Volunteer Activity Assistant

Job overview

This is a impactful volunteering role on our adult mental health wards at Royal Oldham Hospital.

We are looking for a friendly, and enthusiastic person to help develop and run activity groups within Adult Mental Health Inpatient Services in Parklands House.

If you want to gain experience, improve your job prospects, or just want to give some of your time to help others, this volunteering role could be for you!

Main duties of the job

The role is intended to enhance the experience of those people using our inpatient services by supporting and encouraging our service users to take part in group activities.

What the role involves:

• Encouraging and supporting our service users to participate in a range of therapeutic and social activities.
• Support the therapy team to plan and deliver activities on the weekly timetable.
• Provide assistance to the Therapy Team to ensure that activity resources are used and stored appropriately.

DBS Level for this role is: Enhanced with adult barred list

The knowledge, skills and attributes required for the role:

• Good communication skills.
• Punctuality and reliability.
• Ability to effectively engage with service users, carers and staff

• Our thanks and appreciation
• New skills and knowledge
• Satisfaction from helping others

Please note: To meet our Trust’s safeguarding obligations applicants for this volunteer role must be aged 18 or over.

We offer opportunities in other services for people aged 16 and 17, please contact the volunteer service to discuss these roles.

Working for our organisation

Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust

We are proud to provide high quality mental health and learning disability services, both inpatient and in the community across five boroughs of Greater Manchester - Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport and Tameside and Glossop.

Our vision is for a happier and more hopeful life for everyone in our communities and our staff work hard to deliver the very best care for the people who use our services. We're really proud of our #PennineCarePeople and do everything we can to make sure we are a great place to work.

We want our volunteers to reflect the diversity of the people we support, and we encourage and welcome applications from people across all our communities.

Volunteer Recruitment

Applying to become a volunteer may seem a little daunting for some people however, the volunteer service is here to guide and support you through the process.

Please be aware that due to the robust process, recruitment can sometimes take a few weeks.

Throughout the process you will have informal meetings with us and the service where you will be volunteering. In addition to this we will require you to:

• Complete an identity (ID) check
• Complete a Disclosure and Barring Service* (DBS) check,
• Complete an Occupational health assessment
• Give details for two references
• Complete relevant training.
• Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check

DBS checks for volunteers are free and the level of check is dependent on the role you are undertaking.

We encourage applicants to join the DBS Update Service which is also free for volunteers. You can find information on the DBS Update Service here: www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

We look forward to you joining us and making a difference.

Person specification

Essential criteria

• Experience or Knowledge of Mental Health
• Good communication skills
• Punctuality and reliability
• Ability to effectively engage with service users, carers and staff