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Most Hospices rely on volunteers to support the work they complete- they help ease the challenges faced. Volunteers have been important since the modern hospice movement, founded by Dame Cicely Saunders in the 1960s…

In the next 10-15 years, hospice’s will face challenges and high demand from the UK’s ageing population. People are now living for a longer time with complex and chronic health conditions. A Help the Hospice survey found that 7 out of 10 people think the pressure on hospice care will ‘rocket’ in the coming years. 

 So how can Hospices make sure their volunteer management systems keeps up with this demand, and ensures volunteers feel connected to the hospice they help?

Exploring what works and the current challenges.

The role of volunteer managers can be demanding, most are responsible for a long list of responsibilities including: recruitment, training and ensuring volunteer recognition…Volunteer managers play a significant role in making sure volunteers have the right resources to volunteer adequately.

A volunteer management system can help volunteer managers collect contact information, preferences, volunteer schedules and stay in touch with volunteers to ensure volunteers know exactly where to go to find the support they need. Luckily, we know a good volunteer management system you can look into- us! You can start a FREE trial with us on our website, and start your volunteer management journey today…

After that little plug, it’s back to business. The covid-19 pandemic has raised some concerns around volunteering in the future, and while all hospices are different, there are some concerns felt across the UK. These include: 

• Management structures and cultures across hospices for volunteering. 
• The importance of volunteers towards hospices. 
• In a post covid world- how will volunteering look?

In other words, volunteers not only help inside hospices, but in the community too. If your volunteer management system doesn’t work effectively, these coils pose a risk for the reputation of your hospice if your volunteers aren’t comfortable.

Managing your volunteers.

Volunteer Managers have found managing volunteers as time consuming and ‘not easy.’ To relieve this pressure, hospices have undergone strategic changes which have been pivotal to understanding more about hospice volunteers and how they can best support staff. 

Similarly, there is some concern that managing volunteers and managing paid staff isn’t always distinct. Specifically the distinction between HR and Volunteer service management is becoming blurred between their roles and skills.

Having a separate volunteer management system for volunteers ensures that your volunteers would know exactly what the roles and responsibilities will have within a hospice. This service can help manage a professional and consistent volunteer programme that works for everyone.

In order to achieve full potential, systems should also listen and engage with volunteers. A two-way communication system is beneficial for hospices looking for retention and improving the overall volunteer experience. With TeamKinetic, we have numerous ways you can communicate with your volunteers. Notifications, email, SMS text- the list goes on. Why so many options? Preferences. Not all volunteers want to be emailed- some may want to receive an SMS text. Above all- communication is key. 

The executive team and inclusivity.

A hospice’s executive team is important in driving a positive and inclusive culture across the whole hospice. Inclusivity within hospices is about treating staff and volunteers equally, but also ensuring access to training and support for all. Everyone should be treated with respect and treated fairly. 

For some there is still a feeling of ‘them’ and ‘us’ culture within hospices. This is divisive and can stop the potential of a volunteer programme being successful. This, along with changing volunteer roles due to the pandemic, has meant that the full nature of volunteering is changing.

However, there is a fear that hospice’s could get left behind and may not be able to compete for volunteers with our programmes. A volunteer management system can help with this. At TeamKinetic, we help recruit, retain and realise your volunteers and the potential they have. If you’d like to have a chat about what we offer, email us at katie@teamkinetic.co.uk  or call us on 0161 914 5757. 

For many, covid-19 has put these issues in the forefront of conversations within hospices, and how they are going to run their volunteer programmes in the future.

The challenges faced through covid-19.

It’s known that hospices attract a demographic of elderly volunteers, which has also been the demographic most affected by the pandemic. This means that hospices have fallen short of active volunteers, as those in older demographic groups need to take extra care (even if they’ve had the vaccine, with new variants, the future is still rather uncertain).

Along with this, volunteer roles have also adapted and changed given the situation we’ve found ourselves in. It’s become the perfect opportunity for hospices to look at their volunteer programmes and assess how appealing it is for other demographics. Can certain roles attract younger volunteers? This may mean looking at changing roles to add more flexibility or expanding wider networks.

Looking into the future, managing volunteers is crucial for the sustainability of hospices. If you’d like to know more about how hospices can become more sustainable, you can read our blogs on our website: ‘How Can Hospices Become More Sustainable, Part One and Part Two’. 

Looking for a volunteer management system?

If you’d like to look into developing a volunteer management system, why not start a FREE trial with us! Head over to our website and within minutes, you can be exploring your new volunteer management system. 

