This episode of Volunteering Discovery takes a look behind the scenes of volunteering at Age UK Norfolk. Featuring insights from volunteers Matthew and Caron the episode explores the various services provided by Age UK Norfolk, including telephone befriending, Money Matters, and Power of Attorney roles. The episode explores the personal experiences and motivations of the volunteers, providing training insights and emphasizing the positive impact and personal fulfilment derived from volunteering.

To learn more about the work of Age UK Norfolk visit https://www.ageuk.org.uk/norfolk/

Visit the Volunteering Discovery page https://improvinglivesnw.org.uk/get-involved/volunteering/volunteering-discovery-podcast/ or contact us using jules.alderson@nhs.net

Volunteering Discovery is produced for NHS Norfolk and Waveney ICS by Hospital Radio Norwich.

Sarah (host): Hello and welcome to Volunteering Discovery.

This is a podcast which takes you behind the scenes of volunteering in health

and social care in Norfolk and Waveney.

Volunteers enhance the experience of people accessing health and social

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'm your host, Sarah, a volunteer coordinator working in the NHS.

There is a rapidly aging population in Norfolk.

The population aged 85 years and over is estimated to double in size by 2041.

In June 2022, the BBC reported that 33 percent of the population

of North Norfolk are over 65.

As Norfolk's population continues to age, In today's episode, we are speaking to

staff and volunteers from Age UK Norfolk to find out about the services they

offer and the people that they support.

Michelle, a member of the staff team, introduced us to the organisation,

the area that it covers and what volunteers do with Age UK Norfolk.

Hi, I'm Michelle Jay, the Fundraising and Communications

Head of Age UK Norfolk.

Just to tell you a little bit more about Age UK Norfolk and our services.

We are a charity with over 75 years experience of supporting

older people in Norfolk.

We do that through a variety of services which include our Information and

Advice Helpline, Money Matters and Advocacy Services, Befriending, Digital

Inclusion and Travel Companionship.

It's a huge involvement and a huge role.

We have something like about 200 volunteers, possibly at any sort

of given time at the moment.

Norfolk is a really large county to try and cover with all of those

services, and we, we do a lot of that.

Quite simply, we wouldn't be able to deliver those services without the

help of volunteers, helping us to spread out across the whole county.

So they're helping to deliver services, and in some cases they're

supporting, maybe in more admin roles.

But we do have plenty of really hands on volunteers as well, so there are some

that are on the front lines answering the phones on those help lines as well.

We have roles for everyone, and to suit any kind of needs and abilities as well.

So, for example, some of our volunteering roles can just be done from home

in as little as 30 minutes, which would be our telephone befriending,

which is quite simply giving an older person a phone call once a week.

Usually that person hasn't spoken to somebody else for the whole week,

so we might be their only point of contact, and it's a real nice

social connection for them to make.

As I mentioned, we do have some kind of admin roles, and we have people

on the front lines answering the telephones on the helpline, and we do

have more community based ones as well, so travel companionship, where we're

going out and accompanying people.

On journeys that they want to make that might be getting to a doctor's

appointment, or for some people just a simple activity like walking to the

end of the road where they've lost confidence and just need someone to

come with them and reassure them and help to rebuild that confidence again.

Ten years ago, an older person that was calling our advice line might have

been 75 to 80, maybe now they're 95.

But I would say there's probably an overwhelming proportion of

family members that are calling on behalf of older family members.

So it could be the children or the grandchildren.

Whilst the older people remain our sole main beneficiaries.

I do think that younger family members are also benefiting from the advice and

support that they're getting to help those older family members as well.

If volunteers weren't involved, there's no way that we could help,

probably even half the people that we're helping now without volunteers.

They are the lifeblood and backbone of what we do and who we are.

I think services would really suffer for it.

And we come across some wonderful people who, not all volunteers, but there is

perhaps a majority that are retired.

So they bring with them a real wealth of life experience and the

skills that we've touched on as well.

If us as staff as well, we often learn a lot from our volunteers too.

