If one word was to sum up our volunteers it would be Inspiring!

This week is Volunteers’ Week.  It is a chance to celebrate and say thank you for the amazing contribution millions of volunteers make across the UK. 

In the Care Inspectorate we are extremely fortunate to work with some fantastic volunteers who give up their time to help us continually improve the quality of care and support in Scotland.

We currently have around 65/70 inspection volunteers who work with our adult inspectors and 10 young inspection volunteers. Involving People Conference

We ask our volunteers who work with our adult’s service to give approximately one day per month, but most people are happy to step up when asked regardless of the time they have already given. 

They bring with them a unique experience to our work, one that can only come from people who have direct experience of receiving care and support or their family member has.  Our inspectors’ value that perspective. Their observations on inspection are unique based on what makes the day-to -day difference to them/their family members.

Our adult inspection volunteers took part in around 500 inspections last year. This year they have taken part in approx. 100 inspections so far (and that’s only during April and May). 

Last year our young inspection volunteers took part in joint inspections of children’s services across the country forming part of the inspection team. They were also involved in 25 individual care service inspections.

Although taking part in inspections are a major role for our volunteers, they also contribute to our projects and strategic work which is carried out right across the Care Inspectorate.

For instance, last year they were involved in:

  • Recruitment of our chief executive and chief inspector posts.
  • Scrutiny group to bring questionnaires in line with the new methodology
  • Spoke with our Dutch counterparts who visited the Care Inspectorate on a fact-finding tour
  • Presented the new involvement plan to our board members.
  • Consulted with our colleagues for the new PDA, our new award for inspectors.
  • Gave advise on the new care plan survey which asked what difference a care plan makes to them and their family member.
  • Compassionate care survey sent to our volunteers asking ‘How much compassionate support did you or your family member receive’.
  • Sharing intelligence for health and care with Healthcare Improvement Scotland.
  • Enforcement review.
  • Self-directed support thematic inspections.
  • Review of adult protection.

Undertaking and completing the level 6 community achievement award with Glasgow Kelvin CollegeOur Young Inspection Volunteers also were involved in:

Gemma and the young inspectors

  • Speaking alongside inspectors at the International Regulators Conference
  • Co-delivering a workshop at the Scottish Care Leavers Covenant conference and the SIRCC conference on the importance of sibling relationships.
  • Delivered Corporate Parenting training at the Engage in Change Forum to raise awareness of our responsibility internally.

Our inspection volunteers are supported by our Involvement Team.  Led by Gemma Watson who is currently acting as Involvement Lead, the team includes, Clare Egan, Barbara Mitchell and Elaine Cranston, who support our adult inspection volunteers.  Gemma supports our Young Inspection Volunteers.  Patricia Smith, Business Support Administrator not only supports the team on a day-to-day basis but also supports the volunteers with all their travel/expenses requirements as well as the details of their inspections.

The role of the involvement team, starts with the recruitment of our volunteers, including finding new and innovative ways of reaching out to people with the experience we need.

However, some inspection volunteers will always require our support to enable them to be involved. Throughout this entire process we will meet with our volunteers to make sure they are still happy to go forward and ensure they have the right support for them and the inspection process. This will carry on throughout their time with us. Some of our volunteers have been with us for over 10 years.  Some who only stay a short time.We interview, recruit, reference, PVG and train all our volunteers. The process is a long one, because it needs to be.  After their induction the volunteers go on shadow inspections with their coordinator until everyone is confident this is the role for them.

We spend a lot of time dealing with requests from inspectors and allocating the correct volunteer to the inspection, based on the experience to the service and area. 

Like our volunteers, the inspections are only one part of our role. We are also involved supporting volunteers in the various pieces of work they are asked to contribute to.

If you want to find out more about our volunteers visit the Get Involved section on the website.