Contents

Abstract 2

Executive summary 3

Volunteering, work experience, interpreters 3

Background 4

Highlights and challenges 5

Top priorities for the coming year 9

Volunteer profile 10 - 16

Partner group supporters 17-18

Conclusion and the way ahead 19

Strategic Actions for the coming year 20

Appendices

Appendix 1: Quad chart 21-22

Appendix 2: Testimonials 23 -26

Abstract

The vision for the future of healthcare at UHS states “Our mission is to be better every day. The drive to improve the health of our patients, and our hospital, underpins our values and is central to our vision of the future.”

Voluntary services is supporting this work by playing a major role in patient care through innovative use of a flexible capacity that operates with minimal bureaucracy to reduce costs whilst enhancing engagement with the local population. It represents a resource with the potential to further enhance delivery of the Trust’s vision.

This report demonstrates achievement to date, and identifies how Voluntary services is working to further develop services to be an even greater asset to the Trust and its stakeholders.

Executive summary

Voluntary services continues to implement and provide a high quality volunteering service across Southampton General hospital (SGH) and Princess Anne hospital (PAH) working in partnership with volunteers, staff and third sector partners. We continue to concentrate on identifying impactful volunteer roles with clear outcomes, indicators and measurements.

Levels of volunteering have not changed fundamentally; however, there has been a subtle shift in reasons for volunteering with more applications from people wishing to support their CV or using evidence of volunteering to access University courses.

Specific priorities for the 3 areas that comprise Voluntary services are:-

Volunteers

To further support and develop volunteer roles in line with the UHS Vision and PIF (patient improvement framework), in particular Mealtime Assistant role and Time for You whilst ensuring good levels of FFT (Friends and family test) and patient survey feedback is maintained.

Work experience

To strengthen work experience programmes within the Trust, review evaluations and further track students to support recruitment and continue to ‘grow our own’.

Interpreters

To continue to deliver an effective service and develop improved retention of volunteer interpreters.

Voluntary services plan to strengthen their role by growing links with other hospitals, (e.g. via NESTA on a young volunteers funded project) with a view to looking to new and innovative ways to provide benefit to UHS via volunteering

The voluntary services area has reached a level of maturity to develop a clear Mission Statement. This will then set the ‘target’ for the future direction of Voluntary services and provide a touch-point to report progress against.

The Mission of Voluntary services is to play a high positive impact role in patient care through innovative use of a flexible, dedicated and widely skilled voluntary workforce that operates with minimal bureaucracy to reduce costs and help improve clinical outcomes and the patient experience. It does this through integrated working at all levels and across all disciplines of Trust staff and by enhancing engagement with the local population. It represents a resource with the potential to further enhance delivery of the Trust’s vision

Background

Volunteering has once again been high on the political agenda; In February 2015, Prime Minister David Cameron announced that, if re-elected, the government will send 50,000 unemployed 18-21 year olds on placements to charities and volunteering groups. NHS England stated the ‘NHS are committed to do more to hear the voices of young people of all ages and to ensure they have opportunities to get involved in social action and make a difference to others’. The five year forward view from NHS England October 2014 promotes volunteering within the NHS.

Active citizenship forms part of the National curriculum for schools and seeks, amongst other things to improve the employability of young people. Many employers have a section where applicants describe voluntary work undertaken, Universities are demanding evidence of this. The NCVO (National Council for Voluntary Organisations) report highlighted how volunteering can be used to help people at ‘transition’ points, to find a new job, bereavement, a new purpose in retirement etc.

ACEVO (Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations) has set up a task force of health and social care charities to devise a plan to provide more support to relieve pressure on the NHS. CSV (Community Service Volunteers) and NAVSM (National Association of Volunteer Service Managers) have worked together to promote the services provided by volunteers within hospital settings.

The report of the public inquiry into major failings in care at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust underlines the importance of shifting to a more-centred approach to quality (Francis 2013). This is an area where volunteers play a vital role. Volunteers add a more 'human' dimension to care, for example, Time for You and Mealtime Assistants roles, FFTs and patient feedback attracting CQUINs means work is prioritised for volunteers as an appropriate role, all in line with the Patient Improvement Framework (PIF) UHS priorities for 2015/6 which identifies improving patient mealtime experience as well as improving patient experience through listening and acting as key objectives. A major PIF performance requirement is to reduce readmissions, and it is recognised doing so involves an extensive range of factors including nutrition and wider wellbeing during the hospital stay.

