Read about our CCG Volunteer Programme

What is the CCG Volunteer programme?

Our CCG Volunteer programme gives local people a chance to take part and contribute as we work to engage and involve them in planning change and development to health and care services across Leeds.

What does a CCG Volunteer do?

Our volunteers help to ensure that the voice of patients, carers, and the public are taken into consideration when decisions are made that affect health services and patient care.

This isn’t about sharing personal opinions about health services in the city, but is instead, about thinking how changes and developments to services can affect people from a range of different communities and backgrounds in different ways, and working to highlight and minimise any negative impacts or results.

CCG Volunteers take turns at attending the Patient Assurance Group (PAG) to review and discuss our engagement plans and equality impact assessments, to ensure the patients’ voice has been considered in all our work. CCG volunteers also sit on a variety of project steering groups or work programmes to make sure that the voice of the public is heard and acted upon at every stage of the commissioning cycle.

How do we support our CCG Volunteers?

We support our CCG Volunteers in a number of ways:

• CCG Volunteers induction day
• CCG Volunteers training day
• 1:1 mentoring sessions
• Peer support groups

Virtual Peer Support and Catch-Up

With the current COVID-19 pandemic we have moved our CCG Volunteer peer support groups online. We held our first one during 2020 Volunteer’s Week (first week in June). It was a great success with our volunteer appreciating the time to catch-up with one another. We also heard from representatives from both Voluntary Action Leeds (VAL) and Healthwatch Leeds, who spoke briefly about the work they were doing to support the city’s response to the outbreak.

Dick, CCG Volunteer:

“Being shielded/vulnerable is a lonely and anxious process, made better by local volunteer helpers. Our virtual coffee morning was an inspirational break for many of our CCG volunteers. Listening to presentations on the committed work of Healthwatch and VAL was heartwarming and demonstrated just how dependent we are on volunteers in these trying times. Thank you NHS Leeds CCG for organising this event.”

Lewis, CCG Volunteer:

“I thought it was a useful way of keeping in touch, finding out about other volunteering opportunities and ways in which we can contribute. It served as a testament to the fact that the CCG is flexible and adaptable. I expect we will meet like this more often in the future, even after we emerge from lockdown.”

Thanks to everyone who came to the meeting and gave us their feedback. We’ll see you at the next one.

Current CCG Volunteer resources: