In June this year Dr Neil Churchill, Director for People and Communities at NHS England blogged about the need to invest more in NHS volunteering to reap the benefits for patients, staff and the volunteers.

The Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England periodically fund research and discuss volunteering in the NHS. However, the focus tends to be on directly managed volunteers in a hospital setting, rather than volunteering in a wider health setting, with direct and indirect links to the NHS.

Dr Churchill’s blog and the associated report also adopt this approach. However, one can’t help feeling that something is missing…

The people…over 3 million of them!

So, there are a few hundred thousand volunteers in England who are managed by hospital volunteer managers, but according to the Department of Health’s Strategic Vision for Volunteering, “around 3.4 million people volunteer in health alone”, indicating the vast majority of volunteering within the NHS happens within independent organisations that support the work of the NHS.

For example, local hospital friends groups, who between them have 25,000-35,000 volunteers and 10 times that number of supporters in the community.

So, NHS related research and conversations tend to studiously ignore the bigger picture. Why is this?

• Unaware? Is it because the DHSC and NHS England are not aware that the majority of volunteering in health and social care happens within independent organisations that support the work of the NHS?
• Too difficult? Is researching the many and diverse ways in which 3.4 million volunteers contribute to the work of the NHS too complex for the researchers, or that they haven’t got access to these volunteering networks?
• Too expensive? Would researching this vast field of volunteering cost too much money?
• Can’t see the point? Is it that NHS staff feel they have enough volunteers for the roles that can exist within a hospital setting, and that there is no vision or appetite for engaging the wider community?
• Is it political (small ‘p’)? Is it because this volunteering is part of the wider community and cannot be controlled with the same rules… and that the research findings are likely to point to a need for a different, more nuanced approach to volunteer engagement, which is not within the skills set of many NHS staff?

Whatever the reason, the research hasn’t been done and steadfastly continues not to be done. This is a travesty, when one considers the first line of the NHS constitution is:“The NHS belongs to the people.”

Any volunteering strategy needs to create a climate where people can help where they can, and it’s the role of NHS organisations to engage the community first, and manage volunteers second.

To date however, none of the published research focuses on the first ‘strategy’ of community engagement. It focuses on the second ‘tactic’ of managing volunteers. Ever since hospitals set up their own volunteering programmes in the mid 1960s, it appears the horse has followed the cart, and keeps following the cart. It’s tactics without strategy, which according to Sun Tzu,  is “The noise before defeat“.

So, after the positive public response to the NHS during the Covid-19 pandemic, we have an opportunity to get this right. Someone, somewhere in the NHS needs to get this, and explore how to engage the community first and manage volunteers second.

For example, this could take the form of researching where community engagement works well in particular parts of the NHS. There could be exploration of instances where independent organisations and hospitals work well together, and what makes this work well, like a MoU they have worked on between them.

We just need to see what good looks like and then share this to the people (the managers, the staff, the volunteers, the community groups, the press, the politicians and the wider public). The NHS belongs to all these people …

Every now and then a prominent member of the volunteer management community reminds us of the inappropriate use of the phrase “using volunteers”.

The argument often put forward to avoid this phrase is that this is more than mere semantics, as the language we use around volunteers and volunteering speaks volumes about the way they are viewed, regarded and respected in our organisations.

The evolving VM position of ‘Thou shalt not use the phrase using volunteers’ was reinforced in 2018 by Rob Jackson, who was Third Sector’s ‘Voice of Volunteering’ for nearly 10 years. He cites (sarcastically) a few things that charity leaders can say which create a nightmare for volunteer managers. One of which is that charity leaders who don’t get volunteering will often promote the phrase “using volunteers”.

We are told that any organisation that uses this term means that volunteers aren’t seen as part of the team but a resource to be used and disposed of.

…But people dedicated to a cause use this term without a second thought – Dedicated people who are not overfamiliar with the nuances of volunteer management, who seek to use volunteers to make the world a better place.

Who are these dedicated people using the phrase “using volunteers”?

They are passionate about their cause; they are strategically savvy; they are spinning operational plates in the midst of the ever more VUCA* world; they are tenacious and committed to tacking the challenges they face on their journey. In short, we love these dedicated people, and we need the impact they have in our communities!

These dedicated people use paid staff, use resources, use their own imagination…and use volunteers – anything that can enhance the delivery the service. George Bernard Shaw’s quote sums it up:

“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognised by yourself as a mighty one… I want to be thoroughly used up when I die.”

Consider when we volunteer. We are more than happy to be used for a worthwhile cause. We don’t really want the spotlight to be on us. The whole point is to be used for a cause that isn’t about us…

So, what might be the impact if a ‘Thou shalt not use the phrase using volunteers’ is endorsed as a volunteer management commandment and followed religiously by the VM community?

Dedicated people
– Might be made to feel they are ignorant and undermined, and that people do not trust their intent.
– Might be less likely to engage with the volunteer management community.

Volunteer management community
– Might be more cynical whenever they hear a person using the term “using volunteers”, regardless of whether they are trying to make the world a better place.
– Might be less likely to engage with these dedicated people.

We need something better than this…

We need to develop dialogue and engagement – not focusing on the semantics but focusing on the outcomes – the “what we are using volunteers for”(!)

Even raising the issue of the semantics is a trap! It arguably helps no-one and achieves nothing – actually less that nothing – it can be detrimental.

So here is another approach…

Whenever you hear anyone using the term “using volunteers”, verbally or in writing, ignore it. Look like you never even heard it and get engaged in the conversation about what the volunteer are being used for(!). Focus on the better world that dedicated people are trying to create…

What might be the impact of this more accepting approach by the volunteer management community?

Dedicated people
– Might be fully engaged with the volunteer management community to optimise the contribution that volunteers can make to their communities.

Volunteer management community
– Might be perceived as a community that can see the wood for the trees, and an important community to be engaged with.

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* VUCA – Volatile Unpredictable Complex Ambiguous