Financial benefit to UHS

A report by The King's Fund, ‘Volunteering in acute trusts in England: Understanding the scale and impact is based on the first national survey of volunteering in hospitals’ states every £1 invested in volunteering in the NHS yields services worth £11 in return. Our volunteers give 126,150 hours x £11= £1,199,000 per annum using this formula, however another way of calculating is to use a Viva and the basic hourly rate of a Band 2;

841 volunteers x 3 hours per week x 50 weeks per year x bottom of Band 2 with on costs £8.79 per hour; the following is demonstrated:

Total Number of Hospital (patient contact) Volunteers

Total Hours Per Week Volunteered by Volunteers

Total Hours Gifted Per Year by Volunteers

Total Annual Value of Volunteer Involvement

841 2,523.00 126,150.00 £1,108,858.50

If the income raised by the 2 Leagues and the good will and positive media and public patient involvement were added this figure would be a great deal more. The budget for voluntary services is under £110,000 therefore we still bring in and manage the equivalent of nearly £1million in time.

The changing environment for volunteering

1. Greater political and societal priority for volunteering In February 2015, Prime Minister David Cameron announced that, if re-elected, the

government will send 50,000 unemployed 18-21 year olds on placements to charities and volunteering groups. This issue is set to affect increasing numbers of groups with volunteering being high on any government agenda. We are already engaged in delivering a similar initiative by working in close partnership with the UHS Training and Education (T&E) team and the Prince’s Trust Programme, Wheatsheaf Trust and Job Centre Plus. We enable this group of unemployed young people to access experience in the work place via work experience and thereby providing them with evidence of work experience for their CV; we have been successful in recruiting a number of these young people to the Trust – a process of ‘growing our own’.

Charitable giving and fundraising continue to thrive, however there are signals that there is a slight shift towards the giving of goods and time (i.e. volunteering) rather than funds. There is greater interest from businesses in supporting through employee volunteering. There is evidence of this in UHS in 2014 with Aviva, John Lewis, Ramboll and others, all of whom gave time to this Trust.

Volunteers used to operate at a local level but we now find ourselves recruiting volunteers from Europe and further. With our in-house interpreter service many overseas and European volunteers are recruited to ensure effective communication between patients and clinicians.

Figures 1 to 3 below show the profile of our current volunteers, whilst Figures 6, 7 and 8 indicate the types of support provided by volunteers.

The changing face and requirements of the volunteering community

2. Today’s volunteers’ aim is changing and they want to add value in higher impact areas related to clinical outcomes and the patient experience. To be effective we need to adapt to the needs of the volunteer whilst working to help meet the objectives and aims of the Trust. Some of the challenges are listed below.

Today’s ‘baby boom’ volunteers demand more challenging tasks in their retirement, looking for new and creative ways volunteers can get involved, challenging the status quo and seizing the potential of a whole new generation of volunteers.

Volunteers have gone from wanting short-term commitments, which tend to put them in control of how, when, where and for how long they participate, to not being interested in ‘just doing’. This huge pool of potential volunteers does not engage as their predecessors did.

Along with demand and expectations of society in general the new I.T. literate volunteer demands a leaner, quicker electronic recruitment process; expecting responses to enquiries within hours not days as with postal methods. Voluntary service managers (VSM) need to be more focussed on the motivations, availabilities and interest of potential volunteers whilst still ensuring that volunteers deliver the objectives of the Trust.

Young people - With citizenship on the curriculum there is an emerging youth social action that appears to be growing. University Hospital Southampton (UHS) have worked with the Step Up To Serve initiative and successfully nominated 18 year old emergency department (ED) volunteer Grace Chaplin as one of the UK’s 50 ‘#IWILL’ ambassadors. In this capacity Grace has also been involved in developing the Southampton Children’s Hospital Youth Partnership (SCHYP) forum and training other young volunteers to lead on a new initiative in ED. Young people may choose to engage in volunteering or work experience to gain skills and improve employability. See Figure 4 and 9 for 2014 work experience statistics.

