In this episode of Volunteering Discovery, we explore Get InVOLved Skills—a new online platform designed to support volunteers and voluntary sector professionals across Norfolk and Waveney with high-quality, accessible training.

Our guests are Laura Holland (Voluntary Norfolk) shares the inspiration behind the platform, its features, and how it’s helping organisations and individuals grow. Lynn Fanning (Norfolk and Waveney ICB) discusses how the platform is being used to deliver practical training to unpaid carers and volunteers, including topics like hydration, malnutrition, and hospital discharge.

Whether you're a volunteer, a carer, or someone who supports them, this episode offers insights into how digital tools are making learning more inclusive, flexible, and impactful.

Explore the platform: getinvolvedskills.org.uk

Contact for training enquiries: info@getinvolvedskills.org.uk

Feedback on training sessions: l.fanning1@nhs.net

Volunteering Discovery is produced by Hospital Radio Norwich for Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care System.

Hello and welcome to Volunteering Discovery.

This is a podcast which takes you behind the scenes of

volunteering in health and care.

In Norfolk and Waveney volunteers enhance the experience of people accessing health

and care in a huge variety of ways in our hospitals, our communities, and even

from the comfort of their own homes.

In each podcast, we'll be hearing from those who give their

time supporting others and the people who work alongside them.

I am your host Sarah, a volunteer coordinator working in the NHS.

Why not subscribe to this podcast to make sure you hear all of the

upcoming episodes in the series?

In this episode, we're introducing Get Involved Skills, a new online platform

designed to support volunteers and voluntary sector professionals with

accessible high quality training.

Joining producer Jules first is Laura Holland who'll walk us through

the purpose of the platform, who it's for, and why it's launched.

Then we'll hear from Lynn Fanning, a clinical educator who's using the platform

to deliver training that helps volunteers and unpaid carers build confidence

and skills in health related subjects.

Whether you are a volunteer or from an organization that offers training

or involves volunteers, this episode can give you a clear picture of

how get Involved skills is making learning more inclusive and impactful.

Let's meet Laura.

Hello, my name's Laura.

I'm the volunteering platforms manager for Voluntary Norfolk.

So I look after our volunteer recruitment platform, get involved Norfolk, and our

new Volunteering for Health project, which is the get involved skills platform.

Could you tell us the inspiration behind the Get Involved skills platform?

Why did the team think it was something that needed to be brought to life?

Yeah, so we were, it was identified that organizations that we

work with and support were asking a lot of training questions, sourcing

training, whether we delivered training.

So that was a very, sort of high priority with us, and we wanted to

provide something that, that fostered that sort of culture of innovation and

high standards among, amongst sort of volunteering, involving organizations.

Being able to offer them relevant tools, training courses,

examples of good practice.

That was, that was the main sort of inspiration behind providing

sort of get involved skills.

Our platform developers, deed mob, that support us with Get involved.

Norfolk, have a similar project in the Netherlands.

That is solely focused on training and that was working really well.

So we thought this is the ideal time to bring that great idea to Norfolk.

So exactly what is Get Involved Skills.

Get Involved Skills is an extension of our volunteer recruitment platform.

It aims to provide both volunteers.

And those working within voluntary community and social enterprise

organizations with easy access to training and development opportunities

across Norfolk and Waveney.

It's a space where organizations can share their training and we've also

sourced, uh, nationwide providers to support the, the platform and to support

the, uh, the training that we can offer.

Could you give us an idea of the kind of training that's available?

Yeah, it's really varied.

We've got training from sort of volunteer management support, uh,

health and safety, e-learning.

We've got training supporting adults with autism.

We've got courses from a local organization.

To support and care for prison leavers.

National charities like British Red Cross have got training supporting

connections, which is loneliness, training, training around having good

conversations, which is great for volunteers, and that's tips and techniques

on sort of having good conversations and how not to overstep boundaries.

We've got effective therapeutic support for asylum seekers.

As well as admin using basic office programs, cybersecurity.

It really is quite varied.

Is it all live training or are there different mediums

that it's delivered through?

So it is a mixture.

We've got face-to-face deliveries that can either be in set

venues or delivered to a group.

