This guidance will cover the following topics:
Our Support Team is available by calling 0808 196 3382[1] (9am to 6pm, 7 days a week).
Page last reviewed: 01 April 2024
Self-referrals are possible for people requiring Check In and Chat, Check In and Chat Plus and Community Response support.
People can request support for themselves, or a friend or family member can request it on their behalf, with their consent, by calling our Support Team on 0808 196 3646[2].
For more information, watch Raising a referral[3] and Signing up as a referrer[4]
As a referrer you can request support from the programme by completing a referral form on the referral portal at goodsamapp.org[5] or by calling our Support Team on 0808 196 3382[1].
If you have an NHS or Gov email address:
If you do not have an NHS or Gov email address:
Once you have set up an account, you can log in at any time to view or cancel your referrals goodsamapp.org/login[6]
Once your referral has been entered into a verified account in the GoodSAM app it will automatically send an alert to available volunteers asking them to complete the task at the time you have specified. (The exception to this is for the Steward Volunteers as these requests are for future tasks).
All support requests (except Vaccination Stewards) are time limited in the first instance but can be repeated if required.
Page last reviewed: 11 March 2024
Please ensure you select the correct type of support as your referral is matched to a volunteer with specific vetting for that activity.
Please note that some activities are limited to certain local authority areas and will continue to increase in the coming months.
For further guidance please call 0808 196 3382[1]
Page last reviewed: 11 March 2024
Check In and Chat and Check In and Chat Plus are preventative activities to support people who need a telephone chat and some encouragement to improve their wellbeing.
These activities provide friendly conversation. Where the volunteer judges this to be appropriate they will work with the evidence-based NHS 5 steps to mental wellbeing[7], to help people to explore positive changes they could make. It is essential that the person being referred understands and agrees to the support which you are requesting on their behalf.
These volunteer activities are not designed to be treatment services and therefore you should not refer anyone with complex vulnerabilities or needs into this scheme. Please use your discretion as an approved referrer to decide whether it is appropriate to refer a person for support from a volunteer.
Examples where this service is not appropriate for:
Community Response is an activity to support people waiting to be admitted to hospital or those who have just been discharged with the collection and delivery of food shopping and essential items and/or prescriptions and medications.
The support is also available to carers and to people with health conditions where there is a current health need.
Volunteers are not to permitted to support with any other activities outside of this or enter people’s homes to support with unpacking of shopping or any other tasks. Volunteers can support either as a one-off or once a week for a maximum of 6 weeks.
Pick Up and Deliver is an activity to support the NHS and individual patients who have been newly discharged from hospital to home or are being cared for on a virtual ward.
This could be collecting from a hospital and delivering medicine or monitoring equipment to a person’s home, returning any undelivered items, or supporting the movement of equipment between NHS sites.
Volunteers are not permitted to support with any other activities outside of this or enter people’s homes to support with the setting up of equipment. Volunteers can support with urgent one-off tasks, or support with multiple deliveries during a scheduled shift.
Community pharmacies are not able to utilise this support. Please take note of the different schedules of controlled drugs.
Page last reviewed: 16 November 2023
Log into the GoodSAM platform to monitor the progress or status of a referral or make amendments to: the address, phone number, periodicity, start and end time of a shift or cancel the whole series.
To review the number of volunteers required (for Steward/scheduled referrals)
Click referrals, then search referrals. Either search by a start or end date or use the free text box to enter information regarding your referral to search.
Once you have found the referral, click on tasks. Within this section you can search using the task ID number, if you know it. See image below.
You can change the phone number, address for all referrals raised at any time.
For Check In and Chat and Pick Up and Deliver support you are able to change the periodicity or frequency of the referral.
For Vaccination Steward referrals you can also change the start time or end time of the shift. Click on the ‘change’ box under each category to amend the referral.
To cancel a referral, log into your dashboard and select ‘Cancel referral’.
For Vaccination Steward Volunteers a message will be sent to all volunteers who have already accepted the task and the task will be removed from the volunteers’ app.
Page last reviewed: 16 November 2023
Check In and Chat: A person who requires a telephone chat and some encouragement to reduce loneliness and improve their wellbeing (these will be from a number of different volunteers).
Check In and Chat Plus Support: A vulnerable person who requires regular telephone calls and encouragement to reduce loneliness and improve their well-being and these should be from the same volunteer (3 calls per week for 6 weeks from a volunteer).
Select the frequency. If support is needed on a more regular basis, select yes then select the frequency. Please note that support will only be provided for a maximum of 6 weeks for Check In and Chat Plus and 18 weeks for Check In and Chat, support will end after this duration and a new referral will need to be made.
Complete the referrer contact details and declaration.
Once you click Register Referral, your request will be live in the system. The system will now automatically search for nearby ‘on duty’ volunteers. Alerts will be sent to one volunteer at a time. If a volunteer accepts then the referral will be matched. If a volunteer rejects or does not accept an alert, it will move on to the next volunteer.
