Volunteer induction

Parkinson’s is a complex brain condition that has no cure and gets worse over time. It has more than 40 symptoms, from tremor and pain to anxiety.

Watch the full video on YouTube.

We want you to feel safe and secure in your volunteering role. And we have a moral and legal duty to make sure you do.

We want you to feel confident about keeping yourself safe while volunteering. If you have concerns about your own health and safety, or someone else’s, it’s important you act fast. Please contact your staff contact for support and guidance.

Find more information in our "Health and Safety for Volunteers" guide (Google Slides).

Assessing risk 

We assess risk for multiple reasons, including:

• Legal: all employers must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of risk and staff and volunteers must co-operate with the employer in achieving this.

• Insurance: our insurers require that all charity activities are risk assessed to ensure cover.

• Practical: the charity recognises that risk assessments are a useful tool in planning for events and preventing harm. As a large and complex organisation, it’s best practice to evidence this through formal risk assessment forms, which we refer to as ‘risk assessments’.

Contact the Facilities team at [email protected] for more information.

Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. You may meet vulnerable adults in your role. It’s important that you can identify a safeguarding concern and know what to do.

 Complete our "Introduction to keeping people safe" training (Google Slides).

If you have a safeguarding concern about anyone while volunteering, you should immediately get in touch with your staff contact.

If you’re unable to reach your staff contact, you can contact:

• our Safeguarding Lead, Rachael Gallop, on 07833 237199 or at [email protected]
• our helpline on 0808 800 0303. Please state that you’re a volunteer and that you have a safeguarding concern so they can direct you. 

It’s important to us that you have access to wellbeing support while volunteering. All volunteers can access our wellbeing provider, Spectrum.Life, either online or by phone. Speak to your staff contact for more information about the support you're entitled to. 

Creating a welcoming environment for all 

We're here to support every Parkinson's journey, every step of the way. Wherever you're from, whatever you need. Make sure you're using inclusive language and behaviour so that everyone in the community feels welcome.

Saying no 

Sometimes you won’t be able to volunteer, even if you have in the past. Your life circumstances might change, you might not have time, or you could have health concerns.

You don’t need to explain why you can’t volunteer if you don’t want to. But it’s important to tell us when you might need to step back from volunteering.

Please talk to your staff contact if you need to change how you’re volunteering. We might be able to suggest a different role, or find a way to support you to continue your current volunteer role. 

If you choose to stop volunteering with us, we can provide references where relevant. 

We want to help you keep data safe and secure while you're volunteering. Whether it's someone's name, photograph or contact details, we want to make sure you feel confident identifying, processing and managing personal data.

Complete our "Data protection" training (Google Slides). 

Artificial intelligence

With the increased use of artificial intelligence (AI) online, it can be difficult to know what to trust, especially when it comes to health information. 

We’re a trusted source of Parkinson's information, and our helpline staff includes specialist medical professionals.

We recommend that information given by an AI should be treated with caution, as it may not be accurate. Inaccurate AI-generated content on websites and social media is common and sometimes hard to recognise.

We recommend using the SIFT method: a 4-stage method for spotting misinformation:

1. Stop

2. Investigate the source
3. Find better coverage
4. Trace the claim to the original content.

Expenses

We don't want volunteering for us to disadvantage you in any way, including financially.

We’ll reimburse all reasonable expenses you pay for while volunteering with us, such as lunch, travel or car parking, in line with our "Volunteer expenses policy".

Read our Volunteer Expenses FAQs (Google Doc). 

Claiming benefits

You can claim benefits while volunteering with us.

You should tell your benefits adviser that you’re volunteering and that your expenses will be reimbursed. You may need to provide proof of expenses, including photocopies of the original receipts.

If your benefits adviser asks you to provide a letter confirming your volunteering status, please contact the Volunteering team, and we'll provide you with one.

Find government advice on claiming benefits while volunteering on the GOV.UK website.

We hope that you have a good experience when volunteering with us, but we know issues can happen sometimes. For example, if you’re experiencing a problem involving another volunteer or you’re struggling to carry out your role. 

Our problem solving policy and procedure provides a framework for how we try to solve problems involving volunteers in an open, fair and timely manner. Read our "Solving problems policy and process" (Google Doc). 

Speak to your staff contact if you need support to resolve any problems you’re having in your volunteering role.

Giving feedback and making a complaint

We want to hear your feedback, whether it’s positive or negative. You can share your comments, complaints or compliments about anything to do with Parkinson’s UK in a few ways:

• Tell your staff contact.
• Email [email protected]. 
• Call us on 020 7963 9324.
• Write to us at: Supporter Care, Parkinson’s UK, 50 Broadway, London SW1H 0DB.

As a long-term or lead volunteer, we ask that you complete our Keeping People Safe training. The training will support you to:

• understand your responsibility around safeguarding a potentially vulnerable person

• understand when and how to report a safeguarding concern

• learn how to discuss concerns about a potentially vulnerable person.

Complete our advanced "Keeping people safe" training (Google Slides). 

As a volunteer, you may become aware of information about people, including people we support at Parkinson’s UK, or other volunteers and staff. Even when others share information about themselves voluntarily, we all have a duty to keep it confidential. 

Please complete "Level 2 data protection for volunteers" so that you’re confident in how to keep information safe while volunteering. 

Complete our advanced  "Data Protection" training (Google Slides). 

As a volunteer with lead responsibilities, you'll need to complete our online "Safeguarding training for lead volunteers." The specialist session is delivered by our designated safeguarding lead. 

Look out for an email inviting you to attend a session that suits you.

As you’re responsible for using and managing personal data in your volunteer role, please complete an advanced level of data protection training. We want you to feel confident and well-informed about how you can keep information safe while volunteering. 

Complete our "Data protection for lead volunteers" training (Google Slides).

If you’re a finance lead volunteer, please complete our finance training to support you with managing finances for your group. Your role title may be treasurer or finance contact.

Complete our "Group finance" training (Google Slides). 

You might also receive invitations to join training sessions with the Local Group Finance team and local group staff contacts. 

You’ll find documents and resources to support you in your role as a finance lead volunteer on our resources for treasurers page.

We’ve also created a WhatsApp group for finance lead volunteers for peer-to-peer support. Speak with your staff contact about joining.