Practical action in the service of others benefits hospitals as well as the young people who are participating. It is important to identify appropriate activities for young people. The latest community life survey states that young people aged 16 – 25 are now more likely to volunteer than people in any other age group. To this end the Voluntary services manager has successfully bid for funds under the NESTA Young people helping in hospital programme to further develop this work.

An ageing population with healthy life expectancy increasingly brings alternative new challenges to voluntary services. The skills, time and resources of older people represent an opportunity to engage with them to release their potential in volunteering.

However, with the rise in retirement age, some people are working longer and volunteering can play a critical role in developing new transitions from work to retirement. One challenge is considering how to meet the needs of an ageing

population whilst still providing opportunities for the young. We need to remain flexible and offer variable volunteering opportunities.

A Growing Opportunity: making volunteering a truly integrated element of service/healthcare delivery

3. Relationship with other organisations and the benefits to the TrustVoluntary services are working to engage with other organisations to expand and optimise the service delivered to this Trust and its staff and patients, we are currently developing work in the following areas.

Integrated care – Now, more than ever, we need to strengthen partnerships between local and national volunteer organisations. These organisations can help our patients access the right information and services and connect people to strengthen support networks, in turn helping to reduce readmissions.

As a department we are currently working with colleges to recruit BTEC students and provide them with an appropriate programme of work experience. This means changing what we do and providing one full day per week of varied tasks over an academic year of 40 weeks. The need of the students to demonstrate experience in a healthcare setting is in response to the universities making proof of this mandatory. Their needs and those of the Trust have to meet, therefore the Voluntary Services Manager has devised a programme of a day consisting of friends and family test surveys (FFT), mealtime assistant (MTA) and patient surveys in areas of need, for example the emergency department (ED). This has proven to be very successful and the matron is embracing the programme, realising the value of these students helping to achieve a 29% return on FFTs.

Growing the existing relationships and potential new relationships to provide still greater benefits

4. Voluntary services are also working to support the work of the Training and education department in health care assistant (HCA) recruitment and retention providing work tasters, work experience shadowing and observing and regular voluntary commitment to enable prospective HCAs to experience, firsthand, what the job entails and give them a realistic view and expectations of the role as well as a clear understanding of the career pathway, in turn improving retention of staff.

Achievements 2014/5

5. Please see Appendix 1 for more detail

Measures to improve patient experience

Re-launched and established Time for You Established mealtime assistants volunteer role on medicine for older people wards with mature volunteers lunchtimes Established wheelchair service for patients (to visit shops/outside) Maintained patient survey data gathering via tablets Introduction of the first PAT Cat to work alongside our 6 Pets as Therapy dogs. Supported recruitment and training to introduce and establish Scouting in SGH

programme Volunteers facilitated activities at Ready Steady Go transition clinics in child health

Volunteer recognition and awards

Hospital heroes team of the month award for Time for you Mayors awards for volunteers, 10 UHS volunteers successfully nominated Successful nomination of #iwill ambassador (only 50 ambassadors nationally) Successful Long service award event recognising volunteers held in house 3 volunteers and VSC attended Buckingham Palace garden party Radio Lollipop celebrated 20 years of operation within UHS Talking Echo celebrated 40 years of volunteering with the Trust 2 interpreter training programmes recruited and trained 30 new interpreters

Financial

Successful NESTA bid to work with young people helping in hospital programme. Figure 5 shows a useful tool, the Theory Of Change chart adopted from the NESTA programme.

Established a robust system of gathering, recording and uploading FFT data to support CQUIN, helping to achieve 63% in March 2015

3 companies gave of their time Employee volunteering, Sainsbury’s, Aviva and Ramboll carrying out surveys and a deep clean

Improved communication, public engagement and investing in our future workforce

Established links with education providers to pilot student dual role of mealtime assistant and Time for You volunteer

Social media accounts set up and active; Facebook and Twitter Learning difficulties student visit from Eastleigh college for work experience E-newsletter established by students for students to support retention Implemented electronic references to ensure timely and effective recruitment Supported Hospital radio with their move Extensive support and recruitment for League of Friends of Exec and members Eye Unit League support and identified Exec volunteers Princes Trust places sourced for work ready unemployed

Priorities for the future

6. Our priorities for the future are directly linked to our mission statement, to enhance engagement with the local population and support staff to improve clinical outcomes and improve the patient experience by spending time with them, supporting patients at mealtimes and thereby releasing staff time to care.

