Volunteer Gardener

This is a new and exciting volunteering role at our adult acute mental health units.

We are looking for a friendly, and enthusiastic person who has a keen interest and experience in Gardening, to help develop and run a gardening group.

If you want to gain experience, improve your job prospects, or just want to give some of your time to help others, this volunteering role could be for you

The role is intended to enhance the experience of those people using our inpatient services by supporting and encouraging our service users to take part in music group activities.

What the role involes:

Encourage and support service users to participate in a range of basic gardening based activities/groups

Support the therapy team to plan and deliver simple gardening activities such as maintaining flower beds

Support the maintenance and development of the garden/outside area as agreed.

Provide assistance to the Therapy Team to ensure that activity resources are utilised and stored appropriately.

DBS Level for this role is : Enhanced with adult barred list

The knowledge, skills and attributes required for the role:

A keen interest/experience in Gardening (no mowing required)

Gardening skills in growing plants, flowers & veg

Good communication skills.

Punctuality and reliability.

Ability to effectively engage with service users, carers and staff

What we hope you gain from the role

Our thanks and appreciation

New skills and knowledge

Satisfaction from helping others

Please note : To meet our Trust's safeguarding obligations applicants for this volunteer role must be aged 18 or over.

We offer opportunities in other services for people aged 16 and 17, please contact the volunteer service to discuss these roles.

Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust

We are proud to provide high quality mental health and learning disability services, both inpatient and in the community across five boroughs of Greater Manchester - Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport and Tameside and Glossop.

Our vision is for a happier and more hopeful life for everyone in our communities and our staff work hard to deliver the very best care for the people who use our services. We're really proud of our #PennineCarePeople and do everything we can to make sure we are a great place to work.

We want our volunteers to reflect the diversity of the people we support, and we encourage and welcome applications from people across all our communities.

Volunteer Recruitment

Applying to become a volunteer may seem a little daunting for some people however, the volunteer service is here to guide and support you through the process. Please contact us on or email if you would like support to complete the online application form

Please be aware that due to the robust process, recruitment can sometimes take a few weeks.

Throughout the process you will have informal meetings with us and the service where you will be volunteering. In addition to this we will require you to:

Complete an identity (ID) check

Complete a Disclosure and Barring Service* (DBS) check,

Complete an Occupational health assessment

Give details for two references

Complete relevant training.

• Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check

DBS checks for volunteers are free and the level of check is dependent on the role you are undertaking.

We encourage applicants to join the DBS Update Service which is also free for volunteers. You can find information on the DBS Update Service here:

We look forward to you joining us and making a difference.