How to Complete and submit a

Diary SheetAn electronic version of the diary sheet is required as it enables us to record the data efficiently and quickly by uploading the spreadsheet in a timely manner onto our database systems. This information will be used by Independent Age to collate and understand better the activity our volunteers are delivering and, help us shape our future plans to meet the needs of older people.

Instructions Ideally this form should be completed on a computer using Excel 2013 or later

programme. This will ensure that all the columns calculate automatically.

Complete this form with the number of hours for each activity.

Use quarter hour breakdowns i.e. .25 = 15 minutes, .50 = 30 minutes, .75 = 45 minutes and\or whole hours, 1 = 1 hour, 2 = 2 hours.

DO NOT use any letters e.g. hrs, use numbers and decimal point only.

We require the unique older person reference numbers this enables us to comply with data protection and to ensure the data is uploaded onto the correct person’s records.

Attending a training session or any volunteer events should also be recorded on the diary sheet. The column you need to use is always the ‘Receiving Training’ or column P.

Please email the completed form to your Independent Age Contact:o Monthly, for calls/ visits of 4 or more a month.o Quarterly, for calls/ visits of under 4 per month.

Volunteer ExamplesThe following examples are given to show how these might be typically completed by volunteers according to their role. However, they should not be taken as the only way to fill out the form. Volunteers take on different activities as part of their role and all the different activities need to be recorded in the correct columns.

For instance an Organising Volunteer may be involved in giving a training session to volunteers. They can then reference the Training Volunteer section and apply the same logic. This works for the other volunteer roles and as well where an activity does not quite match their role.

Page | 1Jan 2017

Volunteer Diary Sheet Layout

Page | 2Jan 2017

TEMPLATE

COMPLETED

What we require in each columnColumn NarrativeD Insert the date of your activity using DD/MM/YYYY.

E For training or supervision for another volunteer only: Insert the volunteer reference with whom the interaction applies to.

F Insert the older person number relating to the activity. Leave blank if the activity is related to another volunteer.

G Insert the type of volunteer role service that is being provided here using the drop down menu. See the full list in the box below.

H This column will automatically select the role type based on your choice in the role code column e.g. VV will give you ‘Volunteer Visitor’.

I Face-to-face visitors only: Insert the amount of time you have spent visiting your member

J Face-to-face visitors only: Insert the amount of time you have spent on the telephone to your member

K Face-to-face visitors only: Insert the amount of time you have spent taking out your member

L Insert the amount of time you have taken travelling to and from your activity. This is in relation to any Independent Age activity, including visits, training, events, supervision

M Telephone volunteers only: Insert the amount of time you have used on the telephone to your member

N Insert the amount of time you have spent on an assessment visit.

O Insert the amount of time you have spent delivering Independent Age training.

P Insert the amount of time you have spent receiving Independent Age training.

Q Organising volunteers: Insert the amount of time you giving supervision face to face.

R Organising volunteers: Insert the amount of time you giving supervision over the phone.

S Insert the amount of time you have spent on Administration work.

T Insert the amount of time you have spent promoting Independent Age.

U Insert the amount of time you have spent fundraising for Independent Age.

The roles available for the Role column are in the table below. The next pages will take you into each one of those roles in more detail

Acronym Role Page numberVV Volunteer Visitor 4OV Organising Volunteer 5TV Telephone Volunteer 6AV Assessing Volunteer 7TRV Training Volunteer 9

Page | 3Jan 2017

EXAMPLES OF VOLUNTEER DIARY SHEETS

Volunteer Visitors:

The narrative from this diary shows that the volunteer, James, has two members. In the month of January they saw one member (22415) for 2 hours and it took them 30 minutes in total travel time.

The second member (55589) the volunteer has been in contact 4 times in that same month. Three 1 hour visits and at the end of the month one phone call lasting 1 hour. The visits took 45 minutes (0.75) in travel time to the member and the phone call obviously has no travel time.

What this shows is that the volunteer has three members.

The first member they saw for half an hour (0.5) and it took them half an hour in total to travel (0.5).

The second member they took on an outing for 1 hour and a half or 90 minutes (1.5) and the total travel time in the outing was 1 hour.

The third member the volunteer spent 45 minutes on the phone to them (0.75).

Page | 4Jan 2017

With regular diary sheet submissions (monthly) whereby the calls/ visits tend to be the same, you can save time by saving yourself a copy of your diary sheet on your computer. Changing the dates and length of activity accordingly.