And I think that's a really organic and great way to bring

generations together and, and share skills and life stories as well.

Sarah (host): One of the volunteers who gives up their time to share their

skills and experience is Matthew.

We talked to Matthew about how he got involved with Age UK Norfolk.

My name's Matthew Hill, and with Age UK I am a telephone

befriender, so I phone those people that are wanting that service weekly.

I also act as a volunteer within the Money Matters team within Age UK Norfolk.

We moved up here in 2016 from the Home Counties.

I'd retired as a bank manager.

I'd worked for Lloyds Bank for 39 years and felt that I had time now to devote

back or give back to the community.

Saw an advert in the local supermarket for A place, or volunteering place, at a

local centre where elderly people went, a day centre, for a couple of days a week.

Thought I'd volunteer down there.

And then that has developed into the telephone befriending

service and the money matters service that I've just outlined.

I enjoy talking with people.

I was used to dealing with that with my client base that I had as a bank manager.

The finance side, confident in dealing with authority, businesses and

individuals within those authorities.

By way of training, I was interviewed for the role, given a client on the telephone

befriending service to speak with, to then feedback as to how I got on with him.

That was fine.

I think as far as the Money Matters role was concerned.

I had training there, and as much as my advocate came out with me on my

first appointment to see the client, the new client that we had, I think

saw the way that I worked, and she was then quite happy for me to go out

and see any new clients on my own.

But if I had any difficulty or any queries or questions, there was always support

in the background, as there is now.

The support there is mainly using the advocate's knowledge of the local

services and the experience that they've got with the type of clients

that I'm dealing with and the type of cases that are being dealt with.

And they've then got experience that they can call upon where they've

come across similar or the same situations as I'm experiencing.

Sarah (host): Matthew explains more about what's involved in his role and an

example of how his efforts as a volunteer can make an impact for the client.

So the first I will go out and just assess the situation with, in almost

all cases, we'll complete what we call a benefit check form to make sure that

they're, the client is receiving the correct benefits or they're receiving

all the benefits that they can and then generally they've got an issue that is

high on their agenda but there may be others that they're not aware of and then

so I'll take a broad view of those, we'll take the paperwork, go from there really.

Certainly claiming benefits, attendance allowance is a good

one because it isn't means tested.

Often people think that it is, but that can be claimed by anybody if

they're receiving support, either at home or they're in a nursing home.

I had a case with someone not claiming their state pension and

then affecting their benefits.

I've had fraud, which I've uncovered.

But generally speaking, there's run of the mill completing paperwork, dealing with.

solicitors, accountants, possibly, which is people that I used

to deal with when I worked.

There was one, one instance with a lady that I went out to see where there

had, the carers had picked up that a neighbor was trying to become a power

of attorney, and a, a, a, a, started completing forms with the solicitor,

but they were uncomfortable with the neighbor and suspected that there

had been fraud on the bank account.

And in fact, that was the case.

The police were involved and investigated.

I also found that premium bonds had been transferred or encashed

and transferred to a third party.

And using the experience I had as a bank manager, knew that The National

Savings would have to comply with certain rules and regulations, internal

guidance that they had, and it was clear from the paperwork that I was able to

uncover that they hadn't, and we were able to recover 10, 000 that had been

taken by National Savings, and they were then left to investigate the fraud

with the perpetrators, but the client importantly had the money back and the

premium bonds back, together with prizes.

I had a client base, when I was a bank manager, I had a client base

of a couple of hundred business customers, so I was looking after

their businesses as well as their personal accounts and their finances.

I was then dealing almost on a daily basis with solicitors, other

bank managers, accountants, which is helpful in this situation, and

dealing with authority generally.

And knowing that you will get fobbed off by authorities, certainly government

authorities, you have to persevere to get the answers that you want

and that you know the client needs.

And often they're not able to do that themselves.

Sarah (host): It seems that Matthew's previous experience as a bank manager

has been invaluable in his volunteering.