The voluntary services team will mount an aggressive recruitment campaign to engage and recruit young people to volunteer as MTAs to achieve the roll out and expansion of the service over ten additional wards in 2015; this equates to 125 additional volunteers. To engage students effectively this recruitment will be interactive, using scenarios to demonstrate the effect of supporting patients at mealtimes. To date, this scheme has been piloted with students at local colleges with a very positive response. The challenge will be retaining these students. The role we are offering is in response to, and in line with one of the prime PIF patient experience objectives of improving patients’ meal experience.

Two roles will be incorporated into the new Time for you role and will meet the needs of the Trust, releasing staff time to care, and the needs of the student for appropriate experience to support their CV and UCAS application. To retain these students we will continue to support and identify a student ambassador to cascade an e-newsletter, as well as mentor and train students. We will aim to track students throughout their education and into the workplace keeping in touch to further aid recruitment back into UHS and therefore investing in our future workforce.

Volunteer profile

Figure 1a Ethnicity

White87%

Asian8%

Black3%

Chinese1%

Other1%

UHS Volunteers

white83%

Asian9%

Black5%

Chinese1% Other

2%

Southampton

The graph above shows the ethnicity mix for volunteers, in comparison with those for Southampton populace. The 4% increase in the general heading of ‘white’ is due to the large increase of European volunteers.

Figure 1b Gender

The gender split of volunteers at this hospital is an exact mirror of the figures for the populous of Southampton

Figure 2 Where Volunteers Live

This figure shows the results of a targeted recruitment drive to engage local residents with their hospital and also reduce travel expenses

Figure 3 Age Distribution Of Volunteers

Figure 3 shows a balance of age ranges of our current volunteers. In previous years the higher age range would be the majority of our volunteers. The Voluntary services team have worked to reflect a more even balance of ages and actively sought younger volunteers to complement the work of UHS staff.

This graph reflects the younger volunteer age range accessing volunteering as a means to demonstrate experience in a healthcare setting for their UCAS application.

Further Education47%

Obtained Employment

33%

Ill Health21%

Figure 4 Main Reasons For Youth Volunteering

Figure 5 NESTA Theory of change chart

This chart shows the drive, in line with PIF objectives to improve the patient experience. Using NESTA funds younger volunteers are being targeted in innovative ways to recruit them to the dual role of mealtime assistants and time 4 you volunteer.

This role has been developed and shows the popularity in patients requesting ‘time out’ from the wards.

Figure 6

Where volunteers help

Figure 7

Figure 8 INTERPRETERS SERVICE

In 2014 between 8-4 Monday to Friday the voluntary services office recorded 1345 requests for volunteers to interpret, covering 46 languages. These are the top 15 languages requested

HIGHEST LANGUAGE USE IN 1345 CO

630

107 70 59 50 43 40 36 36 25 22 21 20 16 150

100200300400500600700

Polish

46.8%

Russia

n 7.9%

`

Punjab

i 5.2%

Portug

uese

4.4%

Chines

e/Man

darin

3.7%

Roman

ian 3.2%

Benga

li 3%

Canton

ese 2.

7%

Farsi 2.

7%

Hungari

an 1.8%

Frenc

h 1.6%

Arabic

1.6%

Urdu 1.

5%

Turkish

1.2%

Deaf S

ign 1,

1%

Figure 9 WORK EXPERIENCE

447 students each had a weeks programme here in 2014 an opportunity for UHS to promote this Trust as an employer of choice

UHST Work Experience 447 STUDENTS IN 2014

447

329

118 117

208

122

0

100

200

300

400

500

Students Female Male Age 14 - 16 Age 17/18 Age 18+

Num

bers

7. Partner Group Supporters

Voluntary services works with voluntary and charitable organisations, a snapshot of which are listed below. Voluntary Services recruits to all of these groups and supports in their fundraising in various ways, enabling them to be effective and further raise funds. This is a tangible financial benefit of volunteers to the Trust.

