In March 2022 NHS HIS Community Engagement asked DHI to conduct a scoping study (‘Stage 1’) to define core functional requirements and deployment options for a new national Volunteer Management System (VMS) to replace the current Volunteer Information System with a new solution better suited to the needs of NHS Volunteering.

The project was set within the context of the new national volunteering strategy, which aims to build capacity in volunteering supported by appropriate tools, processes and models.

The Scottish Government subsequently funded DHI for ‘Stage 2’ to define the structural and operating models of the NHS Volunteering ‘future state’, and to draft key processes and new volunteering engagement models as a precursor to procuring the new VMS.  

Through a series of workshops and small group sessions with NHS Volunteer Managers from across Scotland plus Scottish Government stakeholders, a new ‘future state’ model of NHS Volunteering was prepared, including converged national processes, agreed data sets, and impact and reporting requirements for driving ongoing investment in volunteering as a key national resource.

The output was framed to inform the procurement of the VMS, and to be a template and guide for the transformation of the ‘business of volunteering’, helping NHS Volunteering evolve as a modern, coherent national service.

DHI arranged a market-sounding exercise, with the output being used by the Scottish Government to set a preliminary budget for the new service.