Children’s Hospices Across Scotland is celebrating achieving Investors in Volunteering for the fifth time as Volunteers Week 2018 kicks off

Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS) has been awarded the Investing in Volunteers accreditation for a record fifth time.

Announcing the achievement during volunteers week, the charity said it has 800 volunteers contributing in over 50 roles covering service delivery for children and their families, hospice and office support, fundraising activities and retail volunteering, as well as individual roles that are created based on volunteers’ skills and interests.

Investing in Volunteers (IiV) is the UK quality standard for all organisations which involve volunteers in their work. In 2006, CHAS was the first charity in Scotland to be recognised as meeting the prestigious standard. Since then, its accreditation has been renewed four times, more than any other charitable organisation in Scotland.

Volunteers are based in locations across Scotland including two hospices, Rachel House and Robin House, offices in Edinburgh, Stepps, Inverness and Aberdeen, four CHAS shops in Dunfermline and Kinross, as well as supporting families in their own homes, and fundraising in the local community.

Morven MacLean, Volunteering Development Manager for CHAS, said: “Volunteers are critical to our mission to reach every family in Scotland that needs us. Outnumbering staff three to one, we just couldn’t do what we do without them.

“We are delighted to have gained IiV accreditation for the fifth time but we won’t be resting on our laurels - we are always striving to improve and will continue to work hard to ensure that we respond to the evolving volunteering landscape and develop our volunteering programme accordingly so as to attract as many volunteers as possible to support our cause.”