Friends of SGH

An active group of approximately 75 volunteers who raise funds from the sale of goods in their shop, 2 trollies, and 2 tea bars. In 2014 they donated £195,000 to this Trust in equipment and other areas to benefit the patients and staff.

Eye Unit League of Friends

These 30 volunteers remain a dedicated and loyal group of volunteers who are innovative in their fundraising with their tea bar, knitting, collecting boxes, book sales, Christmas market, raffles, car boot and table top sales to name a few

Hospital Radio, Southampton

110 volunteers continue to deliver a 24 hour service to patients of this Trust. They are a strong and enthusiastic group who have served this hospital for over 60 years and in 2012 were awarded the Queens Award for Volunteering in recognition of their outstanding service. They are due to move to SGH site June 2015

Radio lollipop

This small band of dedicated volunteers celebrated 20 years of volunteering at SGH in July 2014; they continue to deliver an effective service across Child Health. They entertain children and young adults creating laughter and ‘serious fun’ through an interactive radio and play service.

Talking Echo

Talking Echo celebrated 40 years of volunteering and deliver their news and information service on memory stick to their blind and partially sighted contacts; they continue to fundraise to support their valued service for vulnerable people.

Pets as Therapy

PAT dogs continue to visit with their owners to the delight of both patients and staff. They bring joy and comfort to many patients and are often in demand throughout the hospital. The first PAT cat at UHS is being introduced May 2015.

Macmillan Centre

The Macmillan information and support centre has a strong team of volunteers supporting cancer patients and their families. They provide a relaxed and friendly environment where patients are able to benefit from information, a listening service, links to local and national groups, and complementary therapies.

Chaplaincy volunteers

This band of 60 volunteers support the work of the Chaplaincy team by assisting patients from wards to services, pastoral visits, arranging flowers, asking patients if they would like to go to a service or have a visit from a Chaplain.

Time for You

These volunteers give of their most precious resource, time, to sit and talk and listen to patients. This valuable service may provide the only visitor they have. This service was re-launched in 2014 and will be developed to include mobilising patients

Guides

A team of very knowledgeable volunteers help guide, escort and support patients and visitors to this Trust arrive at their destination on time and with a smile. This small team are being recruited to support the front of house developments in June 2015 to support patients entering the site via all other entrances

Ward Volunteers

This army of volunteers help in a diverse range of areas and roles, some of which are listed here. Cake and Concert, FFTs, Patient surveys, Admin, Quizzes and Patient activities, Bereavement bleep, Out Patient Departments, Child Health Transition clinic.

Mealtime assistants

This role has proved successful and will be rolled out further across the Trust specifically recruiting college students to cover breakfast and supper times.

Interpreters

Volunteer interpreters give of their time; some are UHS staff and others from the community to interpret for our patients for whom English is not their first language. 1345 interpretations were covered by them in 2014. Figure 3 shows the most called for languages.

Work experience

Over 400 members of the local community benefited from a visit to UHS, facilitated by Voluntary Services (VS) staff. The benefit to the organisation is to promote UHS as an employer of choice and the Trust as a hospital of choice for them and their family

VS continue to foster links with all education providers throughout and around the City to reach a diverse cross section of the local populace and ensure we have potential workforce interested in working for UHS in the future. We have a National as well as Regional reputation for leading the way in this area. See Figure 4.

For a sample of feedback on the value of Voluntary Services, see Appendix 3.

Conclusion and the Way Ahead

The Savile report and Lampard recommendations has highlighted the need for all NHS trusts to review their voluntary services arrangements and ensure that they are fit for purpose and that volunteers are properly recruited, selected and trained and are subject to appropriate management and supervision. Voluntary services should be and is a professional effective service offering to complement the work of the Trust and working in line with UHS vision and objectives. The service needs to stay abreast of NHS changes and improvements.

The report of the public inquiry into major failings in care at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust underlines the importance of shifting to a more-centred approach to quality (Francis 2013).