If your dashboard shows that a task was not matched with a volunteer, you can always log a new request for support.
If you have any problems, please contact the Volunteer Responders support team on 0808 196 3382[1].
Please cancel referrals if the person no longer requires support. This avoids unnecessary calls being made, which can be frustrating for both the person being supported and the volunteer. Requests are time limited to 6 weeks for Check In and Chat Plus and 18 weeks for Check In and Chat.
Page last reviewed: 16 November 2023
Community Response: Provides support to a person on a one-off basis or for a period of 6 weeks, days and times to be agreed between the volunteer and the person supported.
Support includes the collection and delivery of food shopping and essential items and/or prescriptions and medications to people waiting to be admitted to hospital or those who have just been discharged. The support is also available to carers and to people with health conditions where there is a current health need.
Select the frequency. If support is needed on a more regular basis, select yes then select the frequency. Please note that support will only be provided for a maximum of 6 weeks, support will end after this duration and a new referral will need to be made.
Complete the referrer contact details and declaration.
Once you click Register Referral, your request will be live in the system. The system will now automatically search for nearby ‘on duty’ volunteers. Alerts will be sent to one volunteer at a time. If a volunteer accepts then the referral will be matched. If a volunteer rejects or does not accept an alert, it will move on to the next volunteer.
If your dashboard shows that a task was not matched with a volunteer, you can always log a new request for support.
If you have any problems, please contact the Volunteer Responders support team on 0808 196 3382[1].
Please cancel referrals if the person no longer requires support. This avoids unnecessary calls being made, which can be frustrating for both the person being supported and the volunteer. Requests are time limited to 6 weeks.
Page last reviewed: 16 November 2023
Pick Up and Deliver: NHS organisations require volunteers to support sites and individual patients who have been newly discharged from hospital to home or are being cared for on a virtual ward.
This could be delivering medicine or monitoring equipment to a person’s home, returning any undelivered items, or supporting the movement of equipment between sites.
The 'drop down' above will show 2 options:
Enter site details:
For short notice or today, enter:
For advance notice or future, enter:
Enter any additional information that will be relevant to volunteers. As a minimum, this should include where/who to report to on arrival. Do not enter any personal or sensitive data into this section as this information is shared with volunteers.
If the shift is recurring, enter how often the support is required
The system will duplicate the first referral entered and will generate the multiple shifts based on the frequency entered.
Once you click Register Referral, your request will be live in the system. The system will now automatically search for nearby ‘on duty’ volunteers. Alerts will be sent to one volunteer at a time. If a volunteer accepts then the referral will be matched. If a volunteer rejects or does not accept an alert, it will move on to the next volunteer.
If your dashboard shows that a task was not matched with a volunteer, you can always log a new request for support.
If you have any problems, please contact the Volunteer Responders support team on 0808 196 3382[1].
Page last reviewed: 16 November 2023
Teams who require volunteers who will support the safe movement of people around vaccination sites can use this service.
Steward Volunteers can also help to monitor numbers and identify people who need additional support. The maximum shift length is 4 hours.
This information is for: Vaccination sites, Primary Care Networks and community pharmacies.
Steward Volunteers are an important part of the COVID-19 vaccination workforce model, trained to help sites manage flow of people and support social distancing.
All Steward Volunteers are ID checked and appropriately trained for the activity.
NHS England strongly recommends sites request Steward Volunteers from the national pool within the Volunteer Responder programme.
Volunteer Responders is delivered by Royal Voluntary Service and the GoodSAM app.
Managing queues; greeting and directing people; monitoring numbers. The maximum shift length is 4 hours and the minimum shift length is 1 hour.
Note: Steward Volunteers do not require a DBS check, so do not operate within Education vaccine delivery settings. With supervision, Volunteer Responder stewards are able to volunteer at VCs and LVS sites which offer vaccinations to under 18s.
Requests via GoodSAM are to be submitted with a minimum of 10 days notice to shift start time. Any shorter timeframes may result in shifts not being fulfilled.
Amendments/cancellations (change of hours, site closure e.g. Bank Holidays) are to be submitted via GoodSAM with a minimum of 2 days notice to shift start time. Anything less than this impacts volunteer experience and reduces the likelihood of volunteers attending future shifts. It is the responsibility of each site to ensure GoodSAM is kept up to date.
Steward Volunteers are requested online through the GoodSAM app. Volunteers book themselves onto shifts and the requester (referrer) can check details within their GoodSAM dashboard.
Royal Voluntary Service shall ensure that COVID-19 vaccination Steward Volunteers are over the age of 18, have passed all relevant background checks agreed with NHS England confirm suitability for the stewarding role, understand the requirement to keep operational information and patient information confidential and have received appropriate training and onboarding.
You will ensure that you have in place appropriate information, instruction, training and supervision as is necessary to ensure, so far as is reasonably necessary, the Steward Volunteers’ health and safety whilst volunteering on site on your behalf.
