Volunteer to career

Helpforce’s Volunteer to Career™ programme is part of the Back to Health campaign - which aims to support one million people to get back to working in health by 2025.

The Volunteer to Career programme is currently funded by the Burdett Trust for Nursing and NHS England. Its ambition is to support more people to explore careers in health and care.

About Helpforce

Helpforce is a charity working to accelerate the growth and impact of volunteering in health and care. Helpforce supports health and care organisations across the UK to give volunteers:

• experience of providing direct non-clinical support to patients, families and clinicians
• exposure to clinical environments and support future training 
• career guidance
• wellbeing support.

Helpforce does this by:

• providing programme leads in health and care organisations  with one to one support from programme managers 
• helping organisations adopt or adapt volunteer roles to suit the needs of the local health and care environment
• helping organisations collect and evaluate volunteer service data, supporting them to make an effective business case for more funding
• providing peer-to-peer healthcare support, training, masterclasses and focused discussions through the Helpforce Network of nearly 1,000 health and care members.

Why Volunteer to Career?

Through Volunteer to Career, volunteers are able to explore potential careers in health and care while developing a range of skills. Helpforce reports that 59% of volunteers secured employment or further education and training after taking part in the programme, and 92% maintained or increased their interest in an NHS or social care career [1].

The programme is a stepping stone for volunteers to gain accredited qualifications, for example NHS England’s National Volunteer Certificate.

Organisations benefit from having highly skilled volunteers who can support patients and families and ease the pressure on staff. Volunteers benefit by being able to use their experience when applying for paid positions in the health and care sector.

St Elizabeth Hospice is one of the hospices taking part in Helpforce’s Volunteer to Career™ programme.

The hospice currently has a cohort of four volunteers on a six/seven-month programme. Over this time period the volunteers each need to spend 60 hours at the hospice (which works out as one four-hour shift per week).

The volunteers are working as ward clerks and ward assistants. These are both wide ranging roles. Part of the programme involves giving people opportunities to gain experience in different areas, so depending on their interests the volunteers will be able to support  other teams as time goes on.

The volunteers have been successfully able to support the clinical team during busy periods. As well as supporting medical professionals with non-clinical tasks , they are a big help with administrative work which frees up the clinical team for other things.

Volunteers undertake online learning as well as on-the-job training. They are provided with a mentor who monitors their progress and gives tailored support.

The hospice’s People and Culture team supports each volunteer around job hunting and career development, including:

• how to write a CV and personal statement
• filling in application forms
• interview technique.

If a volunteer applies for a paid role at the hospice, they are guaranteed an interview. This helps them gain interview practice.

There are lots of different reasons why people might want to volunteer at a hospice. Volunteer to Career has enabled the hospice to recruit from a wider pool of people who are looking for something a bit different.

Working with people at the very beginning of their careers means St Elizabeth can dispel some of the myths about hospice care. Even if volunteers go on to work in other areas of the health sector, they will carry this knowledge with them.

Key facilitators

St Elizabeth’s local Integrated Care Board (ICB) already worked with Helpforce and was looking to expand the Volunteer to Career programme. They provided funding to pay for a clinical lead, who St Elizabeth was involved in recruiting. The clinical lead oversees the programme, supports mentors and makes sure volunteers are getting the training and support they need. This has been invaluable in making sure the hospice had the capacity to commit to the programme.

The ICB has also provided some funding for promoting the programme and targeted volunteer recruitment.

Helpforce provides bespoke support for organisations hosting volunteers. This is really helpful.
 

Challenges

There are lots of areas where volunteers can work in a hospice, but some teams have been reluctant to engage with the programme. It’s important to get a balance between providing opportunities for volunteers and making sure paid staff are valued.

Before the programme started, Helpforce shared a survey template which was sent to volunteers and staff. This helped the team understand people’s perceptions of volunteering and think about what they could do to change some opinions. 

Because the hospice already has an established volunteer programme, Volunteer to Career needed to fit in with existing processes. Helpforce have been flexible about this and the team are able to adapt the application form for all potential volunteers. For example, Helpforce added a question to the form about whether applicants are interested in pursuing a career in this area.

It’s not possible for the hospice to guarantee volunteers a paid job at the end of their placement. To stop this putting off potential applicants, the team have designed the roles to make sure volunteers will get a wide range of experience. This should stand them in good stead to find a role in any health and care setting. However it also means some volunteers might start looking for work before the placement finishes. One volunteer dropped out early because they found paid employment.

Image: courtesy of In-Press Photography via The Centre for Ageing Better.