Volunteering for the NHS

I think short term work placements (preferably with expenses paid) are a good idea as they can help with getting a job but long term volunteering should not be a replacement for paid workers.

There have been volunteers in Scot NHS for decades. This campaign is targeting a specific age range. Do chuckle a bit at age 24 year old being referred to as young the same as 16 year olds. The campaign info is confusing with the project shown as running from July to August yet when reading down its full details it runs for 6 months!

In the same way that paid work varies, unpaid work varies too.
Unpaid work doesn't always lead to paid work but it can certainly help with your CV, with loneliness and MH.

My DGS worked in our community shop last summer to help improve his social skills his DM's words I am not sure it did as he looked at his phone a lot of the time but he got himself there and was a help with stocktaking.

pinkquartz

Unpaid placements mean only people with money can do this.
The poorer working class youngsters need money for food, perhaps rent etc.
So unless you have family to pay your way you cannot do this.

Wouldn't those people be able to continue claiming benefits while volunteering?
I thought that was allowed as it helps make the person more employable through getting experience as well as giving them access to available jobs, as already said.

I volunteer with the NHS, like Aveline I am a ward volunteer. The nature and scope of any hospital volunteering is extensively discussed between the volunteer office who administer our work, the unions and HR, plus overseen by the governing body of the Trust. Our roles are very carefully planned to ensure we do not carry out any work which is the remit of paid staff. I am not allowed to move patients, adjust their beds, assist them to eat, touch them or sit on their beds or chairs. My role is to talk to patients, something paid staff often have no time to do. I am retired, but we have plenty of young people on the team, most of whom are very happy to volunteer to gain experience, often they are 18 and still at school, trying to decide if they would like a medical career. They receive travelling expenses and do no more than four hours a week. So far as I can tell from talking to them, they are more than happy.

I volunteer with the Police. Before Covid they had a small budget to try out some volunteer work. That stopped at lockdown. They have now asked me to help with the data base of Neighbourhood watch. If volunteers didn't help with some of the routine stuff it wouldn't get done.

I was 73 before I had my first hospitalisation. I was shocked and horrified by what I saw and what I experienced. Some of the nurses thought it was fun time to tease and torment elderly people. I have been hospitalised twice since then and saw a nurse slap a patient. When I asked about this I have found that there are large numbers of nurses who are from agencies' and it is, apparently, these people who are the trouble.

If OLDER people, who are early retired or who have "means" were to volunteer even one night a week, they could be trained as these basic nurses are in a few weeks and stop employment via agencies which costs the NHS (i.e. us) a fortune.

In fact I am fed up with people talking about charities as though they are all such saints. They are not and are very often highly paid.

I tried to get help to complain about the violent nurse and got told it is my job to take the complaint to the Ombudsperson. If that is so what are all these highly paid charity workers doing all day? Waiting around for their invites to Buck House for tea?

Some people need putting out of jobs; rotten nurses for a start.

Volunteering to provide extras, OK. Volunteering to replace paid workers, no.

I had absolutely no idea - until I started teaching adults - just how many youngsters (then aged 14, 15 or 16) had been told in no uncertain terms, to leave school and get a job - or get out. Parents in extreme poverty had no choice but to be that cruel

My parents were obsessed with me leaving school at 16 to get a job - any job - to suppliment the family budget. What I wanted or aspired to was never considered. I always resented them for it.

In order to be accepted to be trained as a dentist, you needed work experience in the field so volunteering was a good way to do this as there were few jobs you could do for pay. This scheme will help young people to get experience for their training applications.

My youngest son got a 2 week work experience at the FTSE 100 company I worked for. They paid his expenses and were so impressed with him they invited him back to do a few weeks work in the school holidays fully paid. This gave him a chance to see that the area he thought he wanted to work in (IT) was not for him. He decided he was interested in HR and the following summer he was invited to help out again (fully paid) with their graduate recruitment scheme. He went on to do his degree in Social Sciences and then his Masters. He has now forged himself an extremely good career helped tremendously along the way by his work experience

I think this is a very good Idea the NHS is finding it difficult to recruit at the moment.

Actually, quite often unpaid internships are preventing paid jobs being created - after all, if you can get someone to come and work for some weeks or months for nothing, why pay?

Volunteering can be different, but,,, if volunteers are doing work at community centres, libraries, museums etc. their input can be disguising the fact that there is a shortage of full-time paid staff. The government office reponsible for overseeing these insitutions only sees that work is being done satisfactorily - they don't ask for a breakdown of hours spent on the individual tasks and whether these are being down by paid, qualified staff or by volunteers, some of whom have qualifications, others are just good-hearted, interested people looking for ways of passing the time.