With our system you can: 

• Recruit more volunteers than ever before. 
• Fully customise your site and volunteer registration. 
• Communicate with your volunteers easily, all in one place. 
• Motive and reward your volunteers with our achievement badges or create your own!

Can hospices become sustainable? It’s time for part two. In last week’s post we delved into the first 5 principles, today is the final four! Hopefully this has helped you to start thinking about how your hospice can become more sustainable…

Become cost effective to be sustainable…

A threat of a severe recession and climbing competition for charitable giving could leave a lasting decrease in charitable revenue. Maintaining a grip on Hospice finances and implementing sustainable practices means there’s a chance to maximise cost effectiveness. However, it isn’t easy to develop cost effective routes. When handed a sustainable alternative, there is rarely any evidence that proves it true- but alternative practices have to start somewhere.

Stakeholders spoken to by Hospice UK want all Hospices to be aware of their own visibility. This way, they’re able to identify services which need to be redesigned for sustainability. Being more transparent about financial positions with commissioners has led to balanced financial risk in numerous areas.

Key benefits and outcomes of greater control of costs: 

• “The operational model for each service delivers agreed outcomes and benefits.”
• “Proactive and reactive: anticipate critical issues and plan for sustainability in advance.” 
• “Quantify and help provide an evidence base to support decisions that require major trade-offs.” 
• “Increased certainty in responding to current and future demand by taking a rigorous, outcome based approach.” 

Maximise your commercial revenue!

There has been a decrease in income for many Hospices, especially retail income over the past 2 years. It means that those Hospices reliant on a particular area of funding are susceptible to downturns and falling trends. So, Hospices are key in finding the effectiveness in their current revenue. The key is maximising commercial revenue.

Hospice UK has found recurring themes that Hospices could explore… Start re-thinking commercial spaces – are you getting the best out of the spaces you occupy? New revenue models, including collaborations, which has always been a strong starter that benefits multiple hospices at once. And teaming up with local third sector parties or partners.

Are you deploying the correct people around your patients?

Start reviewing the shape of your workforce. Deploy the correct people around your patients. Hospices need to start looking into how their workforce is going to look in the future due to the changes occurring across the end of life and palliative care sector. We suggest Workforce Shaping. 

Workforce Shaping can determine your team’s structure in the future and what will be required to introduce new ways of working. Hospices should be (re)considering:

• “Consider new staffing models to better deliver care.”
• “Embrace new roles and ways of working.” 

Shape careers of the future, sustainably…

To attract people towards a career in end of life and palliative care, a development needs to be made in order to make careers and jobs more competitive. While most stakeholders believe it wouldn’t be sustainable to match NHS pay, they do believe that improving career pathways is a clear step in the right direction. Why not start by finding out why people want to join, stay and perform for your Hospice. 

Understand and map out the journeys colleagues can take to move up within the Hospice, within their own career. Once you have this down, can you start to implement it? If you’re struggling on potential pathways, what about?

• Managerial: Allow them to move up the ladder into managerial roles with more responsibility. 
• Expert: Build and refine their roles based on their knowledge, skills and abilities while keeping them in the speciality they want. 
• Mobility: For those who want to increase their knowledge, allow them to cross functions within Hospices or the NHS – they can increase their skills and abilities too!

Ways to make palliative care a place to grow a career:

• Leadership and Culture: Culture is critical. The challenge for Hospice leaders is to connect the workforce to the ‘core purpose’- to help them see how their job everyday impacts the lives of everyone within their communities. 
• Vision and Values: A key factor that attracts people to a career in palliative and end-of-life care is the vision and mission to provide high quality, person-centred care. 
• Rotations and Preceptorships: There is a lot of interest across the sector for developing greater opportunities from clinical staff to undertake ‘rations’ across different providers and specialities. 
• Devolved Decision Making: Stakeholders noted that covid-19 has helped to break down previous hierarchical structures and devolve decision making to team members closest to the patient. 
• Diversity and Inclusion: Hospice leaders we spoke with talked about a desire to create a more inclusive culture where all employees thrive. Many noted that there was still more to be done in order to increase the representation of different diversity groups within the sector. 

And there you have it! 

And that’s that! Over the past 2 weeks, we hope we’ve been able to give insight into how Hospices can become more sustainable and rounded up The Discovery Phase of Future Vision Programme run by Hospice UK for you too.

If you’re looking for a volunteer management software that can help you: 

• Recruit more volunteers than ever before. 
• Fully customise your site and volunteer registration. 
• Communicate with your volunteers easily, all in one place. 
• Motivate and reward your volunteers with our achievement badges or create your own! 

