- A Volunteer Assessment should be booked as soon as possible after a volunteer has applied and within 1 month of the volunteer’s application. CVMs need to be flexible and prepared to carry out assessments in evening slots.
- Where at all possible, the Volunteer Assessment should be carried out in the volunteer’s home. This gives us more information regarding the volunteer, especially in the case of Family Friends with at-home-care and Host Homes. In all situations, Safe Families lone-working guidance must be followed (Lone Working Policy)
- During the assessment, the CVM needs to ask the volunteer if they know if anything is likely to be disclosed on the disclosure form and record their response. This is part of our safeguarding process.
- Once the assessment meeting is completed, the CVM should write up the assessment from their notes as soon as possible afterwards, to keep the information fresh in their thinking. The information for the assessment can be inputted into the DB directly when meeting the potential volunteer or recorded in an alternative form. If recorded on the DB, it should be saved as draft and only saved as final when all the information is detailed.
- Time needs to be blocked out in CVM diary to write the assessment onto the database within 5 working days of the assessment taking place. The Biographical Summary should be transferred to the Volunteer’s Summary Box at the top of the volunteer’s notes on the DB.