You are also responsible for holding and maintaining appropriate insurance for COVID-19 vaccination Steward Volunteers who are operating with a COVID-19 vaccination site. You will also be responsible for verifying the identity of the volunteers on arrival on site by way of GoodSAM app photographic identification.
It is the vaccination site manager’s responsibility to provide the Steward Volunteers with an onsite induction. This must cover essential information about their role, health and safety and positive security behaviours. A checklist is provided below.
The following is a sample site induction, which should be tailored to local site conditions and local procedure.
Stewards welcomed and thanked for giving their time in support of the vaccination programme.
Check the volunteer’s ID against the name provided when booking and that they have the correct hi-vis vest.
All Steward Volunteers are ID-checked and appropriately trained. Sites should ensure volunteers are able to adequately perform their role. If there are performance issues that cannot be addressed locally, you can raise this with Volunteer Responders by emailing [email protected][8]
Enter the Site type, site name, site email address, site contact number, postcode and address.
The system will duplicate the first referral entered and will generate the multiple shifts based on the frequency entered.
Once you click Register Referral, your request will be live in the system. Volunteers are able to log in to GoodSAM and view available shifts in their area under the Tasks menu in the app. They can then select that they wish to attend any available shifts.
You can monitor the number of volunteers who have selected to attend in your dashboard. Please keep an eye on this as volunteers can sometimes mark that they are no longer attending. We ask them to do this with as much notice as possible.
If your dashboard shows that a task was not matched with a volunteer, you can always log a new request for support.
If you have any problems, please contact the Support Team on 0808 196 3382[1].
This is a screenshot of the volunteers’ app. This is an example of a request which has selected the ‘Periodicity’ as ‘Daily’ and the number of days as 3. The date and time of the first shift was entered as the 19 APR 2pm – 6pm and the system has generated multiple requests for the 3 shifts required.
If the ‘Periodicity’ was ‘Weekly’ and the number of weeks was 3, the dates showing within the app would be Wednesday 19 Apr, Wednesday 26 Apr and Wednesday 3 May.
The below are examples of how the volunteer will view the additional information you have entered and the contact details.
Page last reviewed: 11 March 2024
Connect Volunteers: Can provide support to anyone over 18, with capacity and need identified by a healthcare or voluntary sector professional to access and reconnect with the community and engage in social activities.
Connect volunteers will support people to participate in activities but will not be able to complete activities on behalf of the person requiring support.
The volunteer support for this activity is available either as a one-off or once a week for a maximum of 6 weeks and will take place in the person’s home or in their local community.
Referrals can be made from a healthcare provider, which may include Local Authority teams and Voluntary Sector organisations. The following criteria for individuals who are eligible for this support is:
Exclusion criteria:
You will be asked to confirm that the support is suitable for the person you are referring.
Select whether the support is required at a person’s home or out and about in community setting.
The details required in this section will differ depending on the whether the volunteer is supporting the person at home or taking them out into the community. Support will always start and end at the home so the home address of the person being supported must be provided.
Enter the date and time that the volunteer should arrive, a calendar will pop up to allow information to be entered.
Enter the time that the volunteer is needed until.
Will the volunteer need their own transport? This will assign the task only to volunteers that have declared there are willing to drive and have their own vehicle.
In the free text box it is essential to include details about the person’s home such as, if there are any pets at the property, if there will be anyone else at the property, does the person smoke and any other information that will help the volunteer. We ask you to include this so that volunteer can assess if they are able to support i.e. they might have an allergy to pet hair.
At home - You will need to provide some brief details of the activity being asked of the volunteer e.g. support to bake a cake for a friend’s birthday or support to plant spring bulbs etc.
A community setting - You will need to provide some brief details about what the activity is, whether the volunteer will incur any costs to take part in the activity, the date and time of the activity. Remember that the volunteer will meet the person at their home, the start time should reflect when they need to attend the person’s home to take them out into the community.
Some examples are included in the text box below:
You will also need to select the frequency.
If support is needed on a more regular basis, select yes then select weekly. Please note that support will only be provided once a week for a maximum of 6 weeks, support will end after this duration and a new referral will need to be made.
Complete the referrer contact details and declaration.
Once you click Register Referral, your request will be live in the system. The system will now automatically search for Alerts will be sent to 1 volunteer at a time. If a volunteer accepts then the referral will be matched. If a volunteer rejects or does not accept an alert, it will move on to the next volunteer.
If your dashboard shows that a task was not matched with a volunteer, you can always log a new request for support.
If you have any problems, please contact the Volunteer Responders support team on 0808 196 3382[1].
A volunteer will receive an alert which they can accept or reject.
The information you have entered into the referral form is shared with the volunteer:
Please cancel referrals if the person no longer requires support. This avoids unnecessary calls being made, which can be frustrating for both the person being supported and the volunteer. Requests are time limited to 6 weeks.
Page last reviewed: 11 April 2024