Our volunteers are at the heart of the care St Gemma’s provides

If you are a UK citizen you are free to volunteer. The majority of EU citizens are free to volunteer within the UK.

For those from outside the UK or EU, we advise that you contact the UK Borders and Immigration Agency to find out if your visa allows you to volunteer.

This depends on the volunteer role. Some roles you may require a specific qualification. The requirements for each role will be set out in each advert or role profile.

St Gemma’s Hospice Academic Unit of Palliative Care offers clinical placements for healthcare professionals to support their professional development and for undergraduate and postgraduate students undertaking courses in healthcare to assist with their studies.
Please be aware that we do not offer clinical/work placements to individuals less than 18 years of age in any area of the Hospice. For more information please visit www.st-gemma.co.uk/education-and-training/clinical-placements

We will not normally invite you to volunteer if you currently have a relative or friend in the Hospice or within 12 months after a significant loss or bereavement. However, this can be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. With this in mind, we include a question about losses and bereavements in our volunteer application form.

Yes! Employee volunteering is a great way of team building whilst helping St Gemma’s and we welcome enquiries.

There are lots of ways to get involved, such as helping to set up for our events, support on the day of our events (usually weekends), sorting donated stock at our retail warehouse in Bramley, gardening projects, skills sharing, making up fundraising packs, supermarket bag packs and working in our Hospice shops. Volunteers always get a warm welcome and are very much appreciated.
Some volunteering opportunities are in high demand and may be reserved for companies that support us as part of a charity of the year partnership.

To support St Gemma’s Hospice through workplace volunteering please contact us on Corporate.Volunteering@st-gemma.co.uk or call 0113 2185500.

Having a criminal record will not necessarily bar you from volunteering with us; this will depend upon the nature of the volunteering position and the circumstances and background of your offences. Please read our statement on the recruitment of ex-offenders for full details.

This varies depending on the role. For some roles, such as helping with collections at supermarkets, there is no minimum time you must give. For other roles, we may ask if you are able to commit to one particular day each week.

If you volunteer for four hours or more in one day, reasonable expenses for lunch or travel are reimbursed (subject to agreed guidelines).

Yes, training will be provided where needed for a particular role. You will always be given a thorough induction to your role by your supervisor so that you are confident in what we are asking you to do.

We hold regular volunteer events to say thank you for all of the time and energy that you give so selflessly. We also celebrate National Volunteers’ Week each June.
Additionally, we often celebrate our volunteers across our social media channels and feature case studies. Please let us know if you would like to be featured!

The Hospice’s Liability Insurance covers all volunteers.
However, the insurance policy does not cover volunteers aged under 16 or over 85 for personal assault when undertaking cash handling activities such as using a till, bucket collections or manning a tombola. This means that you would not be covered for any injury caused to you in the unlikely event of a robbery. Therefore, for you protection, you cannot undertake cash handling activities if you are under 16 or over 85.
For some volunteer roles, such as complementary therapy volunteering, we may ask you to arrange your own professional indemnity insurance.

We are currently upgrading our online application platform. To request an application form or to enquire about our opportunities, please email us on volunteering@st-gemma.co.uk. Once you’ve sent us your application, someone will then be in touch to discuss what happens next.

We love hearing your ideas about how you can help! If you have any skills that you may be able to offer then please get in touch on volunteering@st-gemma.co.uk or 0113 218 5193 and we can look into whether it’s something we can facilitate.