Are you looking for a volunteer role? Do you have an interest in health and social care?
Join our team! Open our ‘Volunteer expression of interest form’ and apply to join Healthwatch Kirklees and Calderdale.
Latest volunteering news
We are looking for people:
- With a desire to make positive changes to health and social care systems
- Have the ability to work with people from a wide range of backgrounds
- Who are friendly and approachable
- Have good communication skills, listening skills, research skills, and new ideas
- An interest in making a difference in the community
- Want to work with a great team
- Want to develop more of these skills
“I volunteer because I enjoy helping as many people as possible, and I also enjoy working with my colleagues, meeting different people, and getting out there (in the community at outreach sessions). I gain an awful lot from volunteering, but the main thing is being part of a team contributing to Healthwatch the best I can”
-Alex, Community engagement and outreach volunteering, Healthwatch Calderdale Volunteer
What sort of things might I do as a volunteer?
There are many things you could get involved in, such as:
- Supporting the staff team at our engagement and outreach sessions in the community by listening to people’s health and social care experiences.
- Helping us visit services to make sure they are providing people with the right services and support.
- Research online and help us gather health and social care feedback.
- Talk to your own family, friends, work colleagues, or neighbours and gather their feedback about health and social care services they have used.
- Raise awareness of the work we do at events or in the community.
- Help with administration tasks such as proof checking and reading documents or reports, designing surveys, analysing data, or helping out with our newsletter.
- Represent us us at hospital trust meetings or the many other meetings we attend.
“It’s been rewarding to feel like I’m helping improve services by listening to people’s experiences. I also enjoyed learning new skills through the online training and being part of a supportive volunteer team.”
Volunteer roles
Enter and view volunteer
An Enter and View volunteer listens to people’s experiences of health and care services. This includes people living in residential homes, to understand what is working well and what can be improved. They are individuals who are authorised by Healthwatch Kirklees or Healthwatch Calderdale to participate in planned Enter and View activities.
Volunteers are trained to deal with sensitive situations and confidential information appropriately. They will not interfere with service delivery at the service undergoing the visit.
Community engagement & outreach volunteer
As a Community Engagement & Outreach Volunteer, you help us learn what people think about health and social care in Kirklees/Calderdale. This involves chatting with friends, family, and colleagues about services like GPs, dentists, hospitals, pharmacies, and opticians. We may also ask for your own views on specific topics. As well A asking your help spreading the word about Healthwatch at events or in your community.
Online feedback collector
As an online feedback collector, your role will be to collect feedback about people’s experiences of using health and social care services. It may be from feedback that has been left online or from family and friends. It will also involve speaking to your own family, friends, and sharing your own views on health and social care services. Online feedback collectors help us to spread the word about Healthwatch, and by sharing surveys to help our projects. You might get involved in researching topics and giving feedback on health and social care documents. Or you might want to support us with voiceovers or videos for social media.
Our team has completed over 617 hours of volunteering!
April 2024 – April 2025
To that, we would like to say a big thank you!
“In my volunteer role, I welcome the opportunity to support people to enable their voices to be heard in relation to aspects of service delivery- identifying examples of good practice whilst also highlighting where improvements need to be made and how they might be achieved”
-Lynne, Enter and view volunteer, Healthwatch Kirklees & Healthwatch Calderdale
Interested and want to talk more about volunteering with us?
You can get in touch with Katherine Sharp, our Volunteering and Engagement Officer.
Email: katherine.sharp@healthwatchkirklees.co.uk
Phone: 01924 450379
If you are a current volunteer, you can visit the current volunteer page to find more information.