This is an area where volunteers can play a vital role. Volunteers can add a more 'human' dimension to care, for example, Time 4 You provides patients with someone to talk to who is not a paid member of staff and can be more flexible with their time. As a tertiary centre our patients may come from far away and these volunteer visitors can help lift patients who are low in mood, distract anxious patients and relieve boredom with diversionary activities; all releasing staff time to care.

The expansion of the mealtime assistant volunteer programme not only supports the work in reducing readmissions due to malnutrition, it has proven to be successful in the area of social interaction with patients improved mood. See theory of change Appendix 2.

Looking to the future

The future of volunteering within the NHS will need to change in response to the various pressures and challenges in the context of reforms made to the service. Voluntary services must keep abreast of change, be proactive in delivering the service to complement the work of UHS and be effective in recruiting volunteers with the appropriate skills and strengths needed to support the staff and enhance the patient experience. It is important to match the needs of the volunteer to the needs of the Trust whilst identifying operational targets and strategic priorities to deliver shorter and longer term benefits.

Priority will remain working to the PIF in the following areas:-

FFTs Picker patient surveys Time for you volunteers with patient mobilisation role Further roll out of Mealtime assistant role to 10 additional wards

Voluntary Services must strive to keep one step ahead of the needs of the Trust and its patients, to ensure when volunteers are required for roles they have already been identified and trained ready to support the work of the staff. An example of this is the shift in Populace within Southampton. With Countries joining the EU and members being able to travel to settle in the UK, it is imperative that we train volunteer interpreters in these languages in preparation for patients needs. Hungarian is a new language being requested more often, we need to train more Romanian and Bulgarian volunteer interpreters. See Figure 3

Potential areas to develop

Identify funds for Long Service Awards/ annual trip/Christmas function etc Research retention of volunteer students to track them through Uni and med school

to enhance future recruitment and support career pathways Review or identify funding to run regular Interpreter courses if the in house service is

to be continued

Strategic Actions For The Coming Year

It is a longer term goal that standard workforce planning shall include systematic assessment of how volunteers could contribute to the work of meeting the Trust’s core objectives.

Specific priorities for the 3 areas are as follows:-

Volunteers

To further support and develop volunteer roles in line with the UHS Vision and PIF, in particular mealtime assistant role and Time for you ensuring current levels of FFT and patient survey feedback is maintained.

Work experience

To strengthen work experience programmes within the Trust, review evaluations and further track students to support recruitment

Interpreters

To continue to deliver an effective service and develop improved retention of volunteer interpreters

What we are doing Lead and manage over 1096 volunteers - Voluntary Services addresses key

elements of the 2020 Vision and effectively underpins the work of the Patient

Experience strategy and Patient Improvement Framework. Voluntary Services is a

key component of the corporate activity and adds unique and invaluable benefit to the

patient in alignment with performance and Trust objectives.

Run the interpreters service (125 interpreters, 45 languages) – 1345+ calls per year

via Voluntary services to provide interpreters to patients for whom English is not

their first language, ensuring effective communication between clinician and patient

Manage work experience – Voluntary Services fosters links with all education

providers throughout and around the City to reach a diverse cross section of the local

populace which promotes UHS as an employer of choice and the Trust as a hospital

of choice for them and their family.

Achievements 2014/5 Re-launched and established Time for You Established mealtime assistants volunteer role on Medicine for older

people wards with mature volunteers lunchtimes Established links with education providers to pilot student dual role of

mealtime assistant and Time for You volunteer Hospital heroes team of the month award for Time for you Social media accounts set up and active; Facebook and Twitter Learning difficulties student visit from Eastleigh college for work experience Mayors awards for volunteers, 10 UHS volunteers successfully nominated E-newsletter established by students for students to support retention Successful nomination of #iwill ambassador (only 50 ambassadors nationally) NESTA bid for funds young people helping in hospital programme successful 2 interpreter training programmes recruited and trained 30 new interpreters Implemented electronic references to ensure timely and effective recruitment Established a robust system of gathering, recording and uploading FFT data to

support CQUIN, helped achieve 63% in March 2015 Maintained patient survey data gathering via tablets Successful Long service award event recognising volunteers held in house Introduction of the first PAT Cat to work alongside our 6 Pets as Therapy dogs. Supported recruitment and training to introduce and establish Scouting in SGH Volunteers facilitated activities at Ready Steady Go transition clinics in child

health Supported Hospital radio with their move Extensive support and recruitment for League of Friends of Exec and members Eye Unit League support and identified Exec volunteers Princes Trust places sourced for work ready unemployed 3 volunteers and VSC attended Buckingham Palace garden party Radio Lollipop celebrated 20 years of operation within UHS

