The Volunteer Development Agency has a keen interest in supporting volunteering in the statutory health and social care setting with many examples of services being provided or enhanced by the involvement of volunteers and the most recent research showing that almost 16,000 people are involved in volunteering in a statutory Health and Social Care setting in Northern Ireland.

Please click here to view the "It's all about time - Volunteering in the Public Sector 2007 Summary Report"

Volunteering in Health and Social Care Forum

The Agency plays an active role on the Volunteer Managers in Health and Social Care Forum which aims to proactively lead on and facilitate initiatives to improve the involvement of volunteers in Health and Social Service Trusts across Northern Ireland.

For more information on the Forum please click here for Terms of Reference.

For current membership of the Forum please click here.

Celebrating Today, Planning for Tomorrow - Volunteering and the Health and Social Services Conference - October 2009

The conference aimed to inspire the further development of volunteering in Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland.

The event was well received and it raised a number of key issues which are:

• Following the NI Volunteering Strategy, consideration of a regional volunteering strategy for Health and Social Care.
• Consideration of a local Charter for strengthening relationships between paid workers and volunteers.
• Further information on measuring the impact of volunteering in Health and Social Care.

The Presentations delivered at the event were:

• Models of Volunteering in Health & Social Care - click here to view
• Strategic Policy to Delivery - click here to view
• The Impact of Volunteering - click here to view
• VIAT - The practicalities - delivered by Diane Bown (Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust) - please click here to view

The Workshop Notes delivered at the event were:

• Principles of Volunteering - Models of Volunteering in Trusts - click here to view
• Measuring the Impact of Volunteering - click here to view
• Job Substitution and Volunteering - click here to view