The Hidden Workforce

There is a long tradition of volunteering in health or social care, in both the NHS and in the voluntary and community sector. Volunteers perform a wide range of roles from companionship to hands-on caring, to name but a few.

NICVA has been commissioned by Skills for Health, a Sector Skills Council, to carry out research into volunteering in health and social care organisations. As part of this research NICVA hopes to quantify the number, nature and role of volunteers that work in health and social care organisations. The research will also examine the frequency of volunteering, management, development and support structures for volunteers, training, governance and barriers associated with the recruitment and retention of volunteers in health and social care roles.

If your organisation delivers health and social care services and involves volunteers in the delivery of these services then we would be grateful if you would please take a few minutes to complete the survey. The responses from this survey will form an important element of the research and will help articulate the contribution that volunteers make in the health and social care sector in order that organisations and volunteers may be better supported in the future. We also hope to arrange a number of interviews with organisations that involve health and social care volunteers to help us fully understand the challenges and benefits of volunteering in this area.

As part of this research it is also important that NICVA is kept up to date on the nature of your organisation, its primary purpose and beneficiaries. We would be grateful if you could provide this information at the start of the survey. Information on NICVA database categories are also provided.

If you want any additional information about this survey or any aspect of this research please contact the research team on 028 9087 7777.

Other volunteering research

The Volunteer Development Agency has published a number of important reports examining volunteering in Northern Ireland. It's All About Time, Volunteering in Northern Ireland 2007 is the most recent but many other research reports and information about volunteering can be accessed at www.volunteering-ni.org.

The Office of the Third Sector publishes reports into volunteering and provides information on a number of volunteering initiatives across the UK.

Institute of Volunteering Research conducts a wide range of research into volunteering issues and also publishes volunteering statistics for England.