How to apply to be a volunteer

Buggy (Whipps Cross) 

Volunteers that like driving and would be interested in driving the cherished buggy to help patients, visitors and staff to get to their destination across the site. For this role you will require a full clean driving license.

Chaplaincy

If you are interested in providing spiritual support and have empathetic and great communication skills this role could be the right for you. You will work directly with our chaplaincy team who are well regarded for their expertise in providing a confidential and independent support to our patients/visitors/staff most in need. There is rigorous and extensive training involved so please consider your availability for this role before applying.  

Dementia Buddy

This role is about working with our patients that have dementia. Sometimes they feel very lost and anxious and need that bit of extra kindness and help and as a Dementia Buddy you can really make a difference. You will receive training and support.

Meet and Greeter

This is the starting point for many of our volunteers. We all know how big and disorientating hospitals can be particularly if you are anxious about your appointment and don’t know where to go. As a Meet and Greet volunteer you will play an important part ensuring that our patients’ journey and experience is the very best it can be by helping patients feel comfortable from the moment, they step in to our hospitals

Macmillan Cancer Information

Macmillan is partnered with Barts Health Trust and provides specialist services to our cancer patients. There are several roles for volunteers such as supporting the Macmillan Centres and providing patient information as well as visiting patients on the ward and ensuring that information leaflets are always available.

Active Response Volunteers

The Active Response Volunteer (ARV) role is the most popular role as it is very diverse and every day is different. The ARV is about ensuring that we helping, the patients and areas across the hospital that require our help. Clinicians will either bleep or call volunteers to ask for their help and the ARV will attend the ward or service requiring support.

Some of the things that an ARV might do includes: supporting mealtimes, collecting medications from the pharmacy, helping with patients that are lonely/anxious, shopping or playing games and activities with patients. In addition, you can help patients and family at End-of-Life Care, help resolve visitor and patients issues with lost property or supporting the emergency department when under pressure. If you like to be busy and enjoy a challenge this role is for you. There are over 5 modules of training that you can do to continually develop your training and experience.

 Patient Research Champion

The Patient Research Champion plays a very important role in supporting the clinical research activities and trials. 

There are a number of ways in which you can help us to raise the profile of research across Barts Health NHS Trust and form closer links between research teams and the local communities we serve. These will cover tasks such as making sure we are displaying posters and leaflets for approved studies in our hospital reception areas, offering a ‘lay’ perspective to researchers on the design and development of their studies, volunteering at research events, conducting simple surveys and lots more besides. 

Therapy Pets

Did you know that stroking a domestic pet can have a real therapeutic effect which includes: lowering blood pressure, calming down stress levels, distraction and more besides? Our therapy pets bring so much joy to our hospitals and Have you got a pet (usually dogs) that likes to be cuddled and has an excellent temperament

Barts Guild Trolley, Friends of Royal London Trolley, Newham Hospital Trolley

Barts Health Trust is very lucky to have allies and friends that fundraise and support our hospitals and patients with funding and by providing services to our patients, visitors and staff. One of the vital services they provide is a trolley that takes refreshment items around to our patients.

If you would like to apply, please complete the section available on the application form or contact the team who can support you.

Archives 

Museum host welcome visitors to the museum. If you have an interest in historical artefacts and would like to show visitors around our museums with their amazing history then this is great role for you. 

Archive collections volunteer. Our hospitals have significant archives and we are always looking for volunteers with archiving experience to help us manage the vast array of historical information and artefacts belonging to Barts Health Trust. 

Patient Partners

Barts Health NHS Trust is committed to shaping and developing our services with the involvement of the local community. This includes ensuring that the patients voice is used to inform decision making to improve outcomes for people using the NHS and our hospitals

We have plethora of forums and communities across our hospital where you can contribute and share your patient experience and play your part in helping us to make real and lasting change.

If you are keen to help support your local hospital as a patient voice these are your options as

·       Youth Empowerment Squad (RLH)

·       Patient Voice

·       Renal Peer Mentors

·       Royal London  - Patient Panel

·       Whipps Cross  - Patient Panel

Activity Trolley Volunteers (Clinical)

Do you like arts and crafts? We are looking for friendly volunteers who can take the craft trolley to the wards, interact with patients and get them involved in some crafting.

If you have ever stayed in hospital, you might know how dull and boring it can get and this activity is of such value to our patients and can really help to their recovery and can act as a distraction from pain and anxiety.

Beauty therapies and hairdressers

There is nothing that can make any of us feel better than a bit of pampering and for our patients this is especially important.  

Duke of Edinburgh (DoFE)

We are an approved provider for the Duke of Edinburgh awards. If you are part of the scheme and would like to consider volunteering option at Barts Health NHS Trust please contact: Thomas.conneely@nhs.net

Creative Art roles 

We are currently recruiting volunteers for three exciting roles with Vital Arts, Barts Trust's inhouse creative health team. Our Walk and Talk / Creative Bedside Volunteers support patients on the wards through gentle art walks and one-to-one creative activities, helping to encourage mobility, conversation and wellbeing.

