About us
Helpforce aims to accelerate the impact of volunteering in health and care.Volunteers are doing great things in the NHS and in our communities – but volunteering is still not making the impact it could for patients, staff and on wider systems.
Helpforce exists to make this happen. Here we explain how.
Making a difference at scale
Health and care in the UK face many challenges and staff are under immense pressure. Volunteers are part of the solution and could play a much bigger role.
Helpforce was founded in 2017 to make this happen. More volunteers mean frontline staff are free to concentrate on their clinical and caring roles
Since 2017, Helpforce has worked with NHS trusts, hospices, local authorities, and voluntary and community organisations to establish hundreds of volunteering services, supporting 100s of thousands of people.
Meeting our ambitious targets
We’re on track to meet the target in our Back to Health campaign to support 1 million people by March 2025.
We continue to develop and evaluate volunteering services across our Back to Health framework, helping people in hospital, in their home and in the community.
We have so far supported:
449,283
patients and service users
111,472
staff at health and care organisations
63,019
volunteersWho we work with
We work with organisations across health, care and the community. You can find out about our current partners here.
In 2024, we were thrilled to secure funding from The National Lottery Community Fund for our ICS Back to Health programme. This will develop our existing work with ICS partners, and aims to support 200,000 people over three years, focusing on improving NHS/community partnerships.
How we work
We are the only independent charity focused exclusively on working with health, care and community organisations to establish high impact volunteering services.
We work like a consultancy, bringing specialist knowledge, expertise and tools to our partnerships –working together to establish and evaluate the volunteering services that meet their challenges.
Our volunteering solutions make the most of links to voluntary community and social enterprise (VCSE) services. And we gather insight, so we can spot opportunities to innovate and support our partners to sustain and scale up successful volunteering services.
Our specialist knowledge and expertise
Our essential evidence
Explore Helpforce's unique data bank about the impact of volunteering
Developing volunteering services
Expert support to develop volunteering services that help solve your organisational challenges and reduce operational pressures.
Evaluating volunteering services
We build robust assessment into all our partnership projects and can evaluate other volunteering services. We have built up a unique bank of over 230 evidence findings.
Your Network
At Helpforce, we believe in the value of community and that’s why we created the Network, a free online peer community for professionals from statutory and voluntary sector organisations with an interest in volunteering in health and care. The Network is where you can share your knowledge, learn from your peers and find practical support and resources.
Our team
Our staff team brings wide-ranging skills and experience to all we do, together with a personal commitment to improving everyone’s experience across health and care.
Helpforce is guided and supported by a Board of Trustees made up of some of the leading lights in health and care practice and policy. Our mission is directed by their expert knowledge and extensive experience.
Find out more about Helpforce
How we can help you
Helpforce works with organisations across health, care and the community to develop and evaluate services that optimise the difference volunteers can make.Here we explain how we can help you meet key challenges and the specialist services that allow us to do this.
Our annual report
Learn about our impact and the differences that we made to thousands of people across the UK.
Our mission
We're on a mission to accelerate the growth and impact of volunteering. Helpforce partners with health and care organisations to increase volunteering opportunities and accelerate their impact. We'd love you to join us.
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