Appendix 1

Talking Echo celebrated 40 years of volunteering with the Trust 3 companies gave of their time Employee volunteering, Sainsbury’s, Aviva

and Ramboll carrying out surveys and a deep clean Established wheelchair service for patients (to visit shops/outside) Introduced and recruited for a Scouting in Hospitals programme

The benefit we bring to UHSB1. Release clinical and non-clinical staff time to focus on high priority tasksB2. Build value-adding relationships with the public and wider communityB3. Invest in future workforceB4. Enable clear communication for patients' for whom English is not their first languageB4. Improve clinical outcomes (physical and psychological health)B5. Improve patient experience

Plan for the next period – 2015/6 Work experience places for work ready people working in partnership with

Wheatsheaf Trust and education and training Work with Training and Education on recruiting and retaining HCAs and

support with the care certificate

Testimonials/feedback

PATIENTS

From a thank you card -

10th March 2015

Dear Volunteer,

I don’t know who you are, but I’d like to give you a huge thank you for visiting my sister in G8.

Lily has had such a traumatic visit to hospital and has been so worried, and upset, and seems to have had many nightmares that we’ve found difficult to calm.

We (my sister and myself) have made visits a priority but yours was so successful, you really reassured Lily and the hug that you have her made her heart (and mine) sing.

We heard all about you and we think you are an angel.

Thank you

Mary & Lydia

xx

STAFF

From a thank you card -

To the volunteer FFT team,

Thank you so much for all your brilliant work on the friends and family test feedback.

As I am sure you know, we achieved our target response rate in March, and this meant that we achieved our CQUIN and saved hundreds of thousand pounds for the trust.

Just as importantly, we obtained really valuable patient feedback which we can use to improve care for the future.

Thank you so much for making this happen.

With best wishes

Fiona Dalton

Appendix 2

Subject: FW: FFT inpatient, A+E, Outpatient and Day Case reports update

The FFT figures for this year’s CQUIN are in and as Gail rightly said we did it! We needed 20% and we got21% for the final month ensuring we made the yearend figures.

Thank you so much to all the staff and volunteers who helped make this happen.

Erica

Patient experience lead – Juliet C

This data from the National inpatient survey 2014 shows how UHS have improved significantly supporting patients at meal times.

23+ Hospital: did not always get enough help from staff to eat meals

- 2011 47 % 2012 44 % 2013 46 % 2014 35 %

Macmillan – Jo R

The volunteers have responded to the difficulties of the last year with composure and grace and have always kept the visitors to the centre as their primary focus. The centre could not run without the 38 volunteers who operate the meet and greet service or give complementary therapies.

Thank you for everything you did for my dad. I know he enjoyed popping in for a chat during his treatment and how you made his last year a little easier, keep up the fantastic work you all do. It makes a huge difference to families like ours knowing there is someone there to listen and care.

From a carer April 2014

2015 Annual Review Chaplaincy Volunteers

Patients often comment on how the beauty of the flowers in the chapel has lifted their spirits, and others mention how a visit from a volunteer has helped them feel more cheerful and made their time here more bearable.

VOLUNTEERS

Pelumi P – ‘Voluntary work has been extremely useful for my application to medical school. This gave me the opportunity to meet patients first hand as well as been able to engage with them which I will find to be useful in the future. I have also been able to gain invaluable skills and qualities such as communication skills, empathetic skills, patience and many more. I would definitely recommend this experience to anyone considering a career in healthcare.’

