FAQs for referring organisations

See Support for vulnerable people^[4] for more information on who is eligible for support for each volunteer activity.

For our current volunteer roles you can make referrals by submitting details online via the Volunteer Responders GoodSAM referrer portal^[1] or by calling our Support Team on 0808 196 3382^[3].

Volunteer Responders is an NHS England scheme that runs in England only.

You can make referrals directly if you have an nhs.net or gov.uk email address. We will approve requests from alternative addresses as quickly as we can within 72 hours, or you can make referrals through your Local Authority.

This is open to each eligible professional organisation to decide. We have left this flexible to suit different needs. If you want a colleague to access your referrals we suggest you use a generic email address when setting up your GoodSAM account.

• Check In and Chat: Provides telephone support to people in need of companionship and encouragement to improve their mental health and wellbeing. This support will be a one-off phone call for up to 18 weeks.
• Check In and Chat Plus: Provides regular telephone support to people who may be housebound and have little contact with others, are anxious about leaving the house or have recently been discharged from hospital in need of companionship and encouragement to improve their mental health and wellbeing. This support will be 3 calls a week, over a 6-week period.  
• Community Response: Provides support with the collection and delivery of essential shopping, prescriptions or lateral flow tests where there is a current health need. This is 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.
• Pick Up and Deliver: To transport equipment, supplies and/or medication between NHS services and sites or to people who have been recently discharged or are on virtual wards.
• Connect support: Support for people to enjoy a range of activities in the home or in their community. 
• Steward Volunteer: Provides stewarding at sites where COVID-19 vaccinations are taking place.

We frequently review the needs needs of the programme, and we will update referrers when new roles are added, for example following a successful pilot activity.

Once a professional referrer has made a request for support, the request is identified as an active volunteer task to volunteers registered in the local area. The volunteers pick the task they want to do that day and close the task once complete. Volunteers show themselves as 'available' when their app is switched to 'on duty'. This is a live system. Once you submit a referral it will go into the system to be matched.

Our system will automatically search for a volunteer who speaks a persons preferred language stated on the referral, but unfortunately we can't guarantee a match. If there isn't a volunteer available to match the person's preferred language or in their area, the search will default back to English.

Contact the Support Team on 0808 196 3382^[3], who will be able to pass your referral on to the programme team for investigation. It may be that the information in the alert is not clear enough, or the details have been recorded incorrectly. The programme team will also be able to access another route to help you access more volunteers. 

1. Login to the referrer's portal of the GoodSAM website at goodsamapp.org/login^[5] - It is advised to use Google Chrome for this.
2. Go into the 'referrals' tab
3. Click 'Add a New Referral' to add a new referral

Please provide information of the site e.g. address of person being supported, hospital discharge lounge, GP surgery, pharmacy etc. If the volunteer is attending a site, they will need details of the location they are required to attend. If you are unsure about what to include when filling out the form please contact our Support Team on 0808 196 3382^[3] who can help you to fill out the form.

This is not a mandatory field.

Please contact our Support Team on 0808 196 3382^[3].

Firstly, check if the verification email was sent to your junk/spam inbox. If the verification email cannot be found, please call the Support Team to generate another verification email on 0808 196 3382^[3].

GoodSAM stands for Good Samaritan and is a platform that has been saving many lives since its launch. It alerts those trained in resuscitation to cardiac arrest to nearby incidents, while the ambulance is on its way.

It is because of this technology of coordinating volunteers to those in need, that the system has been adopted for the Volunteer Responders programme.

You can click on tasks on the referrer dashboard to view the task/alert to check progress. Contact the support team if you have a concern about your task.  

You may have entered your phone number instead of the phone number of the person requiring support. Please log in to the Referrers' Portal and check the client phone number listed. If necessary cancel the referral and submit a new one.

It is especially important that you cancel this request if you have requested a repeat referral (e.g. weekly) because volunteers will continue to call you directly. Please ensure you have fully read the instruction document embedded within the referral form.

Please contact our Support Team on 0808 196 3382^[3] if you have not been able to register as a referrer.

We recommend that you read the Referrers guidance that is specific to Steward Volunteers^[6].

Volunteers have been asked to commit to 4.5 hour shifts. No referrals/tasks should be raised for longer than 4 hours. You can add shifts to run concurrently i.e. 8:00-12:00 and 13:00-17:00.

If you require volunteers on a daily basis (consecutively) e.g. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday - select the ‘daily’ option in ‘periodcity’.

You will be asked to enter the number of days you require volunteer support, if Monday-Friday you would enter 5 days.

The start date, start time and end time you have entered will be repeated on a daily basis, for the number or consecutive dates you have entered.

1. Log in to the admin area of the referral portal at goodsamapp.org^[5]. It is advised to use Google Chrome for this.
2. Go into the 'referrals' tab.
3. Click 'Add a New Referral' to add a new referral.

1. Log in to the referral portal at goodsamapp.org^[5]. It is advised to use Google Chrome for this.
2. Go into the 'referrals' tab.
3. In the free text box, key in the first name, surname or email address to search for the referral.

