August 15, 2025

It’s been a busy and exciting few months for the Volunteering for Health project. At the end of June, we held our first South Cumbria Volunteer for Health Partnership Board Meeting.

The Partnership Board, which consists of representatives from the Lancashire and Cumbria Integrated Care Board, Westmorland and Furness Council, local voluntary sector organisations and University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, will be key in guiding the project over the next 2 years. We will also be looking at bringing onboard local volunteers over the next few months.

Our Terms of Reference for the project have now been agreed, and we have determined the key priorities which will be focusing on over the course of the programme which will run until March 2027. These include:

• A focus on volunteering for personal health through the development of a more targeted approach in using volunteering to support individuals with their own health and wellbeing aspirations
• A mapping exercise of existing health and social care volunteering opportunities currently on offer within the health service and local organisations
• Exploring ways to expand and diversify the range of volunteering opportunities available within health care settings and organisations
• Creating links between volunteering and potential future job opportunities to encourage people to consider a future career in health and social care
• Encouraging all health and care providers to adopt and proactively implement a volunteering policy for employees
• Exploring ways of encouraging more young people into volunteering as a pathway into a career
• Developing partnerships with higher and further education establishments and schemes to promote the benefits of volunteering in developing practical experience to complement learning
• Developing more opportunities to enable those with lived experience to be involved in shaping the development and delivery of new and existing services

In addition, from September we will be starting consultation around the South Cumbria Volunteering Strategy which will develop a Vision for Volunteering for the future based on local priorities and the changing volunteering landscape. The strategy, due to be launched in June 2026, will set out the steps we will take to build resilience and strengthen our network of volunteers to support the work of organisations across local communities in the longer term. The consultation process, which will take place between September and December, will involve a series of face-to-face stakeholder events along with an online questionnaire for volunteers and volunteer managers. Details of the events will be listed on our website from September.

Work on the priorities and strategy will be led by our South Cumbria Volunteering for Health Strategic Leads, Caroline Burden and Sarah Coutts.