Title of post: Volunteer Coordinator (Community Partnerships)

Location: 35 Salem Street, Bradford BD1 4QH

Responsible to: Project Leader 

Salary: £21,166 pa

Hours of Work: 37.5 hours per week (excluding a 30 min unpaid meal break) to include some evening and weekend working.

OVERVIEW

Across Bradford District the health and care system is being supported to work in collaboration to build a future model for both service provision and commissioning through eleven Community Partnerships.

Community Partnerships (CPs) are Bradford, districts, and Craven’s way of delivering integrated community, health care and wellbeing services through locally led partnerships covering communities of 30-60,000 people.  These were created to give community-based staff and local people the opportunity to say what is important to them based on their local knowledge and information to ensure that future health, care and wellbeing services meet their needs.

Each Community Partnership has a leadership team which consists of a range of health and social care providers including the Voluntary and Community Sector, who work collaboratively to identify local population needs. The teams lead on the development, design, implementation, and evaluation of service improvement initiatives. These initiatives ensure the most effective and efficient use of existing resource to offer both reactive and proactive enhanced out of hospital care and support to people with the greatest need to remain happy, healthy and at home.

THE ROLE

The Bridge Project is looking for a resourceful, motivated individual to become a Volunteer Coordinator working across the communities served by the following GP Practices: Haigh Hall, Shipley, Cowgill, Thornton and Denholme, Sunnybank and the Willows. The aim of the Volunteer Coordinator’s role is to manage all elements of a volunteer scheme in primary care including the recruitment, training, placement and retention of volunteers. The Volunteer Coordinator will co-design a delivery model, that will enable volunteers to use their life experience and ability to improve the health and well being of patients through the provision of a broad range of activities.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

The Volunteer Coordinator will:

Map Needs

• Working with health care professionals, patient representatives and other relevant stakeholders conduct a needs assessment of volunteer requirements across designated GP practices. This will include:
  • Existing volunteers’ capacity, roles and skills.
  • Current volunteering activity and practises.
  • Future capacity, needs and skills requirement for volunteers.
  • Gaps in provision, requirements for volunteering activity/initiatives based on practice/health care needs.  Based on data and needs analysis produce a project plan, recruitment strategy and proposed activity programme.

Develop Procedures and Policies

• Contribute to producing a training manual, protocols and operational procedures in relation to the running of the scheme.
• Contribute to policy development linked to the broader provision of volunteering activity both internal and external to Bridge.

Manage Relationships

• Maintain excellent, collaborative relationships with all stakeholders, including but not limited to volunteers, patients and their representatives, practice staff, community organisations and Bridge colleagues.
• Communicate effectively with practice staff, ensuring the continuous provision of a service that is both high quality and relevant to the needs of patients.
• Raise awareness and champion the value of volunteering in primary care.

Recruit Volunteers

• Produce a range of promotional materials and information sheets.
• Promote and publicise the scheme using a range of methods e.g. via GP practices, patient groups, community organisations, local media and existing communication networks.
• Recruit volunteers with a diverse skill mix, from backgrounds representative of the local community (with specific emphasis on priority groups where appropriate e.g. people with disabilities, younger people)
• Ensure volunteers are recruited in line with Bridge’s equal opportunities policy and Volunteering recruitment policies and procedures.

Train Volunteers

• Develop and deliver induction, safeguarding, role specific and other essential training.
• Ongoing training needs analysis.
• Source internal and external training to meet specific needs.

Manage and Support Volunteers

• Provide individual and group supervision.
• Deploy volunteers operationally as required, manage rotas and cover.
• Ensure volunteers are respected and valued as members of the team and receive appropriate reward and recognition.
• Provide advice and guidance to volunteers, including vocational advice and support for those interested in routes to employment.
• Develop volunteers in line with their aspirations, skills needs and requirements including access to further training/education and accredited learning.
• Engage with volunteers to gain feedback on the scheme as part of continuous improvement.

Develop Volunteer Roles and Services

• Co-design volunteer roles and volunteer led services with relevant stakeholders.
• Develop a menu of volunteer led health and well-being initiatives in each practice.
• Share and replicate good practice between GP Practices.
• Build links with local community groups, aiming to complement, not compete with existing community activities.
• Manage the budget for consumables and expenses relating to Practice volunteer led activities.
• Examples of volunteer led activities may include:
  • Walking and exercise groups
  • Yoga
  • Art
  • Computer skills
  • Healthy eating
  • Thematic support groups e.g., Pain management, Living With Diabetes, Dementia support, Carers support.
  • Kindfulness

Examples of volunteer roles may include:

• Group leaders/facilitators/tutors
• Drivers
• Self-care coaches
• Health advocates

Maintain Accurate Records and Provide Reports

• Keep accurate records for all volunteers in line with data protection requirements.
• Ensure all DBS checks are up to date.
• Conduct reference checks.
• Capture data and produce statistics and reports on performance, outcomes and quality as required.
• Contribute to the evaluation of the scheme.

The post holder will be working in a developing environment and will therefore be expected to undertake other appropriate duties as required.

Job Description

Application Form