HOSPICE UK: VOLUNTEER TO CAREER PROGRAMME (ROUND 2)

Six grants of £10,000 area available to hospices in the UK, the Channel Island and the Isle of Man to support the professional development and recruitment of volunteers considering a career in healthcare.
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o Application deadline: FRIDAY 20th SEPTEMBER 2024 at 5pm.
o Funder: Hospice UK (founded 1992. Charity number 1014851. Total charitable expenditure during the year ended 31 March 2023: £7,782,000 (2022: £105,145,000; 2021: £263,564,000)).
o Who can apply: independent adult and children’s hospices based in the UK, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man that are members of Hospice UK.
o Key words: Hospices, Volunteers, Career Development, Healthcare, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, United Kingdom.
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Hospice UK’s Volunteer to Career programme will award grants of £10,000 each to up to 6 hospices to support the professional development and recruitment of volunteers considering a career in healthcare.

In addition to the 6 grants available, Hospice UK and partner charity Helpforce will:

o Help each participating hospice to identify and build internal capacity to deliver the work.
o Help each hospice to find and match interested volunteers from their local communities.
o Provide a blended learning programme for participating hospice Clinical Leads, who will work within their hospices to mentor the new volunteers, and
o Help with project planning and data collection to build evidence of the value of the project.

In Round 1, Hospice UK supported 4 hospices to implement the programme. Round 2 is currently open to applications with a deadline of Friday 20th September 2024.

The volunteers taking part in Volunteer to Career will undertake 60 hours of certificated training over the course of one year. The training will require support from a dedicated Clinical Lead at their hospice.

By the end of their training, volunteers will be supported onto a career pathway aligned to each supported hospice’s identified workforce needs i.e. either via a university course, workplace apprenticeship, or paid employment route into eventually becoming a healthcare assistant (clinical band 2 or 3) or a nursing associate (clinical band 4).

On Tuesday 23rd July 2024, Helpforce ran an online information webinar to discuss the Volunteer to Career programme and the grant application process. A hour-long recording of the webinar can be found at this link to You Tube, while slides from the webinar are available at this LINK.

Further information, guidance and details about how to apply is available on the Hospice UK website.

The deadline for applications for Round 2 is 5pm on Friday, 20 September 2024. Applicants are expected to be informed whether or not they have been successful at the end of October 2024.