Faculty of Volunteer
The Volunteer Faculty works in partnership to support and promote volunteering for the health and social care sector, wherever that may occur.
The aim of the faculty is to enhance the role of volunteers as part of the wider health and social care workforce, by
- increasing access to quality training
- supporting the personal development of volunteers
- growing career pathways from volunteering into health and social care
- raising the profile of volunteering, and
- fostering environments where volunteering is encouraged and valued
The faculty works from the principles of:
- Inclusivity
- Citizenship
- Partnership
- Co-design
- Added value (support others working in this space by adding value wherever possible, including delivering joint initiatives with partners)
Korinne Leney
Volunteer Faculty Lead
Head of Volunteering and Community Partnerships, BHSCA
Korinne joined the Buckinghamshire Health and Social Care Academy in July 2022 as the Programme Manager for the Volunteer Faculty. Prior to this, she was the Community Engagement and Development team manager at Buckinghamshire Council, working closely alongside Adult Social Care, Public Health, partner agencies, and the voluntary sector to build more resilient communities and improve the health and wellbeing of people in Buckinghamshire. She is a skilled manager and collaborator with experience of bringing communities and services together to design innovative initiatives.
Korinne holds a Master’s degree in Public Services Policy & Management from Kings College London and a Bachelor’s degree in Religious Studies from the University of British Columbia, Canada. She currently serves as a trustee for the Sexual Assault & Abuse Support Service in Bucks and Milton Keynes, where she has been on the board since 2016, bringing valuable 'real life' experience of the challenges and opportunities for voluntary service providers in Buckinghamshire to her role in the Academy.
Ruth Farwell
Volunteer Faculty Executive Sponsor
Ruth is a mathematician by background with a BSc(Hons) and a PhD, both from the University of Kent. Her career spanning over forty years was spent in different universities, first as a lecturer in mathematics, then gradually moving into more managerial roles.
After two research fellowships, at Kent and Imperial College London, she began lecturing in maths at St Mary’s University, Twickenham in 1982. After heading up the maths department there she moved in 1990 to the University of Brighton where she stayed for eight years, moving in 1998 to London South Bank University where she was Pro Vice-Chancellor. She left there in January 2006 to lead what was to become Buckinghamshire New University as Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive, retiring in January 2015. It was this appointment that brought her and her husband Martin Daniels to Buckinghamshire, moving to a rural location outside High Wycombe where they still live.
Throughout her career and into retirement, Ruth has been active in the university sector at a national level, as well as holding posts in public life both locally and more widely. She currently chairs the South Bank Colleges board, is a member of the board of London South Bank University and also deputy chair of Pearson College London. She also runs her own consultancy and undertakes voluntary work locally, primarily as a trustee of BACO (the Bucks Association for the Care of Offenders) and also as their prison support officer for HMP Grendon.
Ruth was awarded a CBE in the New Year’s Honours 2015 for services to higher education. She has an honorary doctorate from the University of Kent and an emeritus professorship from Buckinghamshire New University. She was made a Deputy Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire in 2015 and served as the county’s High Sheriff in 2018-19.
The Workstreams of the Volunteer Faculty
Working in collaboration with partners, the aims of the workstreams are as follows:
WORKSTREAM ONE
Developing education packages and career pathways for volunteers
- Create opportunities for young people to receive a comprehensive experience in the sector, gaining transferrable skills to support them into careers in health and social care. The Student Volunteering Skills Record pilot project for this is currently underway; details can be found below.
- Improve oversight of the training and education of volunteers with quality assured and evaluated courses.
- Develop a responsive skills passport for use with Buckinghamshire Voluntary Sector.
- Create a career pathway for roles in Health and Social Care by upskilling volunteers.
- Coming soon: working with Bucks Data Exchange on a series of data workshops.
