Volunteering with us

An illustration of a person and two people either side as ''V' shapes to represent volunteers

We have currently closed recruitment for most volunteer positions until further notice, with the exception of volunteer Carecars drivers and Feeding Buddies.

If you are passionate about making a difference and have a valid driver’s license and vehicle, we encourage you to join our dedicated team of drivers. Your contribution will play a crucial role in helping us deliver essential services to those in need. For more information and to apply for this role, email mse.msevolunteers@nhs.net

Our volunteers

We currently have around 700 volunteers across our sites, helping out in a variety of different roles, including running errands on wards; being on our outpatient reception to guide patients to their appointments.

As well as helping around our Trust, becoming a volunteer can be hugely rewarding, helping to build friendships, confidence, alleviating loneliness and helping with employability.

All applications are subject to interview, references and a police check.

You don’t need any special skills or experience, but you will need to be over 18, dependent on where you volunteer. All we ask is that you are cheerful, helpful and reliable – and can commit to a minimum of four hours a week. Volunteering at one of our hospitals can make a real difference to the lives of patients.

How to go about being a volunteer: 

To find out more, email mse.msevolunteers@nhs.net or apply using the links below if you are interested in volunteering at a specific hospital:

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Volunteer recruitment process

The process of application to starting your role can take up to three months. This depends on how quickly your pre-placement checks and whether your role is avavailable.

The process consistes of the following stages:

  • Assessment
  • Satisfactory references
  • Disclosure and barring service check
  • Occupational health check
  • Training

Volunteer opportunities and commiments

We are always looking at ways to work with our volunteers to find a suitable role that fits them. The application process can be intensive and so we ask our volunteers to commit to a minimum of six months, for a minimum of four hours a week. We do provide one-off volunteering opportunities for employees of companies who would like to support us. Please contact our team for more information

It is very important you provide as much information as possible when you complete the application form. We also recommend you read the task description of the role you are applying for before you apply. If you have been unsuccessful, you must only re-apply once six months has passed.

Our volunteers provide non clinical and non-medical support to patients, visitors and staff. We have a range of different opportunities you can volunteer for this can vary according to availability at the time of applying.

As a volunteer your role could be greeting visitors as they come in, taking over a patient to the correct department, helping a patient with their meal, playing board games with elderly patients on the wards or even taking around the trolley to patients who would like a snack.

We pay travel expenses up to a 10-mile radius of your nearest hospital, providing you submit the correct receipts. This excludes weekly bus and train passes. You can also collect a lunch voucher with a value of £4.50 which can be used in the hospital canteen, however only volunteers who do at least 4.5 hours per day are entitled to use the voucher.

If you are interested in completing work experience, working in clinical setting in laboratories or observing or shadowing clinicians, please visit our work experience page.

You can become a volunteer at one of our charities, to do so visit https://msehospitalscharity.co.uk.

Mid and South Essex Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is supported by a variety of independent charities whose volunteers help raise money for charity or improve patient care.

Volunteer Friends at Broomfield

The Friends at Broomfield Hospital provides a range of services to the hospital including a newspaper trolley service, library and of course the “Hospital Shop”. All of these services are organised and run by volunteers, and all of the profits generated are given back to the hospital for the purchase of equipment requested by medical staff.

Visit www.fabh.org to find out more about Friends at Broomfield Hospital.

Volunteer Friends at Braintree

We have a band of 54 volunteers at Braintree Community Hospital who been going strong since the hospital opened in 2010.

To find out more, visit Braintree Community Hospital (BCH).

If you have any questions – including volunteering – please email fbch@mail.com. 

Volunteer League of Friends Basildon

The League of Friends was formed in the mid 1960s, several years before Basildon Hospital opened its doors in 1973. With a remit to buy the additional extras that might not be funded by the NHS, the group has more than fulfilled its aim.

Latest accounts show we have raised more than £1.7 million for the direct benefit of patients and staff.

Money originally came through raffles and quiz nights, plus other social events but is now raised through the Tea Bar in outpatients. Cash raised buys devices such as a Glidescope (a video device enabling a better view of a patient’s airways during intubation, making the experience less uncomfortable).

Before Covid it also funded a children’s entertainer who would come along weekly to cheer up poorly youngsters (hopefully soon to begin again). The League also paid for 3,000 toiletry packs for patients coming into hospital without items such as soap, shampoo and toothpaste.

The proceeds of the League of Friends Tea Bar, part of the landscape of Basildon Hospital Outpatients since the 1970s, plays a huge part in bringing money in; indeed, the charity’s volunteers were the first group of volunteers to return to the shop in December 2021, following Covid.

Despite the rising cost of living, prices remain the same as pre-pandemic. “You can still get a ham or cheese roll for £1.30 and a cuppa for £1.10,” says chairman Alan Ursell, proudly.

Small wonder that around 300-400 customers buy from the bar a day, which is open from 10am - 2pm by a rota of 25 volunteers.

Eventually Alan and his colleagues hope to extend the tea bar’s opening hours, but need more volunteers in order to do this. “A number of our volunteers have been unable to return since Covid,” he explains. “It’s a nice place to help out; we are a friendly team. We just get on with it and the feedback we get from staff and patients makes it so worthwhile.”

If you would like to volunteer with us, please contact Jean Ursell at alan.ursell@btinternet.com