Before the call:
When approaching a Completion Survey with a volunteer it is important to be prepared, informed and ready to hear what is being said. We do this by seeing this survey as more of a conversation than a fact-finding mission. This conversation is the final “Check In” call to hear how they found supporting a family and how we supported them.
Before your call, set aside some time to read any notes that have made on the database about the support and the volunteer. These could be (a) Case notes or closure comments in the families notes section from the FSM that will give you a flavour of how support has been OR (b) Volunteer Observation notes made by the FSM on the volunteer notes (see more on this below). Take time to read these so that they can inform and feed into your conversation with the volunteer. These observations will help shape your conversation and make it more comfortable for you and the volunteer.
Below is an example of what a volunteer observation note could look like, and for a full example please see ‘An example of a Volunteer Observation Note’.
During the call:
Where possible reference families names, certain events or outings.
The format above provides great starter questions, such as: “The notes mentioned you are planning to stay in touch. How is that going?”, “I understand your contact with [name] has come to an end, how does that feel?” Or “Safe Families really values belonging – have you seen the impact of that for [name] or yourself?”. But don't feel beholden to just these if the conversation is flowing.
Within this conversation you will find opportunities to ask for scores or reflections on the specific scored questions.
When doing a Completion Survey please allow 15 minutes per survey, we want each conversation to be genuine, caring, offering a sense of belonging and care for each volunteer. We are not rushing to find scores, instead we take a genuine care in how the volunteer feels so they are seen, heard and understood.