Royal Voluntary Service has announced the appointment of Catherine Johnstone as its new chief executive.

Johnstone;'s last major role was as chief executive of the Samaritans, which she left in 2015 after six years in the role. Johnstone replaces David McCullough, who led RVS for over five years.

During her tenure at the Samaritans, Johnstone formed a number of prominent corporate partnerships and led on the development and implementation of Samaritan’s most recent 5-year strategy, which aimed to scale the organisation’s impact.

She also sought to make the issue of suicide and its prevention part of the national agenda, and was awarded a CBE for her services to suicide prevention in 2016.

According to RVS, Johnstone “takes the role at a key moment as we begin to see the impact of our strategic refocus which has put volunteers right to the fore of service development.”

Richard Greenhalgh, chair of RVS, said: “I am delighted that Catherine is becoming our new chief executive. Her record in building sustainable services, driving innovation and, of course, inspiring and enabling volunteers to organise and deliver will be invaluable.”

Johnstone said: "I am once again privileged to lead one of the UKs largest volunteer-involving charities. With an ever increasing tough time for our society I am looking forward to working with the staff and volunteers to ensure that Royal Voluntary Service can be the best it can be."

The RVS is one of Britain’s largest volunteering charities with over 25,000 volunteers supporting over 100,000 older people each month in hospitals and the community.