Sheila Hawkins is Head of Volunteering (Health and Social Care) at Volunteering England (www.volunteeringengland.org.uk), where she manages a project to advise and inform the Department of Health and National Health Service Managers and Commissioners about the value of volunteering. The project aims to ensure that volunteering is included in policy development, and that its contribution to health and social care services and organisations is properly reflected and measured. This has included service evaluations of volunteering within individual NHS Trusts and a systematic review of the literature concerning volunteering and its impact on health.
Hawkins has been involved for many years as a volunteer, paid employee, trainer and trustee in voluntary organisations with homeless people and people with mental health needs. She has also worked as a staff development manager and for a national training organisation where she managed the review of their Standards and Qualifications, and achieved an NVQ in Project Management whilst doing so.
She has volunteered in a range of settings in Britain and Eastern Europe and currently volunteers at Leicester Family Contact Centre.