So for example, if an organization has a group of volunteers that

they'd like to, to go through the training, a lot of these providers

will be able to come out to them.

We've got a selection of online live training, so that'll be with a tutor and

you'll be able to ask live questions.

There's also e-learning.

So that gives learners the flexibility of being able to do things in their

own time, which is, is great when you are sort of working a nine

to five, maybe doing shift work.

So it's really offering that flexibility of training solutions.

So if somebody is interested in some of the training, would

they have to pay to to do that?

So there is, some of the courses are paid for, there are

some discounts for organizations and charities, so that's all detailed in

the individual training themselves.

There's lots of free training as well.

The organizations themselves, if they want to share training,

there's no cost for that.

It's just that some of the, the training that's offered is paid for.

Is this training that a volunteer would need to do as part

of their induction, or is this extra?

It's a mixture of both, so it depends on the

role that they're going into.

Some organizations have a basic sort of induction program and a lot of those

modules and courses are included on get involved skills and they'll have their own

mandatory very specific training as well.

So it is a little bit of a mixture of the both.

Sometimes when you look at a website with a lot of information on it,

it can feel a little bit overwhelming.

What is in place to help people use get involved skills?

Absolutely.

That's a really good question.

We have installed the Recite me toolbar, so anyone who's not familiar with recite

me, there's loads of options on there.

So it will read what's on the screen.

You can change fonts, change colors, there's dictionaries on there, if there's

any terminology or unfamiliar with it can also change the languages as well,

so we try to make it as easy to access as possible for everybody to use it.

And is this something that will be obvious when somebody

logs on how to access it?

Yes.

The re, the site tool was already in place.

There's an accessibility bar in the top right hand corner of the, the website.

If you click on that, all the options and that are in different colors along

the top of the webpage, and then you select those that you'd like to change,

select if you'd like the page read out to you and then you can turn it off.

If somebody's listening to this and they're not in Norfolk, but they thought,

oh, I'd like to have a look, and they saw something that sounded appealing to

them, would they be able to access it?

Potentially, yes.

So there are some providers that are nationwide providers, and those ones,

it doesn't matter where you are in the country, you can access that training.

There are also organizations and providers that are only providing

the training for Norfolk and Waveney organizations and volunteers.

Details of those are in the individual training opportunities themselves.

So it is wise to check, make sure that you are in the right area and,

and that that, um, organization covers where you are geographically

before you enroll on anything.

I'm thinking about it from the perspective and organization.

If I had training that I wanted to get out there to volunteers

or people that manage volunteers, how would I go about doing that?

First of all, it would just be emailing us directly.

You can email us the info@getinvolvedskills.org.uk.

We can then have an initial conversation on how best is to add

the training to the platform, where it's gonna get the most reach for you.

It's free to use, really easy to to set up.

Once you decide you, you want to go ahead with it and we'll support

you through that whole process.

What would be the benefits for an organization to host their

training on Get involved skills?

The benefits are increasing their reach and being able to

advertise their training more.

Widely organizations can also create teams on the platform.

So what that means is you could have a team of staff and a team of volunteers,

whatever training that the staff and volunteers have gone through.

You can log that, you can track that.

And it's, it is a great way to, to, for you to sort of visually see who's been

doing what training and where maybe the, the gaps in their development are.

This sounds like a really exciting venture.

Do you know if there's any similar platforms like this

aimed at volunteers already?

The only one I'm aware of is the one in the Netherlands.

I'm not aware of any others that are similar around, around the

county or around the country.

So hopefully this is the first of its kind.

It's brilliant for Norfolk and Wave to be involved

in something so groundbreaking.

How will we know if the introduction of the platform has been successful?

We

can track a lot of the activity on the platform.

Anything from page views to who's taken up the training, how many hours they've done.

Also because the logins on Get Involved skills are the same as in Get

Involved Norfolk, we can track which potential volunteers and which staff

members have gone on to volunteer once completing their training.

So we'll be able to, to map that success that way.

So it all sounds really exciting.

What's coming next for the platform?

It is very exciting and I've got so many things in my head to,

to work where it's gonna go next.

We want to get as much training onto the platform as possible to really

sort of expand what we offer to volunteers and to the, the staff that

are working within these organizations.

