My Guide Best Practice Manual
Overview
This online manual is here to help you set up a My Guide service and provide you with the resources you’ll need. Some of you may have experience of hosting a similar service, for others this maybe the first time you work with volunteers – but whatever your experience, this manual gives you the structure, processes, advice and top tips. So whether you need some thought starters on fundraising, a form to download, or perhaps a full explanation of how to match a volunteer with a service user – just dip in!
Contents
Compulsory aspects
- Safeguarding
- Disclosure checks (CRB)
- Insurance
- Mobility Assessment Survey
- Registration and the Community Sighted Guide Database
- Quarterly report
The service user’s journey
- Promotion
- Identifying suitable service users
The My Guide volunteer journey
- Planning and promotion
- Recruitment
- Selection
- Induction
- Day to day management
- Support and supervision/development
- Training
- Recognition
- When a volunteer moves on
- Disclosure checks (CRB)
- Registration and the Community Sighted Guide Database
Building and supporting the partnership
- The matching meeting
- Checkpoints
- Finishing the service
- Next steps
Helping to run the service smoothly – policies and procedures
- Insurance
- Self declaration form
- Volunteer agreement form
- Volunteer expenses policy
- Volunteer disciplinary procedure
- Volunteer grievance procedure
- Health and safety
- Risk assessments
- Boundaries
- Confidentiality guidelines
- Safeguarding
- Complaints procedure
- Finance and sustainability
- Funding options
- Branding
Measuring success
- Reporting
- Quality assurance
Useful contacts
Items for the pack
- Service user promotion leaflet
- Service user promotion poster
- Volunteer promotion leaflet
- Volunteer promotion poster
Templates for downloading
- Example risk assessment form
- Boundaries
- Confidentiality Checklist
- Disclosure – what to do
- Matching form
- Mobility Assessment Survey
- Service user promotion press release
- Volunteer promotion press release
- My Guide volunteer interview questions
- Safer recruiting – competencies and questions
- My Guide volunteer role description
- Volunteer application form
- Community sighted guide data collection form
- Invitation to Level One training
- Invitation to Level Two training
- Top tips for My Guide volunteers
- Volunteer activity plan
- Community groups – example from Northern Ireland
- My Guide service case for support (fundraising)
- Quarterly Report
- Self declaration form
- Volunteer Agreement Form
