Healthwatch group’s Peterborough volunteers praised as it wins top award

Healthwatch Peterborough has been awarded the July 2020 Investing In Volunteering (IiV) Quality Mark – the UK quality standard for all organisations that involve volunteers in their work.
CEO Sandie Shaw told members at their online Health and Care Forum last week: “We found out just a few days ago that we’ve been awarded the Quality Mark by Investing In Volunteers, the highest standard in the UK for organisations like us who rely heavily on volunteers and the wonderful work that they all do.

“We’re really proud of this award which has come about as the result of a lot of hard work by our team of volunteers and shows how much we value them.”

In June, Healthwatch Peterborough had an online assessment visit and, as a result of that, in July were awarded the IiV Quality Mark for the first time.

Heather Lord, Volunteer Manager, reflecting on how volunteering has been affected by the onset of Covid-19, said: “IiV provided us with an opportunity to gather and review our volunteers’ experiences and work together to find new ways of promoting policies, applying practice and helping to engage volunteers during the crisis.”

A spokesperson for IiV said: “Healthwatch Peterborough are a thoroughly worthwhile, well organised and useful process. We would certainly recommend them to anyone thinking about volunteering, but who may be a bit unsure as to whether to go ahead.”

IiV is the UK quality standard for good practice in volunteer management. Enhance volunteers’ experiences and increasing their motivation. They also strengthen an organisation’s reputation and encourage more people to volunteer.

Achieving the IiV Quality Mark standard shows an organisations’ volunteers – and potential volunteers – how much they are valued and gives them confidence in the ability of that organisation to provide an outstanding volunteer experience.

Over 1,000 organisations have achieved the IiV Quality Mark award throughout the UK, ranging from small community groups that are totally volunteer-led to large national multi branch charities that have thousands of volunteers.

Healthwatch are the independent champion for people who use health and social care services whose sole purpose is to understand the needs, experiences and concerns of people who use health and social care services and to speak out on their behalf, working to get services right for the future.

Healthwatch Peterborough can be contacted on 0330 355 1285 or www.healthwatchpeterborough.co.uk and anybody interested in volunteering should contact Heather Lord, Volunteer Manager: [email protected]