Getting people to use their profiles is gonna be key to the success of

the platform, but also to demonstrate to organizations what training

potential volunteers have been doing.

So we're really gonna be pushing and expanding the use of personal

profiles on both get involved skills and get involved Norfolk.

So that's gonna be the, the next push from us.

If somebody's listening and thinking, either they'd like to have a

look, maybe to find an opportunity, or they're keen to share their training,

how can they find get involved skills?

Get involved skills is live now.

You can find it by entering get involved skills.org.uk.

Our contact details are on the website, so if you've got any questions, if you'd

like support from us to get training onto the platform or just to discuss

it further, then do reach out to us.

We can put the details in the show notes as well.

Laura, is there anything else you'd like to add about Get Involved skills?

It's a really exciting project.

I'm really sort of pleased that, that we've been able to launch it

and that we've, we've partnered with the ICB to, to bring this to life.

Do go and take a look if you notice anything that's, that is exciting and

that inspires you to get involved then.

Click that button and um, take on that training.

Also, if you notice any gaps, anything that you'd like to see

on the platform, we are constantly looking to develop and evolve it.

So do let us know.

We really value your feedback.

Thanks, Laura for that great overview of the platform and its Aimes.

Now let's turn to Lynn, who's bringing the platform to life

through training delivery.

Lynn's work directly supports volunteers and unpaid carers, helping them build

the skills they need to support others and themselves more effectively.

Let's hear how she's using Get involved skills in practice.

My name's Lynn Fanning.

I'm a clinical educator with Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care

Board, or you may know it as ICB.

So our role is to support learners and staff across Norfolk and

Waveney, whether they're in a health or social care organization.

So that may be from one of the hospitals, Norfolk Norridge Hospital,

queen Elizabeth Hospital, for example, or working in primary care.

In community care, social care, all of the social care organizations

like Care Homes, learning disability organizations, et cetera.

So we're looking at the education, the learning opportunities that

all those staff and learners have.

Ensuring learners have a good placement opportunity so they have

access to those placements, but also.

That in within those placements, they have supervisors or an assessors.

They're given a broad range of experience so that when they qualify as

a health or social, uh, professional, that they've experienced the best.

That they're able to.

It's also looking at different initiatives that are coming out in regards to

education, working quite closely with NHS England in regards to that.

And we have various different work streams that we work on, one of

which is the learning opportunities that we deliver for staff and

learners working in across all areas.

In health and social care in Norfolk and Waveney, and they're twice

monthly learning opportunities on various different topics, clinical

and nonclinical topics, learning about different organizations that they can

refer to that they may not be aware of.

So for example, it may be a domestic abuse organization that PE staff

are able to refer to and how to do that, or it may be learning about.

The most UpToDate evidence and research on diabetes.

So we're just delivering that as free online training that they

can access possibly in their lunch break or when they're have

time within their working day.

Okay.

And today we are talking about training that you've provided

to support carers and volunteers.

Could you tell us about the background to that training please?

Yes, so as one of our work streams that we provide as clinical

educators to ensure getting learning opportunities for all staff and learners

across the system is we provide twice monthly learning opportunities, online

learning opportunities that are one hour in length on various different

topics, clinical topics ranging from.

Diabetes to domestic abuse, oral health wound care, variety of topics.

And one of the managers from Carers Voice contacted us to ask whether the

carers could access unpaid carers, could access our learning opportunities.

And when we looked at it, we thought actually both unpaid carers and

volunteers are really vital in supporting the NHS and social care to.

Providing care for their loved ones families and volunteers caring for

the those that they also care for.

And we wanted to provide more bespoke learning opportunities for

them rather than tapping into ones that we were already providing.

So we wanted to do something that we, that would be relevant for them

and would help and support them to care for those they're caring for.

Given the broad nature of different volunteering opportunities in Norfolk,

home Waveney, and also the huge number of people that are unpaid carers, how

did you choose which subjects to cover?

So we went back to both the different voluntary organizations

and to the unpaid carers, the support forums that they have to ask them

what would be relevant topics for them, what would help them, what they

would like to have delivered with those online learning opportunities.

And they came up with the topics.