We were keen to understand if Matthew felt whether skills he's developed

outside of his career had also been useful, and if he'd learned

anything new through his involvement.

I have a daughter that's got special needs, so I've

always had to be quite patient.

And I'm quite calm when dealing with, A, the client, and B, the

professional that you're having to deal with on behalf of the client.

I think I've become a more rounded person.

I would perhaps have been more direct in the past.

Whereas now, I'm more accepting of the situation and trying to find what works.

an alternative way of getting the same result.

I think the level of responsibility that I can take on is fine,

that isn't the problem.

I know that I can't give advice, and I'm not qualified to give advice, I wasn't

qualified to give financial advice when I was working in my professional career

as a bank manager because of training, examinations and such like that you had

to take because it was so regulated.

I have to remember that It's not Matthew Hill doing this because I could get

quite angry if I was with people if I was acting on behalf of my Family

member or say for the sake of argument I've got to remember that I am acting

on behalf of Age UK as a volunteer.

I stress that to the professional people that I speak with And that is quite

interesting because the people that I'm volunteering for are their clients.

And so they're appreciative of someone helping them, which they can't

necessarily do at the end of a telephone.

Face to face I think is key as far as this role is concerned.

Sarah (host): Money Matters is not the only service which Age

UK Norfolk offer that is provided with the support of volunteers.

Karen is another member of the Age UK Norfolk volunteering team

doing a different role to Matthew.

Karen told us how she got started volunteering with Age UK Norfolk

and what she does in her role.

My name is Karen Rounds.

I have two roles within the Power of Attorney team.

My first role is admin.

I organise which clients go to which volunteers.

The volunteers will then make their appointments themselves.

I photocopy all the paperwork and things that have to be issued

out to clients at appointments.

And then I also go out and visit clients in their homes and do appointments.

An appointment would involve me coming to their house, them having already

organised and ordered the forms from the Office of the Public Guardian.

Then I would sit and I would help them fill in the forms.

So our main function is just to assist people to fill in the forms.

And if we didn't do it, they may well have to pay for a solicitor or

a legal person to help them with it.

And obviously we don't ask for a set fee.

We just ask for a donation.

Um, which tends to average about 50, which is quite good, but if you went

for a solicitor to do it, you would be paying several hundred pounds.

I think the highest quote I've had recently for a couple was 1,

600, and I did it for them for a 100 donation, which was great.

And then when I've been for the appointments, and all the other volunteers

would do the same, we would come back to the office at our house, and we

would just put all the information from the visit onto the computer system

we have, which is called Charity Log.

Charity Log.

We would scan in their consent forms and then that would be it.

Unless they have an issue and forms come back from the

Office of the Public Guardian.

If they do, then occasionally we will get a second message to go and call

on them again and we will go again.

When I first came to Age UK, I was asked to do something called Money Matters,

which involves a lot more, I found it was too demanding, put it that way.

What I like about this particular role was that I can go Do the appointment,

come home, and not worry about it.

What I found with the other role is I was going home worrying about people.

And that's why I stopped working.

I didn't want that sort of role anymore.

And this role's ideal because I can just do what I do.

Might take two hours, and then I walk away, and that should be the end of it.

So I don't go home worrying about it.

So that is why I got into this specific role.

And I started off just doing the appointment.

Then somebody was off sick and there was a backlog and somebody said to me, would you

like to have a look at doing this admin stuff for me while you're in the office?

And I said, okay, then I've been doing it for two years now, I think so.

And I quite doing that site because I can do it from home on a computer,

email everybody and they email me back and that's all it involves.

I come to the office occasionally when I've got donations to bring in.

But I, other than that.

I do it all from home, so it's easy.

Sarah (host): Being able to do things from home doesn't always

spring to mind when we ask people what they think about volunteering.

Since the pandemic, more and more organisations are able to offer flexible

volunteering options, which makes it much easier to fit around busy lives.

Karen shared her reasons for wanting to volunteer and the

skills that she uses in her role.

I'd given up work because that was just, I didn't like it anymore.