If there is any admin work – see page 7 Admin work for volunteers.

Organising Volunteer (the greyed out cells are there to aid visual reference rather than a necessity to be included):

As the role of an OV is far more varied you might expect to see a whole range of different types of activity that they’d need to record.

1) The first activity (row 13) is a volunteer supervision. Total travel time was 15 minutes (0.25) to meet with the volunteer. 45 minutes were spent during the supervision. The Admin time for notes was 15 minutes in total.

2) The second activity (row 14) was another volunteer supervision, but this time conducted over the phone. Zero travel time required and the supervision call took 30 minutes (0.5) to complete. It then took 15 minutes (0.25) to write up their notes.

3) The fourth activity (row 15) is something that might not necessarily be common practice and this involves fundraising. The OV has decided to carry out a fundraising event. They spent 30 minutes (0.5) total travelling time. 3 hours at the event and 45 minutes (0.75) with filling in forms and general admin for the event.

4) The final activity (row 17) was a friendship visit to the older person they support, with 1 and a half hours spent with them (1.5). Total travel time was 30 minutes (0.5). Note also that the Role Code/ Description needs to change to VV/Volunteer Visitor for this interaction.

Page | 5Jan 2017

Telephone Volunteers:

Telephone volunteers should only look to complete the column TelephoneFriendship. In general there should be no travel time included as it’s conducted from the volunteer’s own home. The frequency of the call may vary but overall a telephone may call weekly to their member, which is why you’ll see regular calls in a month to the same person.

The above example shows weekly calls to one person in March with each call lasting half an hour (0.5) which is a typical call schedule for a 1-1 Telephone Volunteer.

Page | 6Jan 2017

With regular diary sheet submissions (monthly) whereby the calls/ visits tend to be the same, you can save time by saving yourself a copy of your diary sheet on your computer. Changing the dates and length of activity accordingly.

If there is any admin work – see page 7 Admin work for volunteers.

Volunteer Assessors: (the greyed out cells are there to aid visual reference rather than a necessity to be included)

The role of the Volunteer Assessors requires them to visit and assess older person who have been referred to Independent Age. This is what it could look like.

1) The first example shows that the total travelling time spent was 45 minutes (0.75). The assessment alone took 1 hour and their write up of the form and notes (this can include emails/ post to their Independent Age contact took another 45 minutes (0.75) in total.

2) The second assessing visit in February was slightly different. Their total travelling time was 30 minutes (0.5) and the actual assessment took a little longer at 1 and a half hours (1.5). The write up of the forms and their notes took 45 minutes (0.75) in total.

Page | 7Jan 2017

Admin work for volunteers:

The administration work carried out by our volunteers is also important for us to capture.

In your specific role as a volunteer with us this may take the form of filling out forms, sending in updates to your local contact or the London office about the older person you support and general reports that you will write up during the course of a year. It might not necessarily be relevant for every activity, but any which requires you to spend time preparing or recording information in relation to your volunteer activity needs to be logged.

Total time taken to do each activity must be written in the quarter hour format.

.25 = 1/4 hour, .50 = half an hour, .75 = ¾ hour and\or whole hours, 1 or 2 etc.

Queries made to your Independent Age contact:

The queries that are sent by Volunteers to their respective contacts are an important part of the work that needs to be recorded.

All the time spent on emails/ calls discussing the older person you support or another Volunteer can be correctly recorded using the Telephone Supervision column.

Total time taken in the queries for each Service User/ Volunteer must be written in the quarter hour format.

.25 = 1/4 hour, .50 = half an hour, .75 = ¾ hour and\or whole hours, 1 or 2 etc.

Page | 8Jan 2017

Training Volunteer:

Training Volunteers are focused on delivering training to other volunteers. The areas in which interest these volunteers are the Vol. Ref, Travel, Delivering Training and Admin columns. The Vol. Ref column should indicate the reference number of the volunteer(s) that they’ve trained.

The example shown above tell us the following:

1) The first training required the training volunteer to travel 30 minutes (0.5) in total. The training session in total took 5 and a half hours (5.5) and the Admin involved in total for the session was 1 and a half hours (1.5).

2) The second training session involved more travelling time, in total 1 hour. The training time and admin time was the same.

Page | 9Jan 2017