Celebrating the difference volunteers make

In West Yorkshire, we believe volunteering adds a unique and effective dimension to the way we reach and support our diverse population to maintain or improve their health and wellbeing. Our ambition as an integrated care system is to offer the right opportunity, in the right place, at the right time to anyone who wants to volunteer in the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership.

We recognise that across West Yorkshire, organisations and sectors have developed volunteering in different ways, and we want to build on this, aligning approaches to volunteering and working more collaboratively.  Through greater collaboration, sharing learning and resources, offering more inclusive pathways into volunteering and potentially into work, and building on good practice, our ambition is to contribute to system wide workforce transformation – including current workforce challenges, patient and volunteer experience, health and well-being outcomes for those experiencing the greatest health inequalities and building system resilience. Our ambition for our volunteers is that each of them receive the right training and development, support and supervision, and that volunteering is fulfilling and meaningful.

Our West Yorkshire Integrated Volunteering Approaches Group is a multi-sector group of volunteering leaders across West Yorkshire who are working together to make this a reality.

The volunteer landscape has seen significant changes over the last few years; from the rise of community response and emergency micro volunteering, coupled with many well-established volunteer programmes put on hold, or volunteers standing down due to health reasons or as a result of the pandemic. At times, volunteers have been viewed as the solution to address vital issues such as workforce capacity within health and care settings. Nationally the Vision for Volunteering recognises these fundamental changes and the need to put the volunteers (rather than what they can do for us), at the centre of our policy decisions to tackle long-standing inequalities.  As Volunteer Management professionals, we are committed to high quality and inclusive volunteering.

Read more about our key principles for involving volunteers in this Volunteer Principles document.