Could you volunteer your time to support NCH&C? | News

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    The latest news and updates from Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust.

Could you volunteer your time to support NCH&C?

Photo of Ann Brown, NCH&C volunteer
Photo of Ann Brown volunteer

We’ve made some changes to our Volunteer Service and voluntary roles – and we’re looking for more volunteers who can offer their time to support excellent community health and care.

NCH&C’s Volunteer Service is delivered by Voluntary Norfolk: a non-profit organisation that helps deliver volunteer services across the county.

Following the contract renewal in March 2024, NCH&C and Voluntary Norfolk has worked together to redesign the service to better support the deployment of volunteers across NCH&C.  

Previously organised by geographical location, our Volunteer Service now focusses on four key projects across the whole trust:

  • The new Willow Therapy Unit
  • Inpatient Units and Reconditioning
  • Community Teams and Outpatient Clinics
  • End of Life Care and Chaplaincy

Each of the four priority areas now has its own dedicated Volunteer Coordinator, with several different volunteer roles associated to each project.

A key aim of this restructure is to achieve greater consistency across the whole of NCH&C in terms of the range of volunteer roles available as well as greater clarity and simplicity for those teams who benefit from volunteer support.

Although there are some slight changes to NCH&C’s volunteer roles and the Volunteer Service team, what remains the same is the commitment to supporting NCH&C’s workforce through volunteering. Our volunteers are a valuable part of our teams; by giving up their time to support NCH&C, our volunteers are in turn allowing our clinicians to spend more time on patient care.

Chris Towndrow, Service Manager for NCH&C’s Volunteer Service, said:

“The contribution our volunteers make to NCH&C makes a real difference to NHS staff and patients every day. By generously offering up their valuable time, our volunteers provide companionship to patients to help them stay well during their treatment and help teams with basic tasks like admin and organising so our clinicians can spend as much time with patients as possible.

“Other than making NCH&C’s Volunteer Service more efficient, these recent improvements change very little about the day-to-day experience of our volunteers, and the teams and patients they support. We always need more people who can regularly offer their time to support our busy organisation. We have roles to suit everyone, from meet and greet volunteers based in receptions and wards, to those providing vital back-office support collecting patient feedback so we can improve our services. If this sounds like you, please do get in touch!”

We offer the following voluntary roles at NCH&C:

  • Activity Support Volunteer
  • Meet and Greet Volunteer
  • Patient Support Volunteer
  • Patient Contact and Feedback Volunteer
  • Stockroom Support Volunteer
  • Virtual Ward Tech Buddy Volunteer
  • Visitor and Team Support Volunteer
  • Visitor Support and Hosting Volunteer (Willow Therapy Unit)

To find out more about volunteering at NCH&C, including all our current volunteering opportunities, visit the Volunteer Service page on our website, or email volunteering@nchc.nhs.uk

Posted in News


NCH&C press office

Enquiries from the media are handled by the NCH&C press office. Our press office only deals with enquiries from the media. If you're not a media contact, there are other ways you can get in touch with NCH&C. Visit the Contact Us page to get in touch

The NCH&C press office is open Monday to Friday, from 9am until 5pm. Please contact us in the following ways:

Tel: 01603 697366

Email: communications@nchc.nhs.uk

For urgent matters that occur outside of the usual opening hours, please contact the press office on 07747115764.

Please do not email us about urgent matters, as this inbox is not monitored outside of office hours.

Media FAQs

How do I request to take photographs or film footage of/at your premises or of your staff/services?

Please get in touch with the NCH&C communications team for permission to film or take photographs of our premises, staff and/or services before it takes place. If we can support the request, we will.

We’ve put together some guidelines which we ask the media to follow when taking photographs or filming at our trust:

  • To help us with your request, please give us as much notice as possible.
  • In order to protect our patients and staff, photography and filming is not allowed in some areas of the trust. Proper consent must be obtained before filming or photographing patients and/or staff.
  • We don’t usually approve requests to film or photograph general shots of our premises and/or our staff or ‘pieces to camera’ that don’t directly relate to the work of NCH&C.
  • We ask all media professionals on site to be accompanied by a member of our staff at all times.
  • Please follow infection control procedures including using hand gel on entering and leaving clinical areas.

Anyone who is found filming or taking photographs at the hospital without permission will be asked to leave immediately, and footage and photographs may be confiscated.

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