In this section we will aim to answer some of the most frequently asked questions about WRVS' strategic review.

If you can't find answers to your questions here or anywhere else on this website, you can contact us using the questions and feedback form.

Updated 4 June

Since when has WRVS been a charity for older people?
WRVS has gone through a lot of changes in its 70-year history. We have always tried to identify the areas where we were most needed and could be most useful, and adapted to support communities, whatever the challenges thrown at them.

Some services that we used to provide can now be delivered more effectively by others (the NHS, local authorities, other charities). But changes in the way we all live have thrown up new problems, and WRVS has moved in with new services to fill the gap.

Right now we are focusing our attention on one of the greatest social challenges of the 21st century ' the growing number of older people. We've always provided help to older people and throughout the last ten years we've focused more and more on these services.

In 2007 the trustees defined the vision of WRVS as 'a world where every older person has the choice and opportunity to get more out of life'. Its stated purpose is 'to provide practical support through the power of volunteering so older people can get more out of life.'

So we're now working on how we can best achieve those aims by joining up our services and providing the help older people want.

What about hospital services and emergency services? I thought we were there to help all people where there is a need.
Much of the work we do in hospitals and emergencies is with older people already' around 70 per cent of people in hospital for treatment are over 65 for example, but clearly not everyone we help in these areas is older.

We're not going to stop helping people if they are not over a certain age: that would be crazy. But what we will do is focus how we develop our emergency and hospital services in the future on what older people want in both these areas.

So we're looking at what we can do to help older people in the aftermath of a disaster or emergency. For example, we want to see what we can do to ensure that an older person who's been forced from his or her home because of flooding can continue to live independently while their home is repaired. In this way we improve the impact of our emergency work: we'll stick around for longer and help the community to rebuild. It's what the Government is calling 'community resilience', and after the recent floods and other disasters it's a high priority for the future.

In hospitals, we want to link up our shops, cafés and other support services with what we do to help older people at home and in the community. The idea is that older people will be able to find out about other services that WRVS 'and others' offer in their area when they pop into the WRVS hospital shop or café, and we'll be testing this out as we roll out refurbishments of shops and cafés this year to help promote what WRVS does and how people can support our work. We'll be looking at what else we can do to join up our services in each area in the coming years, including for instance using our shops and cafés to encourage people of all ages and backgrounds to volunteer with WRVS at the hospital or in one of our services in the community.

It is also worth pointing out that our hospital shops and cafes tend to have a dual purpose. They are about providing a service to hospital patients, visitors, and staff, but they also generate income. That will continue to be important, the money staff and volunteers generate in our hospital shops and cafés enable us to do more to help older people. They are vital.

What's new about the strategy? We've been operating a Darby and Joan Club here for the past 50 years. Nothing needs to change
Indeed, for years many thousands of volunteers and staff in WRVS have been offering wonderful services that benefit older people.

But we don't just want to carry on doing the same things that we have always done, simply because we have always done them. The point of the strategy is that we should be led entirely by what services older people want in each area, and over time that changes. In order to do this we have to:

• listen to the people who choose our services so that we know what they want and need
• be well informed about all local services 'those provided by WRVS and by other organisations' so that we can help people get the help they want
• talk to decision-makers at both a local and national level to make sure that what we do fits in with what is provided by the NHS, local government, other charities, and other community organisations
• be able to communicate quickly and clearly within WRVS so that we do the right things at the right times, and where they will be most effective
• be flexible and enterprising enough to:
  o develop new services
  o deliver old services in new ways
  o recognise good ideas and copy them when they will work elsewhere
• be honest enough to admit to ourselves when a service is no longer doing the right thing, and either change it, move it, or close it down.

We hope that, as we start to put the new strategy into action, you'll feel that you have a stake in how WRVS services develop in your area and want to support our key goal to help older people live the way they want.

Why are we changing?
All successful organisations constantly change to adapt to the changes around them and improve what they do. Our core purpose is to improve the lives of older people; in fact our vision is that every older person should have the choice and opportunity to get more out of life. We want to achieve this when Britain's older population is growing faster than ever, and when older people, quite rightly, are demanding more from life. 

Naturally health and social care services are also adapting to these changes, and that means if we want to work with public services, attract funds and run new services in partnership with them we'll need to show how we're responding to what individual older people want.