So I would prefer to see volunteering confined entirely to charities and political parties and no volunteers in homework schemes for school-children, or in cultural insititions or the like.

That sounds like a well-planned scheme, Rafichagran and I’m pleased for your GS. It’s not easy for youngsters to get experience nowadays because of the many modern requirements for health and safety etc. As I said, though, if volunteering is to replace paid staff then I don’t think that’s right.

My comment was in direct response to the header, which referred to some FB friends having been "horrified" by this initiative. They introduced the negativity, and I simply responded to that. Let's just leave it there.

My intent was not to offended you NanaDana - I was was just responding to your words about some people deciding to be negative and confrontational. I was simply taking issue with that.
I was trying (probably rather clumsily) to say that I only saw discussion on this thread, not the confrontation and negativity you saw.

I was not implying that you - or anyone had no concerns about others.

I'm sorry to have accidentally upset you (and possibly others) by my comments.

NotSpaghetti

Maybe you mean me NanaDana when you say "some people"

appear to have decided that their life's work is to be negative and confrontational

I think that is a negative and confrontational comment - and is the first I've read on this thread.

Some of us are concerned for those less fortunate than ourselves and feel it's worth discussing pros and cons.

I've no idea what you've said, or indeed what your views are about anything, NotSpaghetti, so if you've decided that my comments apply to you, then I'll leave that with you. As for the implication that I have no concern "for those less fortunate than ourselves", that's not only "negative and confrontational", that's merely a knee-jerk, rather petulant barb, based on no evidence whatsoever, so I'll leave that with you as well.

All your comments have been interesting and informative.
I have a DDiL who works with disadvantaged teenagers including many homeless and desperate ones. She trained as a psychiatric nurse.
I can't discuss things like this scheme with her because she gets too angry.
Like you NotSpaghetti she sees what's wrong with our society and political system
She is an advocate for the disadvantaged which is admirable but I simple soul that I am need to find a way of addressing the balance without it always being about money, or lack of it
Probably not made myself clear here.

Maybe you mean me NanaDana when you say "some people"

appear to have decided that their life's work is to be negative and confrontational

I think that is a negative and confrontational comment - and is the first I've read on this thread.

Some of us are concerned for those less fortunate than ourselves and feel it's worth discussing pros and cons.

Quote any worthwhile scheme or positive news item, and someone will always come out of the woodwork and find something wrong with it. Sadly, there are some people out there, fortunately a minority, who appear to have decided that their life's work is to be negative and confrontational. I prefer to focus on the positives of schemes like this one, in which young people have the opportunity both to contribute to public wellbeing and to improve their skill sets, and hence, their future employability.

rafichagran - my daughter's internships (she did several) were all in London except for one short one in Leeds. We live too far away for her to travel from home.
She had to have food and accommodation and got her London travel only.
The area she wanted to work in was not available nearer home.

She worked more than full time in her placements for no pay and then more than full time (two jobs) between placements and didn't spend on anything frivolous. It was tough financially (and emotionally) to be honest even so - and we eventually took out a bank loan to help fund her as we hadn't got a lot of slack.

Unpaid work is for the privileged unless like Grammaretto there is funding specifically set up to help pay them.

The NHS 4 week summer placement above is an entry-way to "regular" volunteering (they ask you to commit for at least 6 months at a minimum of a few hours a week). The 4-week thing is to see where you may fit in with the volunteering - not necessarily into a job. That's how I skim-read it.

Some workplaces won't look at applications without experience so for some careers it's a catch 22 if you are disadvantaged.
Happy to say my daughter has been successful in ger chosen career but definitely the system is very wrong.

suedomin My Grandson got his expenses paid for by his employer, and the experience was invaluable for him.
I honestly feel that this type of work placement is a good idea, and it gives a School/College leaver a good idea of the job and if they are suitable for it. I can also lead to a paid job/apprenticeship.

I was a single parent to a teenage son having got divorced and I am sure no matter how hard things got I could manage a lunch box and fares if the situation arose, as I am investing in his future.

Some sections of society couldn’t even manage that, though. If everyone could, there would be no need for free school meals.

I had absolutely no idea - until I started teaching adults - just how many youngsters (then aged 14, 15 or 16) had been told in no uncertain terms, to leave school and get a job - or get out. Parents in extreme poverty had no choice but to be that cruel.

I'd just assumed that everyone wanted the best for their kids, a good education and help to follow their interests. Silly me!

The youngsters who volunteer with us are paid because the government pays the project to employ them.
Some of them like it so much they continue to volunteer or do extra unpaid shifts.
One lad who has been really good particularly in the café has found a permanent job at a commercial cafe.
His confidence and ability has grown noticeably.