Evaluation of Volunteer Home Support Project (CHAS)

By Morven MacLean (Head of Volunteering, Children's Hospices Across Scotland).

Evaluation Purpose and Methodology

This evaluation is of the first year of the project (the pilot). Interviews were undertaken with volunteers and families prior to the volunteers commencing their volunteering. Follow up interviews were then conducted after three months of the volunteers starting their roles.

The GIRFEC (Getting it Right for Every Child) self-evaluation tool was used to evaluate the pilot. Wellbeing sits at the heart of the GIRFEC approach and reflects the need to tailor the support and help that children, young people and their parents are offered to support their wellbeing. To help ensure clarity around what wellbeing means, it is described in terms of eight indicators, commonly referred to by their initial letters – SHANARRI. These eight indicators were used as prompts with families and volunteers in order to enable them to reflect on the impact of the pilot. The indicators are Safe, Healthy, Achieving, Nurtured, Active, Respected, Responsible and Included.

Before they commenced their volunteering we interviewed the volunteers, inviting them to share how they felt about the home support role in relation to the eight indicators. After three months we invited them to reflect on their role again – from the recruitment and selection process to the training, support received and fulfilment of the role. We also invited them to reflect on the impact of their volunteer role on their own lives. The families and volunteers indicated where they felt in relation to each indicator on a web. The blue line is indicative of the first interview and red line indicative of the second interview. The scale is from 1-10 with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. For example, if someone felt they were at level 1 for safety then that would indicate they don’t feel safe at all. At level 10 they would feel very safe. The completed webs are included in the appendices of this report.

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Click on the following links to read the evaluation's report

• Evaluation of Volunteer Home Support Project (CHAS) - Full Report
• Evaluation of Volunteer Home Support Project (CHAS) - Presentation

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