My husband was retired very young, he retired at 46, and he kept

saying to me, I'll retire, so I did.

And then I was finding I had a bit of spare time, and I was

getting bored to be honest.

I wanted to do something that would keep my brain active.

I am not from Norwich or Norfolk, I moved here from Lincolnshire

about six years ago, and I didn't know the county very well.

And I thought, if I do this, I'll be going all around the county and I'll get to see

all the different areas of the county.

And I've always liked talking and meeting people, which is what a lot of my, I was

in hospitality a lot of my career, which involved a lot of customer interaction.

I wanted to do something where I could go and visit people and

talk to them and things like that.

This is ideal because even though when we go to do a power of

attorney with a customer, it isn't necessarily just that while we're

there, we obviously talk to them.

I've met some lovely people who've got some of the most amazing stories to

tell and have had fascinating lives.

And it's a shame we can't document them all actually, because

some of them are just so nice.

And that's the other thing I like, and sometimes I could do an appointment

in an hour, but I find I'm there for two hours because I'm just chatting

to people and they're lonely and it's just nice for them to have a visit.

Not everybody has family, unfortunately.

I'm like a, just a strange visitor that they can talk to about anything.

When I first started, we did a bit of work in the office.

Then I went out on appointments.

I think I did four appointments just to learn all about the

different types of people.

things that can come up.

And then once I'd done that off, I went on my own.

There is quite a bit of paperwork that comes through with the power of

attorney, and there's a lot of documents that AGK Norfolk have that help.

Obviously, I've read all that.

That was it, pretty much.

I didn't have to do any in depth courses or anything.

We're not giving advice.

All we're doing is giving people guidance to fill the forms,

and then explaining the forms.

So because we're not doing anything that involves advice, we don't have to have

any legal training or anything like that.

Because the role that I retired from, I worked in the pensions team at a

large local company in the city center.

And we dealt with powers of attorney as a part of setting

up various different things.

So yes, and I'd set some up for my mom and dad as well.

So yeah, that's, that's how I actually knew about them initially.

Once you've read through the pack and you understand how to fill the forms

in, it's quite, um, A methodical thing.

So long as you're a methodical, organized person and you can go

through things and check things, you need to be thorough and that you can

talk to people so you can explain what you're doing, then that's fine.

You don't need any specific training at all.

People, you need to be fairly articulate and outgoing, I think,

because you are going into people's homes and meeting lots and lots

Sarah (host): of different people.

To help us understand more about what is involved, Karen explained

what a typical session might look like when she's supporting a client,

Once I've been, I've allocated the client, I would phone that client up.

I would have to check that they had phoned up the office of the public

guardian and ordered the pack that comes.

And when pack comes, it's like a big A4 plastic wallet.

It's got so much paper in, but we have to have that.

What you find is people get it, look at it and go, Oh my goodness.

Oh, I don't know what to do with this.

So I'll just say to them, put it to one side and then I'll come.

When I go along, I'll open the pack.

Explain to them, make sure that they understand what the power of

attorney does, because a lot of older people think that once they've

got one, the power to run their own life is taken away from them.

It isn't.

The whole thing with the power of attorney is that you appoint attorneys that

will help you to carry out your wishes.

So you should retain your own control over your own life.

As much as you can, it would only be if you lost mental capacity

that you would then have your attorneys actually take over control.

So one of the key things is to make sure that people have explained to

the attorneys that I still make the decisions, but it might be that you.

physically go to the doctor for me or physically go to the bank for me.

But we have to try and make sure that they've done that first because

it's a really important role.

And obviously as an attorney, the client that I'm seeing has to categorically trust

that person because potentially they could get access to all their financial affairs.

Take all their money from the bank.

Obviously, they'd be committing fraud, but that sort of thing.

Once I'm happy that the client fully understands what we're doing, then

it is literally a case of filling in the paperwork with things like,

obviously, the client's name.

They're known as the donor.