Daniel B - 'I enjoyed my time at Southampton, although sometimes it was hard to fit volunteering in with my A-Levels I knew it was worth it. Some conversations I had with patients were humbling and I hope I was able to make their day a little brighter. The experience I also gained enabled me to move onto my next stage of life which was to study medicine at university. The patient contact I had helped me mature as a young person preparing me for my next steps.’

David C – ‘Volunteering has opened up so many doors for me. My dream is to become a nurse. When I started volunteering I had no previous experience of working in a hospital, no idea of a typical ward environment. I was given the freedom of carrying out patient surveys on different wards, from trauma and orthopaedics to cancer care. I quickly got a taste of what life as a nurse would be like and the challenges and rewards that they experience from day to day. I soon began volunteering on A + E on monday nights, a tremendous opportunity as I was exposed to just how hectic hospitals can be at this particularly busy time. I loved it and this experience further confirmed my thinking that I wanted to pursue my dream of becoming a nurse. Voluntary services have done so much to help my achieve my goals, they set up a weeks work experience on The Acute Medical Unit where I got to work alongside every part of a multi-disciplinary team, from doctors to physios and of course nurses.Voluntary services have also helped me pay for my education expenses, so I could achieve the grades I needed in Maths and English GCSE. They have recently approved of a grant to pay for my access course, the final step before university!Furthermore I secured full-time work on ward D4 as a HCA. My experience from volunteering made my transition to working full-time in the hospital very smooth. I had a successful time on D4 and am incredibly excited about the future. I continue to volunteer at the hospital on a regular basis!’

Serena – ‘After working as a Volunteer in the Trust since last December I am delighted to let you know I have now been employed by the Surgical Care Group.

This appointment has been as a direct result of my Volunteer work , and I am immensely grateful to your department for it's part in creating this opportunity for me. I hope to continue to volunteer in the future as I found it an extremely rewarding experience , and I shall encourage others to get involved . I also intend to highlight to my managers the valuable work the Volunteer Dept can offer to them , and encourage them to access this invaluable asset to the Trust’

Sophie BDH – ‘First of all, thank you and your colleagues again for the induction, it was thorough, well presented & organised, fun and very good for boosting the motivation of already working volunteers. In the past 5 months, taking the surveys has taught me a lot, as I have found myself interacting with a wider cross section of people than ever previously in my life. It’s been sometimes joyful, sometimes disturbing, always moving. Voluntary work has both educational and spiritual value for me, as it challenges some lifelong habits and brings me back to appreciate the present moment. I do feel motivated to grow my listening skills further and give more attention to people as a result.’

Bindu B – ‘[My volunteering] has provided me with an invaluable experience. I’ve met some incredible people who have lived such varied and interesting lives. I’ve been assisting in the elderly care and stroke units which have kept my memories of my Nan alive. Whether I am good [as a T4U volunteer] or not, I don’t know but I’d like to share one story that gave me the encouragement to keep doing this. One nurse approached me towards the end of my shift and said “I don’t know what you said to David but he cheered right up after you left. He was quite low before”. The next week I found out that he wanted another ‘chat’ and was pleased to be seeing him again. When I arrived on the Sunday, I was told that he had sadly passed away on the Thursday night. This was very hard to hear but I was able to take comfort in the fact that I had helped him, somehow, in his last week. My time at the hospital is a definite highlight of my week. I see it as not only a nice end to my busy week but also helping me keep things in perspective as I begin the week ahead.’

Lewis H – ‘I’ve just finish my first week of full time work as the receptionist for Radiotherapy, which would have not been achievable if it wasn’t for the voluntary work I managed to get, facilitated by Voluntary Services. Thank you so much for your, and everyone else within voluntary services’, support over these past 6/7 months.’

Mike T – ‘I would like to revisit [the ward] again first thing in the morning; the staff asked if a PAT dog could visit a lady every day. When I was with this lady she spoke one single word, as clear as could be, and that work was ‘Max’. Two staff and I all heard it, and the staff were shocked. I was led to believe this lady has never spoken before, but it was very clear this lady was enjoying the visit. I also had her handing little treats to Max, but I had to put the treats in her hand first as she had paralysis of some sort, but she held them and Max took them off her very, very gently. Now you see why I enjoy this job so much. Thanks.’