WORKSTREAM TWO
Buckinghamshire Community Wellbeing Hubs
- Co-design and co-deliver physical Community Wellbeing hubs based at Buckinghamshire New University (BNU) campuses in Aylesbury and High Wycombe to benefit the learner and citizen populations
- Create a physical space for health and social care professionals and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) providers to collaborate and co-locate services to improve the health and wellbeing of citizens
- Support student wellbeing and mental health through the hub, in complement with existing BNU wellbeing services
- Provide opportunities for students to develop skills and gain work experience, including volunteering, placements, job shadowing, and training
WORKSTREAM THREE
Promotion of positive mental health and wellbeing – Developing collaborative partnerships with Local Faith Groups and mental health professionals
- Provide a platform for mental health professionals and faith communities to engage in shared learning.
- Build better working relationships between faith communities and mental health professionals, to identify and address barriers that prevent service users from seeking care and advice they need.
- Enhance workforce capability and support ‘first responders’ in faith communities, with access to training, resources, and professional advice.
- Provide student nurses with the opportunity to work directly with multi-faith groups, to equip them with knowledge and skills to be culturally competent professionals. View the Multifaith Placement Handbook here
- Co-design models of supervision, coaching and governance for partnership working.
Currently underway: Working in collaboration with WISE Mosque and NHS Buckinghamshire Talking Therapies.
WORKSTREAM FOUR
Health Inequalities Communities of Practice
- Three new Health Inequalities Communities of Practice (CoP) will bring together those who work and volunteer with people experiencing health inequalities, from inclusion health groups and/or with protected characteristics in areas of deprivation in Buckinghamshire.
- The CoPs will help to build networks in Aylesbury, Chesham and High Wycombe; each facilitated meeting will explore a theme or topic, bringing together those working and volunteering in communities to share lived experience and knowledge.
Evaluating Work Readiness Amongst Young People: A Local Volunteering Pilot
The Academy is pleased to present the evaluation findings from the Student Volunteering Skills Record project, which was carried out by the Volunteer Faculty of the Buckinghamshire Health and Social Care Academy and Community Impact Bucks. The project was funded by the Local Skills Improvement Fund for Buckinghamshire Health and Social Care Academy and included in Buckinghamshire’s Local Skills Improvement Plan to help address the cross-sector work readiness priority.
The overall aim of the project was to develop and pilot an innovative digital ‘Bucks volunteer skills record’ to improve and evaluate the level of work readiness amongst young people and adults throughout Bucks with future potential for wider application and implementation across multiple sectors. The pilot acted as an innovative initiative aiming to create opportunities for young people to gain transferrable skills through volunteering and a potential volunteering skills passport. The evaluation report presents
findings, new data and recommendations for anyone wishing to support young people to get into employment through volunteering.
“In a highly competitive world, volunteering has become the main route to employment. It can provide skills, confidence and knowledge while at the same time opening up networks and possibilities. When this is offered in the context of vital services, such as healthcare, as well as the civil society sector, the contribution to our communities is considerable. I was very pleased to have been involved in the evaluation of this unique pilot, which I hope will become an inspiration for others independently of location”
- Professor Theo Gavrielides, PhD.
The Academy and Community Impact Bucks are grateful to key partners and supporters who made the project possible including Age UK, Buckinghamshire College Group, Buckinghamshire Community Wellbeing Hub, Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, Buckinghamshire Mind, Bucks Students’ Union, Citizens Advice Bucks, Community Impact Bucks, Healthwatch Bucks, Lindengate, Sexual Assault & Abuse Support Service Bucks and Milton Keynes, and Windsor Lodge Care Home.
Developing collaborative partnerships with local faith groups to promote positive mental health and wellbeing
Posted on: 3 May 2024
A new report sets out how health and social care professionals, faith leaders and members of faith communities can work together to identify new ways of partnership working to improve community mental health. Project Steering Group Chair, Professor David Sines CBE, and members of the project team explain the project, their findings, and recommendations in the report: Developing collaborative partnerships with local faith groups to promote positive mental health and wellbeing.
The report also includes research from the University of Bedfordshire to better understand barriers some faith communities might have to accessing mental health support, and an evaluation of the co-design and co-development of a new higher education student placement programme in faith communities.