Head over to our website and set yourself up a FREE trial!

Demand for palliative and end of life care is increasing. As a result, Hospices are under greater pressure to find ways to do more with less. The Discovery Phase of the Future Vision Programme, by Hospice UK, starts a conversation around developing a more sustainable future. The charity has outlined nine principles of sustainability and today, we’ll be exploring the first 5! 

So, how can hospices become more sustainable?

Integrated Care Systems for sustainability

Integrated Care Systems may have a big role to play in the coming years. Helping to ensure the public and voluntary sector act together in the best interests of patients, service users and families. 

While many are in support of partnerships, there are also concerns for Hospice independence. It’s important for Hospices to develop greater integration, in addition to keeping a Hospice’s unique identity, values and high quality care. In Hospice UK’s survey, 99% of respondents thought there should be either full or partial integration with the wider Integrated Care System. 

If you’re looking for ways to explore integration, why not try…

• Starting at the clinical service level. What services are you going to provide and by whom? Where are these services going to take place? 
• Build relationships with other Hospices- it’s key to greater integration, while it takes time, you’ll reap the benefits. 
• Start aligning your data and reports. In order to seamless integration (further down the line) one patient record shared between all providers of a system is critical.

Start collaborating…

Through integration, it also presents the opportunity to collaborate. Covid-19 has inevitably intensified the pressure on constrained resources, and yet despite this, there’s a drive for positive change present.

Why not look towards collaborating with neighbouring Hospices on service deliveries? Similarly, look towards exploring back office joint posts and funding? Each Hospice is different, so we know that not everything suggested will work best for you, but it’s best to explore your options.

Collaboration means you can reach out and work with a wider range of partners in the sector- you aren’t limited.

Time to get technological 

As a volunteer management system, we’re all for talking technology– and it’s crucial for you to define your digital strategy. With the increasing demand for care, the opportunities to look digitally as an enabler to change is exciting.

To succeed, as Hospice UK say, is to look from a patient-centric perspective- make sure that the leadership and governance of your digital systems is in place for fostering future innovation. 

Speaking to stakeholders Hospice UK picked on multiple themes that need to be addressed for greater digital enablement:

• Improve patient experience and engagement. Allowing your patients to have more choice and control over their care, and how they’d like to receive it. 
• Help provide integrated care- it will be easier to connect individuals to the right parts of the health system. You can strengthen the partnerships across sectors. 
• Help decreasing the demand for palliative and end of life services driven by the UK’s aging population, a growing population, and an increasing prevalence of chronic conditions and diseases (just to name a few). 
• Technology can also help with making systems more efficient- there’ll be less time looking for information or duplicating patients. 

Influencers for sustainability

Alongside rising demand, hospices may also be providing services to just a minority of people who need it. So, Hospices need to start reaching greater numbers of people with the limited resources they have. Stakeholders have expressed that the focus has to shift from efficient delivery of direct services to patients towards earlier system interventions and advanced care planning- to do this? Influence.

Hospices can use their own influence to bring additional resources in to meet the evolving demands:

• Influencing the system through closer working relationships with other providers. 
• There is a value in education, and adding family members/friends to support delivery of care can help avoid crises alongside meeting a patient’s needs. 
• Covid-19 has sped up education through online learning and training. Hospices can use this to their advantage to promote awareness and help drive referrals to other sectors in the system. 
• Hospices can use their unique data insight, this complemented with other systems intelligence, gives opportunity to enable a needs-based approach to the allocation of resources in future.

Is the current funding model sustainable?

The Hospice UK’s survey also highlighted that 83% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the current funding model is unsustainable in the long term. Most respondents went on to point towards a renegotiation of the funding offer with relevant commissioners as a high priority to ensure stable sustainability in the future.

An example of this would be End of Life Together in Nottinghamshire. The collaboration between a number of local Hospices’, Trusts and Primary care providers formed a partnership to secure funding and create an integrated care model. There key services included: 

• One point of referral providing a triage, assessment and coordination of a person’s needs. 
• ‘Hospice at Home’ services with community hospice beds. 
• Access to bereavement and carer support services. 
• And more!

To conclude…

After all that, we’re coming back with a part 2! This week we’ve looked at the first 5 principles for sustainability through the Discovery Phase of the Future Vision Programme. Hopefully, you’ll be gathering some ideas on how you can develop the sustainability of your Hospice, we’ll be back next week for the final 4 principles- we’ll see you there!

Above all, if you’re interested in developing your volunteer management processes, why not start a  trial? Head over to our site and sign up today!