The attorneys are the people that the donor appoints to look after

their affairs for them when they're not able to do it for themselves.

And that could be because of mental reasons or physical reasons.

We have to have a person come along who's known Certificate provider who has

to sign to say that they've known the client for at least two years that they

know they understand what we're doing and that the attorneys are not bullying or

coercing that person into doing it, then usually I can get the client to sign.

I can get the certificate provider to sign.

In an ideal world, the attorneys would all be there to sign as

well so that the form is complete.

But often what would happen is the attorneys are sons, daughters, etc.

and they're at work.

So what I would do is I would then write either in pencil, or I often put little

sticky tabs on, all the sections that the people that haven't signed have to sign.

And I'll leave the client with the instructions of what needs

to be done to complete the form.

Then on the back, there is a checklist.

that I ask them to get somebody to check through with and to

make sure everything's done.

Really that's what an appointment is.

It's just filling in the forms and as we go through the forms talking

to the client about what each page means, what an attorney does, what

the certificate provider does, etc.

And then anybody that signs there's one particular page that everybody must read.

Which is the rules, because the lasting power of attorney is basically

controlled by the Mental Capacity Act.

It's all around that.

So that's really what an appointment is, and often people will bring me a

nice cup of tea, and I've been offered cake and biscuits, and they will chat

to me, and I've met some lovely people who've got such interesting lives.

And I just sit there and talk to them.

So some appointments can be an hour, if it's just one person.

But the longest I've ever done is three hours.

And that's because I just sat chatting to people about things we

were interested in and knew about and filled the forms in as we went along.

So, quite social really.

Sarah (host): The services that Karen and Matthew describe both

sound extremely comprehensive and personal to the individual client.

We asked Michelle and Karen to tell us what difference they think the

volunteers with Age UK Norfolk can make for people who use their services.

A lot of them fill in the customer satisfaction surveys for us

and send them back and a lot of them have said that they wouldn't fill

it in if we didn't go and help them because solicitors will charge so much.

A lot of people I think are just grateful that they don't have to go out their

house so we can go and call on them at their home whereas if we If they

were seeing a solicitor, they'd have to drag to town and things like that.

But yeah, it would just be a lot of these people would not do it if we didn't go for

either financial reasons physically, cause they couldn't get out of the house or it

was just too daunting a task for them.

But we make, we just make it easy for them, which is.

I

began working for Age UK Norfolk about nine years ago.

When I first joined the organisation, I was working in reception, doing a

lot of administration duties, helping with our lasting power of attorney

service, and working with all the reception volunteers who would pick

up calls from members of the public.

There was one lady who had volunteered with us for years, probably eight,

nine years, something like that, and her birthday was always at Halloween.

And obviously, it was the same time every year, but she would come in

every Halloween dressed as a witch and bring buckets of sweets in and throw

them around the tables to everyone.

I just thought that's a really nice story that again highlights

how we are a really close team and it does have a really family feel.

I will just never forget that particular lady and her coming in and doing that.

And it brought such a smile to everybody's faces.

And I think if you can imagine all of our 200 odd volunteers doing

that for somebody across the county.

then maybe that's a, just a little slice of how they've made

everybody else feel as well.

Sarah (host): As we've heard, both Matthew and Karen came to Age UK

Norfolk with experience that was really useful to their volunteering.

We wanted to know if this experience was necessary and asked Michelle to tell us

about the training for new volunteers.

There's always full training given.

So as long as you're, I guess you align to our values, you're

passionate and committed and you care about the cause, then we're going

to get along like a house on fire.

So there's always training for every role provided.

There's If you feel really like you want to get involved in a particular service.

That being said, I think we do find that there's a kind of natural affinity

to use your existing skill set.

So, for example, we've had lots of people that have worked in banking

and things like that that, and perhaps people that have worked in Maybe social

services or something like that actually seem to really enjoy the befriending

roles because I think they know what isolation can really do to somebody.

I don't think it's necessary to have those skills to bring with you

but it certainly doesn't hurt and I do think it seems to be a natural

progression that seems to happen.

