Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Initial introduction:

Senior Project Manager at the Black Country NHS, Adrian Kearns, got in touch with us after he received a follow up email we sent out to every NHS Trust, highlighting the initial success of the initiative with other Trusts. After coping with the initial surge in demand, getting the necessary infrastructure and hardware in place to keep things running smoothly, the Trust quickly started running out of time and the workforce to mobilise important IT projects.

Volunteer roles:

24 hours after speaking with Adrian about the initiative and qualifying his first volunteer role requirement, a Desktop Support/Build Engineer, a shortlist of suitable volunteers was put together for Adrian to review. After a successful round of interviews, 2 volunteers were selected and started the following week.

The Trust quickly realised the huge benefits of our initiative and used it to take on a Senior Project Manager volunteer to head up the deployment of a cloud based VOIP System and Electronic Document Management System.

What Shajid Ullah (Senior Project Manager volunteer) has to say about our initiative:

“I volunteered to do the Senior Project Manager role with the Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to stay close to home and serve my local community during this COVID-19 crisis. Volunteering has helped me maintain my skills and keep me engaged with my peers and the industry.”

Summary:

In a very short period of time, the confidence the Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation Trust had in our team grew massively. Although each role was voluntary, our team treated the process like it was any other commercial resource opportunity, ensuring our high standards at all times. The high skill level of these volunteers was blatant from their first day, leading to 2 out of 3 volunteers securing long term contract opportunities with the Trust.