In the Foreword to the report Professor David Sines CBE advised that ‘Faith leaders and their teams have deep knowledge of their own communities and the ways in which mental health needs are perceived, understood, acknowledged, and best responded to. This project confirms how this level of insight and understanding can be further nurtured and aligned with the professional skills and expertise of mental health professionals to provide more meaningful and intelligible systems of support for our service users. This partnership not only enables us to develop a greater sense of purposeful engagement with members of our local communities, but it also enables us to grow, learn and develop a greater sense of cultural competence and capability’.
This project was commissioned by NHS England (previously HEE) and the concept endorsed by local faith leaders and members of faith communities in 2022. Buckinghamshire Health and Social Care Academy is most privileged to have been involved in the design and leadership of this project which has been steered by representatives from faith communities and faith leaders, professionals in NHS, social care and voluntary organisations in Buckinghamshire, all contributing a wealth of experience and knowledge.
The recommendations outlined in the report will be used to shape the delivery of future engagement and awareness raising, education and training, and research initiatives. These will be actively supported by the Academy’s Volunteer Faculty in partnership with colleagues from the project steering group.
Our sincerest thanks to the faith leaders, community members and volunteers for their contributions to this project, for their insight, honesty, patience, and positivity about what can be achieved in partnership, and for their willingness to try something new. To our colleagues in our mental health services, frontline practitioners, commissioners, trainers, and managers for sharing their experiences and candid reflections, for their motivation to make positive change, and for their genuine passion to provide the best possible care. We are also exceptionally fortunate for the large number of colleagues who contributed as both leaders in their faith communities and as retired or current healthcare professionals, providing valuable insight to the perspectives of faith communities and service providers.
A visual demonstration of how the Volunteer Faculty collaborates with other parts of BHSCA, and works within the wider Buckinghamshire VCSE sector.
In collaboration with Bucks Mind, as part of Workstream Three - Promotion of positive mental health and wellbeing - the faculty co-delivered Mental Health training (Suicide Awareness, Mental Health First Aid (picture to the right) and Mental Health Aware) for Faith-based Organisations in Buckinghamshire in 2022 and 2023.
vv
This training has now been commissioned through Buckinghamshire Council's Public Health team, who are offering, in partnership with Bucks Mind, fully funded Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), Youth Mental Health First Aid and Suicide First Aid training to community, charity or public sector employees and volunteers in Buckinghamshire who work to support people in the community.
See the funded training offer here
Student Volunteering Skills Record Pilot Project
Volunteering is a great way of gaining new experiences, developing new transferable skills, and making a big difference in our communities. This project, for students aged 16+ and studying/interested in health and social care careers, will help students to be matched with a volunteering role and then support students to fill out a Skills Record whilst volunteering, which will help you to capture these new transferable skills.
This pilot project is a part of the Local Skills Improvement Plan, and is specifically looking at developing work-readiness skills in health and social care students.
If you have any questions, or would like help filling in the form, please contact the Volunteer Matching Service on volunteermatching@communityimpactbucks.org.uk or call 0330 2369350.
If you are a Buckinghamshire-base health and social care student, aged 16+, please register your interest by submitting the below Google form. Instructions, specific information and next steps are detailed on the form.
This presentation was used at 'Preparing to Volunteer' sessions, held at Buckinghamshire College Group and Buckinghamshire New University in early December 2023.
Opportunities to get involved with the faculty
There are many opportunities to get involved with the Volunteer Faculty, including:
- Joining a Health Inequalities Community of Practice
- Co-designing and co-presenting as a community expert at a Health Inequalities Community of Practice session
- Co-designing new volunteering opportunities for students
- Co-designing mental health signposting resources for faith communities with NHS providers
- Co-locating a health or wellbeing service, group or activity at the Community Wellbeing Hubs
- Joining other health and social care colleagues hot-desking and working collaboratively at the Community Wellbeing Hubs
- Delivering a health and wellbeing training or awareness raising session for health and social care colleagues and learners at the Community Wellbeing Hub
- Share skills gaps and training needs related to volunteers that can be addressed through our workstreams
If you are interested in getting involved or have ideas about how the Volunteer Faculty can meet its aims:
