Our tea parties are slowly restarting across the UK. The best way to keep in touch with any updates about tea parties is to sign up to our newsletter where we can let you know about any developments.

We are always looking for tea party volunteers. Take a look to see whether we have a vacancy in your area.

You can refer someone to a tea party using our referral application form.

Please sign up to our newsletter for updates.

Firstly, thank you so much for your ongoing support, and yes we would greatly appreciate your continued help. Once we have checked in with all our groups in the coming months, we will be in a better position to know what groups are still running in your new area and if they need new volunteers to join them.

You can also sign up to be involved in our telephone befriending service, call companions, more information can be found here.

A Disclosure and Barring Services (DBS) and Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) are both schemes that provide criminal background record checks. A DBS check is used in England and Wales, while a PVG check is used in Scotland.

DBS / PVG checks are mandatory for all our area organisers, group coordinators and drivers (as well as deputising or reserve positions for these roles) due to the nature of our work, supporting socially isolated, and often potentially vulnerable older people. The checks help us ensure that volunteers are suitable for the position.

DBS is specific to the role you’re applying for, and the information released by the police to complete the check is based on this. For this reason, in most cases, we require our volunteers to undergo a separate check.

If you’ve got a DBS check that’s up to date from a previous role and think you may not need another, please get in touch:

• Email: knowledge@reengage.org.uk

If you’ve already had a DBS / PVG check with us and think it’s up to date, please get in touch to let us know. We’ll be able to tell you whether your check is still valid or needs updating.

• Email: knowledge@reengage.org.uk

If you apply to volunteer with Re-engage and have any previous convictions, you’ll be asked to declare these as part of the recruitment process. Having a criminal record doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be able to volunteer; we’ll look at this on a case-by-case basis.

The process for joining the PVG membership and the DBS check differ.

An email with detailed step-by-step instructions was sent out as a guide to help everyone though this process.

If you need us to resend this, please email: knowledge@reengage.org.uk or call: 0207 240 0630.

The document verification process for DBS and PVG checks differ slightly.

DBS

We ask that the relevant documents are scanned or photographed and sent over to knowledge@reengage.org.uk, so that they can be verified by the knowledge team.

See a list of required documents the applicant must provide - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Once you have made your application, the DBS should take about 14 days to process.

PVG

For PVG, the ID check is the first step in the process: to book, please send a request to book an appointment to knowledge@reengage.org.uk and we will arrange an appointment with you. In readiness for your ID check, please ensure you have all your identification documents to hand. You will need one piece of photo ID (driving license, passport) and one piece of ID with your current address on it (utility bill, driving license, tax bill). If you don’t have photo ID you can provide three pieces of ID with your current address on them.

Once your ID check is complete, Re-engage will make an application request to Disclosure Scotland. You will receive an email from Disclosure Scotland asking you to complete your application. You will have seven days to complete the application. If the application is not completed within seven days, you’ll have to restart the process; so please check your inbox and spam folder regularly to make sure you don’t miss the email.

Once your application is complete, you will receive an email from Disclosure Scotland and a certificate. Please keep the certificate in a safe place. You will receive an email from us advising you that the check is complete. Most PVG applications are completed within 14 days (not including postage time).

Although we keep a record of receiving your DBS / PVG certificate, we don’t keep the original document: this is destroyed in line with our code of conduct. If you need a copy of your DBS / PVG or any of the details recorded on this, please click here for DBS and here for PVG.

Please get in touch:

• Email: knowledge@reengage.org.uk

If you already have a DBS check with another organisation, it's possible that you can use it for Re-engage.

You must check that it is less than three years old.

You must check that the check is for the correct kind of regulated activity - working with adults.

It must be for the same job title as the volunteering role you are doing at Re-engage (for example, driver).

If all of the above is correct please scan and email your certificate, along with your ID, to knowledge@reengage.org.uk. We will let you know whether we are able to use it or not.

If you are registered with the update service we can use your registration if it’s for the regulated activity of working with adults.

You must send us a scan of the original certificate and ID documents to: knowledge@reengage.org.uk.

We will then send you the link to a form for you to give us permission to view your record with the update service.

Inevitably, some call companions will be interested in supporting tea party groups as well.

If a call companion volunteer does want to join your tea party group, they will need to apply via the website once the tea parties are up and running again.

Now that tea parties are restarting, we are resuming reference and DBS checks.

Yes, you can! Please reapply for this different role via the website.

When lockdown came, we all moved very quickly to adapt to difficult circumstances. From phone calls and doorstep cake deliveries, there’s nothing quite like the community spirit of Re-engage volunteers.

There was also a lot of activity going on behind the scenes to keep the charity afloat. Call companions (the telephone befriending service launched in lockdown) not only helped a huge number of lonely older people but also allowed Re-engage to keep some of its funding and keep going at a time when many charities were struggling.  

Our small team of Re-engage staff continues to be really stretched. There are 40 of us in total.

To put that into context, a charity like Age UK has around 1,200 staff.  

Re-engage is extremely fortunate to have the wider team of 14,000 tea party volunteers. Together we’re able to support 8,500 older people every year in our groups.  

