Melanie Merrill is the Volunteering Programme Manager for Quality at Macmillan Cancer Support and leads a national team which aims to improve volunteering practice across Macmillan and its volunteer involving H&SC partners.
Merrill recently led the successful development and implementation of the Macmillan Volunteering Quality Standards (MVQS), a bespoke quality standards framework developed to help raise standards in volunteer management and improve the volunteering experience of Macmillan’s 20,000 volunteers.
She has also been instrumental in developing a new resource called ‘The Value of Volunteers – Improving outcomes for people affected by cancer.’ This manual aims to inspire service developers and H&SC providers to view volunteer involvement as a viable solution to delivering outcomes for people affected by cancer and to invest more widely in volunteering service developments.
Merrill is also responsible for driving Macmillan’s volunteering strategy for developing the volunteer management capabilities of its staff, volunteers and H&SC professionals. The aim is to ensure that all volunteer managers have access to high quality support and expertise to achieve excellence in volunteer management.
Merrill was formerly the South West Coordinator for the Mentoring and Befriending Foundation and is author of two reports: “Befriending works – building resilience in local communities” and “Commissioning Befriending – A guide for Adult Social Care Commissioners.”
Merrill was recently a finalist in the prestigious ‘Third Sector Awards’ in the category of Volunteer Manager of the Year for her work in developing the Macmillan Volunteering Quality Standards.