1. Log in to the referral portal at goodsamapp.org^[5]. It is advised to use Google Chrome for this.
2. Go into the 'referrals' tab.
3. In the free text box, key in the first name, surname or email address to search for the referral.
4. Once you have found the referral you can click ‘Cancel referral’. A push notification will be sent to all volunteers who have already accepted the task and the task will be removed from the volunteers app.

1. To monitor the progress or status of a request, please log into the GoodSAM platform.
2. 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’. If you already know the task ID number you can key this into the ‘task id’ box.
3. On the search tasks screen you will find further information regarding your referral. In the ‘status’ section you will see an overview of how many volunteers have accepted the task and how many are outstanding.
4. Click ‘see referral’ to review the referral details.
5. Click ‘see assignments’ to review the list of volunteer/s that have reviewed and actioned the task. You will see the first name, surname of the volunteer and the task ID.
6. The task status will show as – Will attend – Volunteer has selected 'I will attend' or 'No longer attending' - Volunteer has accepted but can no longer attend.

After you have confirmed your first referral a link will be sent to your email address (please ensure you look in your junk mailbox if you don't receive this). You will also receive a password. This will then become your log in to the GoodSAM website and you will be able to search or view the referrals you have made and cancel referrals if needed.

You are able to check if a referral has been matched with a volunteer by logging into the GoodSAM website,^[5] then searching approved referrers in the Referrals tab and entering your email address into the “or by free text” box. Once your referral has been found, you can look at the status of the referral and also click on tasks.

Please contact our Support Team on 0808 196 3382^[3] if you are unable to access your referrals.

Please contact our Support Team on 0808 196 3382^[3] if you are unable to access your account.

ID checks are carried out for all volunteers, depending on what activity they undertake these can differ. All roles require ID checking e.g. passport/driving license and some roles require additional checks e.g. a DBS check. The following roles have been assessed against DBS requirements and adhere to current advice on DBS checks. All DBS are within 12 months of issue from date of volunteer application.

• Check In and Chat: Volunteer without DBS
• Check In and Chat Plus: Volunteer with Enhanced DBS
• Community Response: Volunteer DBS: Volunteer with an Enhanced DBS with Adult Barring.
• Pick Up and Deliver: Volunteer without DBS
• Connect: Volunteer with Enhanced DBS
• Vaccination Steward: Volunteer without DBS

This approach is in line with Home Office guidance around eligibility for DBS checks.

The safeguarding of people and volunteers is paramount. Royal Voluntary Service have a safeguarding framework to support Volunteer Responders.

This includes:

• A trained Safeguarding Team working 8am to 8pm, 7 days a week picking up concerns.
• All volunteers have an identification page within the app which they must show to the person they are supporting.
• A volunteer agreement which details expected behaviours of volunteers.
• A volunteer Problem Solving Team to help with low-level volunteer concerns or issues.
• A process for removal and/or banning of volunteers or people from the service for inappropriate conduct or behaviour. If you have a concern about a volunteer please contact our Support Team on 0808 196 3382^[3].

Safeguarding concerns can be raised by calling the Support Team on 0808 196 3382, ^[3]who will pass the information to the Safeguarding Team.

Royal Voluntary Service’s Liability Insurance Policy covers up to 2 million volunteers. They will only accept liability if the volunteers are following the guidelines and boundaries that have been set.

Any volunteer engaged in an active task under this scheme will be able to evidence this by showing you their ID on the Volunteer Responders app on their mobile phone, where you can see that they are actively carrying out an assigned task.

All volunteers will receive a Getting You Started Guide appropriate to the activities they sign up to. As part of the terms and conditions of volunteering, driving volunteers are asked to declare that their vehicle is roadworthy as outlined by UK law, has a valid MOT certificate and is taxed for use on the roads and that they have a valid driving licence.

Volunteers using their own car for voluntary purposes to support others should check the information on the Association of British Assurers website^[7] before undertaking any driving activity as you may not be insured, the information includes a list of insurers who do not charge extra for volunteer driving.  

Volunteers must be over 18 years old.

All volunteers will receive a Getting You Started Guide appropriate to the activities they sign up to so they will have specific, clear and detailed guidance which will enable them to provide support safely. 

There will be regular opportunities to share your feedback via our communication channels and surveys, or with your Regional Relationship Manager^[8]. To find out who they are contact the Support Team 0808 196 3382^[3].

Our referral guidance includes all the information you should need to log your referral. In the free text box it is helpful 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.

Referrals can be made as a one-off support task once a week, or a once-a-week visit for up to 6 weeks. This activity is not intended to replace the work of paid employees or care staff. You could also refer the person for other support such as Check In and Chat if you think they would benefit from this.

Volunteers cannot support people with personal care. Please see our list of acceptable and not acceptable tasks.^[9]

Login to your GoodSAM dashboard where you can check if your referrals are being fulfilled. There is guidance on our website to support you or if you have any queries, please contact our Support Team on 0808 196 3382^[3] who will be able to support you.