Our Collections Care Volunteer works behind the scenes to help document, care for and maintain our hospital art collection across St Bartholomew's Hospital.

Finally, our Marketing and Social Media Volunteer supports the team in sharing stories, promoting programmes and celebrating the impact of creative health across Barts Health. Whether you’re interested in patient engagement, heritage and collections, or communications, there is a role to suit a range of skills and interests.

Patient leaflet assessors

If you would like a role that support you to volunteer from home, we are looking for volunteers to read through new information leaflets for our patients. It is important to get independent insights in to how accessible the information that we give to patients is easy to understand.

This role requires 2 hours of your time twice a month to feed back your insights in to new patient leaflets. 

If you are interested, please contact Nancy.whiskin@nhs.net  

Please consider the following before applying:

• Are you 16 years of age or older?
• Are you sensitive, emotionally intelligent and have the ability to listen to others  ?
• Are you fit and well?
• Can you attend regularly (at least once a week for six months)?
• Are you legally allowed to volunteer in the UK?

If you can answer yes to all these questions you may be who we are looking for to join our team of volunteers.

We ask for a minimum commitment of six months (or 24 sessions), however many of our volunteers are happy to stay with us for longer.  We ask for a weekly commitment of a minimum of three hours but this can vary according to specific volunteer roles. We aim to be flexible to find a shift that suits you, there are often opportunities to volunteer at the evening or at weekends.

If you are looking for more short term volunteering opportunities such as one-two weeks work experience placements, shadowing or elective placements – we cannot offer this under volunteering. Please contact Healthcare Horizons.

The first step is to complete our online form. We will ask you to give us more information about why you want to volunteer and it’s an opportunity for us to get to know you and what you want to gain from the role. It’s important you read through the role descriptions and select a role you think would be best suited for you before completing the form.

Take your time filling in the application form – the information you provide will help us decide whether you are suitable, we will take into account your attitude, willingness and approach to volunteering.

We receive a high number of applications daily and we have limited roles to offer which means we cannot accept everyone. We aim to find a role to suit your skills, experience and interests. If we aren’t able to offer something with us, we will work hard to offer you alternative routes to getting involved at Barts Health.

Once you submit your application you will receive an email acknowledgment, we will then assess your application and contact you by email on whether you have been successful.

If you pass the application stage you will be contacted by our team to come in for a Group Assessment. This is an opportunity for us to get to know you, offers you a chance to ask us questions, find out more about what our volunteers do and go through paperwork for the pre-placement checks. The assessments take no more than three hours. During the assessment session we will score your performance evaluating your attitude, commitment and approach to volunteering.

You can contact us at any time to find out which stage your application is at. Please check your junk/spam mail for any emails from us or add us to your safe senders list.

The pre-placement checks are required for our volunteers to complete before starting their role. We aim to work hard to get checks processed as soon as we can, however we also relying on volunteers to complete relevant forms, attend training and get in touch when there are delays.

 

Disclosure and Barring Service check

In order to safeguard our patients, staff and visitors all our patient facing volunteers are required to complete an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check (DBS) previously known as the CRB check.

It is difficult to give an exact answer for how long a DBS can take; it can range from between one week to a month or sometimes longer. But as long as you complete the relevant forms quickly, accurately and correctly you can reduce further delays.

 

Occupational health check

Volunteers are required undergo a health screening called an Occupational Health Check before commencing their role.  

The aim of the check is to promote physical and psychological well-being - to assess whether you are fit to carry out the role you have applied for without causing a risk to yourself and others. Prevent any work-related diseases and carrying out assessments to understand how your health impacts on work and identify where additional support is required.  

Volunteers are required to complete an electronic health questionnaire online for the first step. After submitting the form if there aren’t any pending vaccinations or health concerns you are issued an immunisation report certificate confirming your health check clearance. You may be asked to go in for an appointment before you receive clearance. The team offer a range of vaccinations including: Hepatitis B, Meningitis ACWY, Revaxis (tetanus/diphtheria/polio), Typhoid, MMR, BCG and influenza. If you are unsure whether you have had these vaccinations, please get in touch with your GP for clarification.

 

References

You must provide two suitable referees on your application form. These referees must have known you in a professional capacity, this can be your tutor in your college, or a manager at work.

Training

All our volunteers are required to complete a four-hour volunteer induction training. This covers the following:

• Our vision and values
• Teamwork and communication
• Confidentiality and human rights
• Equality and diversity, manual handling
• Basic fire safety, mealtimes
• Children safeguarding (level 1)
• Infection control
• Basic health and safety

We only offer training during the weekdays, we hold sessions in our different hospitals and hold sessions regularly throughout the year.

Placement induction

Once you have completed all your pre-placement checks, training and we have received satisfactory references, you can commence volunteering. You will be invited to come in for a placement induction where you will be given a tour of the hospital introduced to your department and given your uniform and badge.