Volunteering Opportunities Welcome to our volunteering opportunities webpage! This is where you can read about all the volunteering roles available across NHS Lothian. Whether you are looking to volunteer at a large hospital or would prefer to volunteer at a smaller community hospital, we have you covered. Got question? Check out our volunteering FAQs page which answers some of the most commonly asked questions about volunteering with us. Please note that to volunteer with us you need to: Be aged 16 or over (for some roles this is 18 or over) Be able to make a regular weekly commitment for two or more hours a week at the same time and day each week Volunteer with us for a minimum of six months Receive and share with us satisfactory appropriate clearance from Disclosure Scotland (this is completed by us as part of your application, you do not need to pay for this yourself) Where applicable receive occupational health clearance for agreed role Actively participate and engage in our volunteer induction training Volunteer with NHS Lothian Charity We are currently recruiting volunteers to support our green spaces across NHS Lothian. Do you have an interest in gardening and green spaces? The Green Health Programme run by NHS Lothian Charity focuses on making hospital gardens and outdoor spaces beneficial for everyone – patients, staff, and visitors. We know spending time in nature is good for our health, so the Charity work to keep these spaces beautiful and accessible. Whether someone is walking in the garden or looking out a window, we want them to feel comfortable and relaxed. We also care deeply about protecting nature. Our gardening work helps support local wildlife and plant diversity. As a volunteer, you’ll be a key part of maintaining these spaces in a way that’s good for both people and the environment. We are recruiting volunteer gardeners to support this work across the following sites/days/times: Astley Ainslie Hospital – Monday – Wednesday, opportunities available between 9am-5pm Western General Hospital – Monday – Friday, opportunities available between 9am-5pm Royal Edinburgh Hospital – Monday – Wednesday, opportunities available between 9am-5pm Midlothian Community Hospital – Monday – Friday, opportunities available between 9am-5pm If you are interested in finding out more or applying to these opportunities, please email Loth.VolunteerEnquiries@nhs.scot Opportunities to take part in Clinical Research Trials Our Clinical Infection Research Group (CiRG) facilitates research studies for a range of common UK infections e.g., flu and COVID. Many of these studies require volunteers aged 18-99 to take part for example in testing different interventions, e.g., vaccines or sharing experiences. For more information about taking part in clinical research trials you can email CiRG at Loth.CIRGregister@nhs.scot or you can find out more at www.cirg-edinburgh.co.uk Volunteering Opportunities with our Third Sector Partners Volunteer with RNID’s Near You Service Volunteers supporting RNID will make a valuable difference to people who are deaf, have hearing loss or tinnitus. Any contribution you make as a volunteer, no matter how small, can have a big impact on the people we support in communities across Edinburgh & Lothians. To find out more about their current opportunities with the Near You service follow the link below: RNID Near You volunteer, Lothians/Edinburgh – RNID Volunteer at the Children’s Hospital with Radio Lollipop One in four children are admitted to a hospital before reaching age 14. Radio Lollipop believes in the healing power of play – providing smiles and laughter to children at a time when they need it most. Though some patients are short-stay, many have a recurring need for care and return repeatedly to hospital. Some who are terminally ill spend much of their short lives in hospital. Radio Lollipop gives young patients a voice and a choice during their stay. While they can´t say “no” to taking their medicine or receiving treatment, they can request their favourite songs, win prizes and hear their own voices on the radio. Those activities give youngsters a haven of normality in the hospital day which in other respects is strange, different and often scary. Each Radio Lollipop Volunteer must be aged 18 or older and able to give a commitment of 2 hours per week of interactive play with children using a comprehensive range of fun and interactive activities developed over the years by Radio Lollipop. A broadcast radio studio is part of the armory of activities in our “toy box” and is provided at most of the hospitals where the Radio Lollipop service operates, providing a unique child-orientated programme of interactive competitions, music, stories and games. If you want to be part of the magic that is Radio Lollipop and putting Play In Place of Pain for children spending time in hospital, come along to one of our volunteer information days at Royal Hospital for Children and Young People, Ground Floor, Out Patients, 50 Little France Crescent Edinburgh EH16 4TJ on: Sunday 19th October 2025 between 2-4pm Alternatively visit us at Radio Lollipop – Play In Place Of Pain or email us at vcnew.edinburgh@radiolollipop.org.
