There is much to celebrate about volunteering in Scotland's NHS. Every day of every year many volunteers make valuable contributions to improving the nation's health. They are active in many different healthcare settings, including hospitals and they perform an astonishing variety of roles.
Keeping it a national success story is in all of Scotland’s interests. Maintaining this success will depend largely on an ability to take account of current and future changes in the delivery of health care, changes in the wellbeing needs of communities and changes in society which impact on volunteering. Finding ways of working this change to Scotland’s advantage will be vital to keeping volunteering in Scotland’s NHS a success.
For these reasons and others the Scottish Government published its Refreshed Strategy for Volunteering in the NHS in Scotland in February 2008.
Refreshed Strategy - This section of the website provides readers with information on the background of the Refreshed Strategy, the Refreshed Strategy Document and what is being done to implement the Refreshed Strategy.
News -This section includes news items about volunteering in the NHS.
Events - Go here for details of past, current and future events on volunteering in the NHS.
Events Calendar - Find out what is happening and where to support volunteering in the NHS.
Investing in Volunteers - One of the key aims of the Refeshed Strategy is to bring more consistency to volunteering in the NHS. Every NHS Board in Scotland has been asked to achieve the Investing in Volunteers quality standard.
Meetings - Go here for details of meetings of the National Group (established by the Scottish Government to help drive the strategy forward) and meetings held for NHS Voluntary Services Managers
Resources
This section includes:
- case studies (text and short DVD clips) which illustrate how volunteers help the NHS to improve patients/users lives
- strategy publications which includes guidance documents and reports
- publications which includes reports on volunteering in health from a variety of sources
- examples of individual NHS Boards strategies/ action plans and policies on volunteering
Key Contacts
Contains details of:
- NHS Board Nominated Leads on Volunteering
- National Group Members
- NHS Voluntary Services Managers
- Volunteer Centres
- Volunteer Development Scotland
Discussion Forums - This section provides access to both live and past discussion forums that have been held with key groups relating to the Refreshed Strategy for Volunteering in NHS Scotland.