You can make a difference
Whether you’re volunteering directly with the people who use our services or behind the scenes in one of our offices, as one of our volunteers, your time and talent will go towards supporting other people to feel happier, healthier, and live their best lives.
Our volunteers do a huge variety of things – from using their experiences to support others going through the same things (as peer supporters in our Wellbeing Centres), to helping us interview and choose people to become our next Shared Lives carers, through to helping greet new visitors to our head office in Liverpool and giving us a hand with events.
Some of our volunteers work online only; some of them come to one of our offices or centres and work alongside us in person.
I wanted to give something back to PSS after what they have done for me. I'm a big advocate for PSS now, I tell everyone what they do. I'll do anything to help - my glass is always half full now.
- Daniel, PSS co-production buddy
Ways to give your time to PSS
Experts by experience
A Shared Lives expert by experience is someone who is part of Shared Lives themselves, and wants to use their experience to help shape and improve the service. Their insight helps make sure new carers and supported people understand what Shared Lives is really like and whether it’s the right fit for them.
This is the perfect role for anyone wanting to share their lived experience, offer honest feedback and be a big part of helping make sure our Shared Lives schemes are the best they can be.
Panel volunteers
Panel volunteers take part in our carer recruiter panels to help us find the best Shared Lives carers. Being part of our panel means you’ll be working with other volunteers, staff, current carers and people who are supported by Shared Lives to assess potential carers by making sure they're someone who lives our values, are passionate about supporting people to live their best lives and ready to begin their next great adventure.
Joining our panel means you'll be helping find carers who can give someone a safe, happy and supportive home in one of our Shared Lives schemes.
Parent-Baby Service peer supporters
If you’re a parent, grandparent, or carer, your experience could be the support a family really needs. You might help by offering friendly advice, sharing your own experiences, checking in by text or phone, or simply being there for someone going through a tough time. Sometimes that support might be practical too, like helping them get out of the house, get to appointments, or feel more organised.
You’ll be part of a supportive team creating welcoming activities that help families feel connected, confident and cared for. You may also share your lived experience with professionals so they can better understand what families are facing.
Wellbeing Centre peer supporters
As one of our peer supporters, you’ll be someone who has benefitted from the support of PSS Wellbeing Centres and is keen to use your experience to help people in your local community.
Our peer supporters are an important part of the service; symbols of hope, showing others that with the right support, things can get better. With the support of the staff team and fellow peer supporters, you’ll all work together to deliver the diverse timetable of activities that we offer. You might get involved with things like beekeeping, gardening, delivering wellbeing sessions or being part of our Upbeat Liverpool editorial team.
By volunteering as a peer supporter, you’ll become a part of someone’s wellbeing journey. It will also be a great way to meet new people and feel involved with your local community.
Quality checkers
A quality checker means you’re someone who is currently being supported by PSS or you have been in the past. You might also be someone who works at PSS, or you might be a Shared Lives carer.
As one of our awesome quality checkers, you’ll be currently being supported by PSS or you have been in the past. You might also be someone who works at PSS, or you might be a Shared Lives carer. You’ll be someone who wants to use your lived experience to help us shape how we support people at PSS. You’ll know what high-quality support should look and feel like, by using your own experiences and knowledge of PSS.
You’ll visit all of our services and look at how we do things now, to help us do things better in the future. You’ll work in teams of two (a PSS teammate will be with you), our dynamic duos, to co-check work together by having conversations with people we support, teammates, volunteers, as well as Shared Lives carers about the support provided in their service.
Business support
As one of our business support volunteers, you'll be based in our PSS HQ and get involved with things that support PSS as a business on the whole. You might be based in our customer service team, providing top-notch support to everyone who walks through our doors. Or you might want to join our building maintenance team, where you'll join our maintenance superstars making sure that we're being as environmentally friendly as possible, and that our building is running smoothly.
No matter which team you're volunteering in, you'll be helping make sure our HQ is a safe, friendly and welcoming place to be.
Volunteering makes me feel of use, gives me confidence and makes me feel alive. Plus, I meet such lovely people along the way. I'm always going on adventures where I never stop learning and appreciating the world around me.
- Corinne, PSS volunteer
Volunteering at PSS
How it started
PSS wouldn't be what it is without our amazing team of volunteers.
In fact, without volunteers, there would be no PSS in the first place.
Back in 1919, PSS was built by kind, generous people giving their time and talents to support people who need it most - and today, nothing much has changed.
We have volunteers all over the organisation - from peer supporters in our Wellbeing Centres and PSS Parent-Baby Service teams through to quality checkers and interviewers - and we all think they're a really important part of our team.
We're so grateful to each and every person who gives us their time and we're proud of the thriving volunteering community we've created.
Loads of support
At PSS, you're never alone. We'll be with you every step of the way on your volunteering journey. You'll even have your very own volunteer coordinator who will be there to cheer you on.
Abi's super friendly and has oodles of experience when it comes to volunteering. She'll be there to guide you through the recruitment process and get you settled into your role once you're an official PSS person. You'll also have the support of your fellow volunteers!
You belong
Here at PSS, we're determined to be a place where everyone feels they belong, no-matter who they are, who they love, or where they're from.
We don't stand for oppression of any kind round here - and we're on a mission to be the most inclusive organisation we can be.
When you join PSS, you'll be treated with respect and kindness, and celebrated for your differences.
Let's hear it from you
Every year we ask our volunteers what they think about volunteering here at PSS. For 2024 -2025 we received feedback from 61 people, here are a few of the highlights.
100%
said they have the tools, resources, and training to perform their role effectively.
96.7%
said they have positive relationships with fellow volunteers and PSS teammates.
95.1%
said they feel they belong at PSS either always or most of the time.
What's in it for PSS volunteers?
We really, really appreciate everything that our volunteers do, without them we wouldn’t be able to do half as much fantastic work. So, to show you just how much we appreciate you all, we offer...
• Free monthly mindful sessions
• The chance to be nominated in our dedicated volunteer awards ceremony
• A great place to be a part with lots of friendly people
• Membership for Charity Worker Discounts
Charity Worker Discounts is a free membership site that offers deals and discounts exclusive to people who work or volunteer for registered charities. There are loads of different amazing offers and discounts, from mouth-watering restaurants, attractions, holidays, fashion fixes, gym membership, mobile phones and much more. As well as offering these discounts they also have a cashback service too, which means that you can earn 12% cash back on every purchase at over 50 retailers.
Learning and development at PSS
We want you to be your brilliant best. When you join us, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to learn, grow and develop. Whether that's learning on the job or completing training via our in-house learning system, Learning Hub. You'll have easy access to loads of extra training and resources whenever you need them.
How to apply for a volunteer role
If you like what you’ve read so far and think you can see yourself volunteering at PSS, it’s time to get in touch.
To apply for a role, please send us an email with your name, the role you'd like to apply for, and the area that you live in, and how you live by our values of being big-hearted, open-minded, genuine, professional and determined. You can do this in the body of the email or attached via a Word document.
Your application is really important; so, make sure to include anything special you feel you can bring to the role. We ask you to send us this information because want to get a good feel for who you are and why you’re so great – we love hearing about people’s skills, experiences and accomplishments, big or small.
Send your application to our volunteer coordinator via Volunteer@pss.org.uk or 07764469365.
More about us
Our values
We may be blowing our own trumpet, but our team really is something special. PSS people come from all different walks of life, and it’s this mix of brilliant personalities, experiences and insight that gives us that warm, open and friendly culture.
High quality support
We give the type of support we'd want our own families to have.
Become a Shared Lives carer
We're always recruiting self-employed Shared Lives carers around England and Wales