Now that Autumn is here and winter approaches, the Growing Spaces in the garden at Gartnavel Royal Hospital have started to take on new colours and shapes. Seed heads and falling leaves carpet the walkways and yet the Sunflowers still offer a striking reminder of the summer now gone.

This year’s Volunteers’ Week is from 1 to 7 June, and is a time to say thanks and recognise the fantastic contribution made by volunteers across Glasgow City Health and Social Care (HSCP) services.

Glasgow City HSCP’s Children and Families Team will be spreading festive cheer to some of the city’s most vulnerable children this Christmas.

The Art in the Gart creative recovery programme at Gartnavel Royal Hospital has welcomed five times as many visitors as last year to the Growing Spaces sites in the hospital grounds during lockdown.

With the outbreak of COVID 19, Glasgow City HSCP’s Children and Families Health Visiting Teams in South Glasgow have adapted practice to meet the needs of families. This has included new and innovative ways of working.

Anthony Leebody, Senior Finance Officer in Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership, reached out to his neighbours at the start of lockdown. He set up a neighbourhood chat group to bring people together and help identify those who needed extra support.

National Volunteers’ Week takes place from 1-7 June every year and is a celebration across the UK of all the contributions volunteers make to their community.

Over 1,200 new mothers have benefited from support from Glasgow Baby Cafės in the last five years, according to new figures from the National Childbirth Trust (NCT).