Our volunteer coordinator does always do a great job of kind of spotting what

skills somebody might have and saying, Ah, have you thought about this as well?

Because you might not have considered it because maybe you didn't realize all

of our roles that we have at the time but One example is we have a volunteer

that joined us quite a number of years ago now, I think originally to help

with money matters, and it turned out that he was a retired journalist.

So, of course, me and my team were, Oh, you could help us with

some PR, had you considered that?

And he thought, it never really occurred to me that you might want some support

with that, but yeah, I'd love to help.

We had some really great support with writing press releases and getting

in touch with the local media.

He still volunteers with us now.

Sometimes you might come in through one door and then not realise that

actually you could offer more, maybe in multiple roles, depending on

what time and availability you have.

It's great to be able to use people's skill sets and I don't think any

door's ever closed if there's something you feel a real connection

to that you want to explore.

Sarah (host): With the name Age UK Norfolk, it is easy to

assume that the services provided are just for older people.

We double checked with Michelle if you have to be an older person to

get in touch and ask for support.

Generally speaking, our services for the end beneficiaries,

they start at age 50 and then go up.

For those contacting our advice line, it doesn't matter.

If you need advice about an older person or an older person's issue,

then we probably know the answer.

And if we don't, then we certainly know who does.

The telephone number that they can call if they want some

information and advice is 0300 500.

1 2 1 7.

That's open Monday to Friday.

00 AM to 4:00 PM and if anyone would prefer to email, they can do that by

emailing advice@ageuknorfolk.org uk.

Sarah (host): We hope you've enjoyed hearing more about the

role of volunteers with Age uk.

Norfolk, we leave you with some final words of advice from Matthew,

Karen, and Michelle, for anyone thinking about getting involved.

I would certainly say go for it.

They're a very friendly, very approachable organization.

You get the training that you need.

They're very flexible as far as that is concerned, so if you've got experience

in a particular field, they will let you, or see that you, can work within that

without necessarily their permission.

direct involvement.

There are guidelines as you would expect which need to be followed but overall the

support is there at the end of a telephone or at the end of an email and if you've

got experience in the field that I've outlined financially and or speaking with

people which I think most people perhaps in a sort of managerial bank managerial

role would have then worth very rewarding.

Just to do it.

I get a lot out of it.

I really like it.

I like going out on my visits to my clients.

I think when you retire particularly.

You can get very in a rut and stay home a lot and it can be quite depressing

because you do lose, although you try and keep your friends from work, they

have their lives and they're busy working and you can lose a lot of friends.

You can become quite lonely, I think, even though you may never see these

people again that I go and visit.

I had a lovely day yesterday.

Two nice couples, talked about all sorts of things.

It took about four hours of my day and then I went back home.

My husband was there doing his thing.

Yeah, I would say just do it.

Yeah, it's great.

But pick a job that you want to do.

Don't do it if you're not sure.

It's got

to be something you want to

do.

I would say absolutely explore it.

I think not only do the beneficiaries really gain something, but I

do think there's a lot to be gained as a volunteer yourself.

Whether you're looking maybe for some personal development and progression in

your career and you want to have that on your CV, that's one thing that's great

about it, but also it can really build your social skills and connections.

You'll meet new people.

It's really great for building confidence.

We've had lots of people that have started off volunteering with us

and volunteering has helped maybe provide a gateway into a career that

they wanted to move into as well.

So I think there's a lot to be gained.

Sarah (host): Thank you for listening to today's episode of Volunteering

Discovery with Age UK Norfolk.

A big thank you to Michelle, Karen and Matthew for taking time to talk to us.

If you are interested in finding out more about Age UK Norfolk or

about volunteering with them, please check out their website at www.

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 Waveney Intrugated Care

System by Hospital Radio Norwich.

Hosted by Sarah Briggs.

Producer was Jules Alderson.

Original music composed and performed by Philip Aldred.

Interviews by Sarah Briggs and Jules Alderson.