Dawn Slater, Director of People and Professionalism and Chief Nursing Officer had the pleasure of meeting volunteer Steve Perry today, to present him with a certificate of completion, on behalf of Health Education England (HEE) and SFJ, for successful completion of the Health Education England Volunteer Training Programme.
The training programme designed by Health Education England (HEE) and NHS England, aims to ensure that all volunteers in health and social care have the same basic learning and knowledge when they start in a volunteering role and ensures safety within the volunteering environment.
As an organisation Livewell signed up to the volunteer programme on 17 October 2022. All existing and new volunteers were asked to partake in the programme and complete eLearning to meet the six core standards of the National Volunteer Certificate (NVC).
The six core standards are:
- Your role and responsibility
- Communication
- Respect for Everyone (Equality Diversity and Inclusion)
- Safeguarding (Adults and Children)
- Mental Health, Dementia and Learning Disability
- Health and Safety
The above standards are achieved through successful completion of the eleven eLearning sessions:
- Roles and Responsibilities of a Volunteer
- Communications for Volunteers
- Data Security Awareness for Volunteers
- Conflict Resolution for Volunteers
- Equality, Diversity and Human Rights for Volunteers
- Safeguarding Adults for Volunteers
- Safeguarding Children for Volunteers
- Preventing Radicalisation (Basic Awareness) for Volunteers
- Mental Health Awareness for Volunteers
- Health, Safety and Infection Prevention and Control for Volunteers
- Fire Safety for Volunteers
Steve Perry is the first of Livewell’s seventy-seven active volunteers to achieve the six key standards of the programme, completing all eleven core modules in full and logging 60 hours of volunteering experience. Steve surpassed the basic requirement by completing all extra and additional eLearning modules available to volunteers and logging more than eight hundred hours of volunteering experience within Livewell.
Marie Brayne, Future workforce manager, commented:
“When I found out how many hours Steve had given to volunteer in Livewell, which is more than eight hundred hours, I was totally amazed and I could not think of a better person to receive the first certificate. I am so proud of what he has done and the way that he took it on board because he has been volunteering for us for a while and this training is new to him as well as us, so he piloted the programme for us.”
Dawn Slater, Director of People and Professionalism and Chief Nursing Officer, said:
“I have been incredibly privileged today to meet and award Steve his certificate. It has been really inspiring to hear his story and understand his motivation for wanting to volunteer for Livewell but also for the impact that he makes on the people that he has worked with. He has done an amazing number of hours for Livewell, for which we are profoundly grateful. But I think it is important that he acts as a voice for our patients, having understood some of their challenges, and for me and for Livewell what is fantastic is that we have these opportunities for volunteers to work with us.
“I also want to thank Marie Brayne, because she has been instrumental in really improving the relationship of our volunteers and our volunteers are truly part of our workforce within Livewell. We really appreciate their input.”
Steve Perry, Volunteer and Weight Management Programme Buddie:
“I have been a volunteer with Livewell weight management programme for about nine years now and it was when I was going through the programme myself that they started the buddy programme. I thought this was a fantastic way to give back, given the support that the weight management team had given me.
“I thought that it was important that I gave back to them, and we have a succinct set of skills in so much as we know how being a patient and going through the programme, just how tough it can be.
“The buddies provide support for all patients and they can do that in a many ways. We can run coffee mornings, go on a walk with them, offer one on one meet ups or take them to a sports event or they might need some support doing some sort of exercise; anything really that they need.
“We also like to feed back into the weight management programme. If we spot something that might not be appropriate or might not be quite right, we can feed that back into the system so that changes can be made.
“Eight hundred hours, I am not sure if it is eight hundred hours. It does not feel like eight hundred hours! For me, if I helped somebody in one hour then that is great, the only interesting time for me is the next hour that I get to spend with a patient or trying to help somebody, that is the important one. The eight hundred that have gone, that is great, but it is less important than the next hour for the next person.
“The training is easy step by step stuff. Once I started and figured out how to work and use the system, I just did not really want to stop. So that is why I did all the modules, plus a few more. Education is life you know, that is going to give you the background that you need on top of your own expertise which is exactly what you are volunteering is your expertise.
“I would heartly recommend becoming a volunteer. I think you cannot get the same sort of fulfilment from anything when you are giving your time freely to help somebody else.”
