From the Trust’s point of view: Fran Monson, Voluntary Services Manger, Kings Lynn & Wisbech Hospital & Fenland PCT
Kings Lynn and Wisbech Hospital were keen to participate in Investing in Volunteers as they felt that their policies and procedures were in place but they wanted to reaffirm this was the case. The Voluntary Services Manager, Fran Monson, believes the whole of the voluntary sector should be professionalised and standardised and that procedures should be echoed through an entire organisation. Personally she felt that volunteers deserved more support than paid workers and by achieving the Investing in Volunteers award, everyone would within the organisation would know that volunteers are valued.
The Trust/CVS relationship was already a good one. The Voluntary Services Manager of the Trust sits on the Board of the CVS and Trust volunteers had been on a number of free training programmes run by the CVS. Staff knew each other well and said that they worked well as a team through the IiV process. Initially there was a one day meeting, followed by a another day going through all of the recommendations which the external assessor had made.
The hospital decided not to set up a steering group as the Voluntary Services Manager meets biannually with volunteer team leaders and team leaders met with their volunteers approximately every 6 weeks. In between these meetings, informal meetings took place and volunteer managers ratified all volunteers’ job descriptions, so there was a sense that everyone was on board anyway.
Three staff (the Voluntary Services Manager, Volunteer Co-ordinator and an admin assistant) were allocated to work on Investing in Volunteers. One whole week was dedicated to IiV and one day a week. Although little internal support was needed, all volunteer team leaders were supportive and the VSM was in close email and telephone contact with the CVS, and two further days were spent with the CVS to re-work some policies and procedures.
A basic mission statement and volunteer charter were drafted with the help of the CVS and they acted as a ‘superb sounding board’. It was felt by both parties that this joint working helped to improve the Trust/CVS relationship as the Trust improved its systems while the CVS gained a greater insight into how volunteering works within the health and social care sector.
There were two main challenges; the first being the fact that constitution and committee paperwork was written for voluntary organisations and the terminology did not take into account hospital settings. Hospitals did not fit neatly into all the boxes – e.g. charitable status information etc. Second was trying to get together all the people who the external assessor identified for the final assessment. As the organisation is so large, with over 1600 staff and 600 volunteers, working shifts around the clock, this was problematic. As the assessor required a cross-section of new volunteers, volunteers who had been in post for some time, clinical staff and a Trust board member, the VSM had to be mindful of people who had annual leave, who was off sick or who may simply forget to turn up.
Participating in Investing in Volunteers gave the hospital an opportunity to re-visit their practices, and although procedures were looked at every two years, aiming for the award was a motivating factor in doing this sooner, and in order to sustain this good practice all the information is now written down with step by step instructions for volunteers practices, and will continue to be updated every 2 years.
The organisation has benefited enormously from participating. The VSM’s relationship with the volunteer team leaders (e.g. WRVS and League of Friends) has improved and has a more personal feel about it and as a department, voluntary services has gained clout and recognition, which was one of its initial aims.
For further information, please contact:
Fran Monson
Voluntary Services Manager
Kings Lynn & Wisbech NHS Trust
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital
Gayton Road
King’s Lynn
Norfolk PE30 4ET
Tel: 01553 616 613 Ext 2270
