Location
London

Hours
Flexible volunteer hours to be agreed

Salary
Negotiable (Volunteer role)

About the Role
Highpoint House, home to Children & Young People’s therapies, has an underused sensory garden and garden at the back presenting an invaluable opportunity to bring people together to improve their health and wellbeing. This role involves improving the aesthetics of the sensory garden, creating a calm and relaxing space, and co-producing with service users and the local community. The volunteer gardener will help improve biodiversity through plant diversity, provide good quality habitats for wildlife, allow nature to be therapeutic, increase access to nature, and promote eco-friendly practices to reduce harm to ecosystems. The role supports the development and maintenance of a therapeutic and inclusive garden environment that benefits both service users and the wider community.

Key Tasks and Responsibilities
- Maintain planted areas with regular watering, weeding, mulching, etc.
- Support improvements to the sensory garden
- Create wildlife habitats such as insect hotels and bird boxes
- Monitor butterflies, pollinators, plants, and other wildlife
- Work alongside and support the volunteer gardener at the Memorial Hospital site
- Work with small groups of service users as ‘garden buddies’
- Share knowledge and experience with ‘garden buddies’
- Encourage participation of ‘garden buddies’
- Maintain and monitor the upkeep of tools and materials
- Report any concerns about ‘garden buddies’ to a named Oxleas NHS Trust employee
- Report any concerns about the garden or materials to the Sustainability Manager

Working with Oxleas Service Users
Responsibility for the group or any service user working with the volunteer lies with a named employee of Oxleas NHS Trust. A Trust employee will be present throughout any activity involving service users.

About Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust
Oxleas provides a wide range of NHS healthcare services across community and secure environments, including district nursing, speech and language therapy, learning disability care, and mental health services. With over 4,300 staff working across more than 125 sites in South England, Oxleas operates in London boroughs including Bexley, Bromley, and Greenwich, as well as Kent. The Trust manages hospital sites such as Queen Mary’s Hospital and Memorial Hospital, and is the largest NHS provider of prison health services in several regions. Oxleas is committed to improving lives through compassionate care, guided by values of kindness, fairness, listening, and caring.

Experience
Previous gardening or horticultural experience is beneficial but not essential. Enthusiasm for working outdoors and supporting community wellbeing is important.

About you
You should be motivated, patient, and enjoy working collaboratively with others, including service users and volunteers. A commitment to supporting inclusive and therapeutic environments is essential. You must be willing to work under supervision when supporting service users and follow all health and safety guidelines.

Qualifications
No formal qualifications are required for this volunteer role. A positive attitude, willingness to learn, and a passion for gardening and community engagement are key.