Our volunteering programme gives all colleagues the opportunity to spend up to 15 hours of their working time, each year, to use their skills to help others. It also gives them the opportunity to learn new skills, meet new people, build relationships with colleagues and improve your own health and wellbeing.  

Gez Marron is one of six members of the Digital Workplace Team from NHS Property Services, who attended a digital support group at Mildway Community Centre in Islington, London, as part of MRS Independent Living’s Fifty Plus Digital initiative to assist older people in the local community.

Gez Marron, digital trainer at NHSPS, said: “The session was filled with so many memorable moments. We helped a gentleman find a security job on the intranet and introduced him to Indeed for the first time. We also assisted someone in setting up an account to pay a parking fine, registered another for the NHS app, and even created email addresses and taught them how to use them.” 

Volunteers’ Week runs in the first week of June every year. Launched in 1984, the initiative has been running for more than 40 years. 

Lewis Smith, Technical Services Supervisor at NHS Property Services, volunteered to help build a summer house for users of the Halton Independent Living Centre in Runcorn, Cheshire.
He said: “We knew Halton Independent Living Centre supports adults with physical and learning disabilities, and when we heard they needed a better outdoor space, we wanted to help. We don’t get many chances to step away from our day jobs and do something like this – so when the opportunity came up to build something lasting for the community, everyone was keen to get stuck in.”

Hilary Carter, Relationship Manager at NHS Property Services, is a volunteer at Chapter One, helping a child improve their reading for 30 minutes each week.

She said: “I enjoy an immersive change of pace for 30 minutes each week, when I am in the moment, listening carefully, nudging my reader along, and finally sharing her joy in a story that has sparked her imagination and rewarded her effort. I look forward to each session as much as I hope she does, and I know it’s making a difference.”

Dr Shamir Ghumra Director, Executive Director for Responsible Business at NHS Property Services, said: 
“We are very proud of all our volunteers and the great work they do each year to support local communities. Around a fifth of our colleagues at NHS Property Services volunteer amounting to almost 9,000 hours. The benefits are mutual, both the volunteer and the recipient gain from the relationship and I am heartened by the great work that has been done this year to encourage yet more of our colleagues to become volunteers.”

Through our CSR programme, NHS Property Services is committed to improving the health and wellbeing of the communities we operate in. We aim to support community-based health initiatives and address key social issues to improve long-term populations health, lessen health inequality and, ultimately pressure and demand on NHS Services.