VTC initiatives. By helping volunteers to gain experience that aligns with their career goals, the programme enables the volunteers to explore their health and care career interests, whilst simultaneously building a skilled potential workforce for the NHS. This is achieved through the delivery of a series of projects led by clinical leaders, and other staff, to put in place volunteer roles, and related career support, that aligns with their local clinical workforce needs.

Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust ran a baby clinic volunteer project between October 2021 and August 2022. 5 volunteers were recruited to the project and were provided with support through a career pathway alongside undertaking their volunteering role. At the time of this evaluation report, 4 individuals completed the programme. The programme continues within the Trust, with 1 individual still participating in the VTC pathway.

As a result of the success of this project, the baby clinic volunteering programme is sustained within the Trust and there is now a full-time children's service volunteer coordinator who continues to grow and expand the opportunities for volunteers within children's services. Additionally, a second VtC project was launched focussing on developing volunteer to career opportunities within Allied Health Professions across places in Bradford Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, Bradford Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Bradford District Care Foundation Trust.

This report sets out key insights related to the Bradford project. The evaluation sought to answer four key questions: what was the impact of the VTC programme on:

1. Corporate behaviours towards volunteering
2. Enabling individual volunteers to progress towards a career in health and care
3. The attitudes of front line staff towards volunteer services
4. The service users who received volunteer support at baby clinics.

For the full report please download the attached PDF.