If WRVS is going to achieve our vision and respond to these challenges we will need to change and improve what we do. It means improving the way we work and are structured so that we can provide the services that older people want.

We've also been running at a loss in the past few years, which cannot carry on indefinitely, so we also need to get ourselves on a firmer financial footing, attracting new funding to maintain and develop the support we provide.

Have we been doing the wrong things? Don't you value what we've been doing already?
We've been delivering great services and we're really proud of our staff and volunteers but we need to change in order to keep up with changing needs. We've been listening hard to staff and volunteers who have told us they think there are ways we can improve what we do, and we believe these changes will make it possible for everyone to feel better supported in their important work.

How will the changes affect me and my staff?
The proposals will mean that the way our services are managed will change and therefore some jobs will be affected, mainly senior operational managers, and staff based at Milton Hill. For those people a formal consultation process has begun and will include meetings with individuals to review how the proposals will affect them. These meetings will begin in week commencing 20 April.

In the long run these changes will help us improve our services, develop new partnerships and help us to attract new funding and volunteers. Our aim is that it will make it easier for us to make a difference in local communities, and join up our services with other organisations so that older people get access to the support they deserve.

How will the changes affect our volunteers?
We are going to develop a structure that will mean all of our services in a local area are co-ordinated, integrated and provide the same quality support wherever you are in the country. We want our volunteers to feel that they are part of the wider WRVS team in their local area as well as part of the whole organisation and get the most out of their volunteering. They will be able to see the impact that all of our services, working together, have in their local community.

Will my project be secure?
There will be no immediate impact on current projects. In fact it is important we continue to provide just as great a service during this period of change. However, we need to keep what we do under constant review to ensure that we are providing the services that older people want and which best support them to live life in the way they want.

To do this our executive director for operations, Simon Branscomb, will be leading a review team to look at our current activities in order to ensure that they fit with our guiding principles for the future and are providing the support older people want. The team will propose what changes we will need to make to the services we currently provide during 2010 and will support the development of plans for any projects or services that may need to change.

What are the time scales?
The present consultation with members of staff whose jobs are affected will last until 17 July 2009 and the new structure will be fully operational by early 2010. The work of Simon Branscomb's review team will be ongoing from April 2010.

How will the changes be communicated to our external stakeholders?
We will be writing to our key stakeholders eg local authorities, the NHS, major funders and other partners to inform of them of our proposals. We'll keep them in touch through updates at meetings and through further mailings. Also our strategy for the future website will contain all of the relevant information so that anyone can see our plans for the future.

How will it affect our service users?
The older people we support are always our top priority, and it's important that during this period of change we continue to provide the same great support to them. Simon Branscomb's review team will look at whether our current activities are providing what older people want and fit with our guiding principles during 2010.

The aim of this strategy is improve the support we provide to older people, so over the next few years our service users should start to experience these improvements.

Will there be redundancies?
People whose jobs may change are currently participating in a formal consultation process about the proposals. We cannot predict the outcome of that process as we will consider all of the feedback that results from it and may make changes to the proposals. However, the number of jobs in the proposed new structure is less than we currently employ.

Will there be changes to jobs?
Yes. The purpose of the restructuring is to focus our management attention onto our aim: to improve the services we provide to older people, and to integrate all of the work we do in any area into a single coherent organisation structure.

How much will the change cost?
The trustees and executive are committed to keeping costs to a minimum. However, there may be costs during the transition period and they have made provision for this. Any money we spend now will be an investment for the future, enabling us to attract more funding, volunteers and partners in the long-term and to become sustainable.

When will we know as individuals what this means for our jobs?
Those people whose jobs may change are currently participating in a formal consultation process about the proposals. We cannot predict the outcome of that process as we will consider all of the feedback that results from it and may make changes to the proposals. We understand how difficult it is to have uncertainty about the future and a key aim is to keep everyone as up to date as possible with progress and to let people know their personal position as soon as possible. Our aim is to ensure that everyone will know the outcome for them by the end of October 2009.

How are you going to keep us up-to-date with the changes?
All of the information will be placed on this website. You will also be able to provide us with your feedback on the proposals via this website. We will also use our usual channels of stoppress, Action and project mailings to make sure that our people are kept up-to-date with progress.

We will refresh and add to these questions as new issues are raised.