So we've already had some sessions, so we've had drinking while and

preventing dehydration, spotting and treating, malnutrition, and

moving and handling in care.

We've got two further sessions, one in September, which is on discharge

from hospital, navigating the system, and one on reablement, maintaining

independence and confidence.

That's a really broad range of topics.

Who actually delivers the training?

So it's a specialist within those areas.

So the drinking well and preventing dehydration was delivered by a nurse

lecturer who had done a research project on that particular topic

and had lots of relevant information and had developed a training session

specifically on that subject.

The malnutrition topic, for example, was delivered.

By DI dieticians that work for the ICB and the moving and Handling

and care was delivered by a nurse working in social care who supports

families with moving and handling equipment and the training for that.

Have you had any feedback on the sessions so far?

Yes.

Yeah.

We've had a feedback from volunteer who was stated that it was a great

initiative and that she felt it was key to ensuring carers have the skills

and confidence to ensure their loved ones are looked after in their homes,

and was hoping that the, the topics would, and the subjects will continue

for this conversation.

Of course, we're interested in the Get involved skills platform, which is a new

platform to make it easier for volunteers and people who manage them to access.

Training like this, what are you hoping will be the benefits of having

these sessions hosted on that website?

Hopefully we recognize that the time of the day, the

dates that the sessions are held.

Or people being able to access them on at that particular time may

not always be suitable for people.

They may be busy at those times.

There may be other things going on in their day or at that time, but by them

being recorded and hosted on a platform like getting involved skills, they'll be

able to watch those recordings back when it's in, when it is appropriate time and

suitable for them, or even if they've seen them already and want to have a recap of

the information that was on was delivered.

What is the best way for people to find out about upcoming sessions?

We send out what we call a sway poster, which is a live poster to all

of the, the relevant, so carers voice for example, has that information.

The Volunt voluntary sector have that information and as far as I'm aware,

they will it, the information will be on the Get involved skills platform

with all the list of the sessions that are coming up, but also the link

to be able to join those sessions.

For both of those sessions, those that people can watch back, or those

that people might want to sign up for.

Is there a charge for people to attend or access?

No, they're free online sessions.

So there's no charge?

No.

And are they open to anybody who's interested?

They are, yes, I'd say that they're aimed for unpaid carers and volunteers,

so anyone that it'll be relevant for them if they're providing a carer's

role or a voluntary role, then yes.

That's all the questions that I had prepared for you.

Is there anything else that you think people should know about

these training sessions or your role as a clinical educator?

We would really like feedback on the session.

So if people have already attended a session or watched the recording, we'd

like, we'd really value feedback on that.

And there is a link to be able to complete a feedback form on the poster

advertising the sessions, but also if anyone has any ideas on topics that they

would delivered or any suggestions on.

The way that the sessions are delivered or the time of day,

the days that we're doing.

If there's anything like that, then we'd really value that feedback and we want to

make sure that we're delivering it in the best way possible, that people can access,

as many people can access as possible.

And what's the best way for people to share that feedback with you?

I say either the feedback form that's there, there's the link on

the poster advertising the sessions, or they can email me on my email,

which is L dot fanning1@nhs.net.

We'll put that email address in our show notes for people to

find for themselves if they need to.

Thank you so much for joining me today.

It's been lovely to talk to you.

Thank you.

That wraps up our introduction to get involved skills.

A big thank you to Laura and Lynn for sharing their insights.

It's clear that this platform is more than just a training hub.

It's a gateway to confidence, connection, and capability for

volunteers and voluntary sector professionals across Norfolk and Waveney.

In particular, if you manage or support volunteers, you'll find a wealth of

materials to support you on the site.

If you are interested in exploring the platform or adding your own training

visit, get involved skills.org.uk and don't forget to subscribe so you don't

miss future episodes where we continue to spotlight innovation on volunteering.

Thank you for listening.

Please don't forget to subscribe, rate and review this podcast.

It all helps people find us and spread the word about volunteering.

This podcast was produced for the Norfolk Wave, the integrated care system

by Hospital Radio Norwich, hosted by Sarah Briggs, producer was Jules Orson.

Original music, composed and performed by Philip Aldridge, interviews

by Sarah Briggs and Jules Orson.