Where it’s been possible, everyone has stepped up over the last year to keep doing what we do best – bringing company and comfort to some of the oldest and most vulnerable in the UK. 

There is no rush to start, if you don’t feel ready that’s OK. Everything needs to proceed at a pace right for you and your group.  

As we continue to ease out of lockdown and more and more restrictions are lifted this may help you feel more at ease, but our way of life has been very different over the past 18 months, and for many it will take some adjustment to start socialising again.

Keep checking our website and your email inbox – there is more information coming over the next few weeks which should help you to feel more secure and comfortable in your role.

This is a group decision, where the vaccination status of your group members needs to be taken into account. There are no hard and fast rules on this, but we should all be following government guidance.

• Read the latest Covid-19 vaccine updates

Despite restrictions being lifted, some people may still feel uneasy about getting together in larger groups and that’s totally understandable. How you move forward with your tea party is a group decision. Here are some discussion points that your group can start to think about:

• Could changes to the layout of the venues you use be made to grant greater space to individuals?
• Would hosting tea parties outdoors be an option, where greater social distancing might be possible?
• Would hosting to a smaller number of group members at each party work better for a period, rotating monthly invites?

On 5 May 2021 an email was sent asking you (group co-ordinators, drivers and hosts) to confirm your contact details and whether you can continue with your volunteer role. This is a critical step to getting our much-missed tea parties back up and running. Please check your junk inbox if you have not received anything or submit your latest information online, thank you.

We would be very grateful if all volunteers, especially group co-ordinators, could help us by asking those in your group to check for our email in case they have missed it. We know many of you are in touch with your group, so your help to spread the word would be much appreciated.  

In time, there will be a series of guides to read through and watch (available on-demand) on a range of topics, including safeguarding and data protection. Some of these will need to be completed before tea parties restart, and some will be available as and when you need them.

It’s serious and important stuff, but we’ll make it as easy as possible to digest and let you know how long each guide should take to read. More information on this to come.

Re-engage has a small team of staff and an amazing number of volunteers (c.14,000!), so we will need a phased approach to assist you in getting tea parties back up and running.    

If you or anyone in your group is willing to take on the group coordinator role, this could be a good way to get tea parties restarted quickly. This could be a temporary or permanent role, depending on how you feel. If you know of someone who might like to take on this role, please email knowledge@reengage.org.uk.

Tea party group coordinators can choose to either call the older people and volunteers joining their tea party group, or arrange a time to visit them to discuss the practical arrangements.

Below we have listed some helpful resources from other organisations. There is some great advice out there so please pass this on to your group members. For groups where both older guests and group volunteers feel comfortable, tea parties are restarting across the UK, but we realise they may no longer be a suitable service for some guests.

Call companions, our telephone befriending service, may be a more suitable service for those that no longer feel comfortable or mobile enough to make it to tea parties.

Applications to call companions can be made online, over the phone or one behalf of a guest through our referrals pages.

In Wales, we have started new activity groups where guests can take part in gentle activities such as dancing, chair yoga, gardening and tai chi. Currently, this is taking place online. For more information on these groups please click here.

• Resources to call companions
• Coming out of lockdown: tips for managing anxiety | British Heart Foundation
• Older adults and mental health| Independent Age 
• The mental health of older people coming out of lockdown | Age UK 
• Readjusting to life after lockdown | Helping Hands Home Care 
• Seated and Standing Chair Exercises for Seniors (healthline.com) 

We no longer have regional staff to look after specific tea party groups. To be honest, while this structure worked well for some, it didn’t work at all for others. That doesn’t mean all those staff members have left, but it does mean their job has changed.

We now have a knowledge hub, made up of:

• Resources on the Re-engage website to answer the questions we get asked most often.

• A phone and email service, manned five days a week by a small but dedicated service support team.

Our team of Re-engage staff continues to be really stretched – including the Knowledge Team. We’re really lucky to have our wider team of 14,000 amazing Re-engage volunteers. The only downside of that is the email inbox is bursting! Don’t worry though, there is a wealth of information on our website that should answer many of your questions.

Unfortunately we are no longer able to accept paper application forms so please do recycle any that you may have. We are a small team and are unable to process forms manually. We have an easy-to-use online volunteer application form which you can access here. For those of you without online facilities please call 020 7240 0630 and we can complete the online form with you over the phone.

Re-engage values equality and our tea parties are open to all older people over the age of 75 who are experiencing loneliness, social isolation, or who are in need of companionship.

On very rare occasions a tea party group coordinator may discover something through their initial call or visit to an older person or volunteer that wasn’t previously known, and which may prevent them from joining a tea party group. If this happens, please call one of our friendly team on 0800 716 543 as soon as possible.

• Mileage to visit new hosts or guests before they join a group to check out suitability of hosts homes, and the needs of the older guests. Group coordinators must log mileage on their claim form and calculate the amount claimed at 45p per mile.
• Stationery and stamps in order to communicate information to volunteers and guests in your group.
• Telephone calls to guests. Please note that you must send us itemised phone bills.