Building your workforce
We can help your organisation build and maintain your workforce through our Helpforce Volunteer to Career programme™, which allows people to explore a career in health and care, while volunteering.
It’s a double win
Our Volunteer to Career programme creates a pool of experienced, motivated potential employees; often people from the local community who wouldn’t otherwise have considered a job in health or care.
And, the programme immediately delivers volunteer support to patients and reduces pressure on staff.
We have created Volunteer to Career pathways for 48 organisations, with over 400 volunteers completing the programme successfully.
Workforce wins and volunteering wins
55%
of volunteers completing the programme go on to health and care jobs, education or training
90%
of staff say support from VtC volunteers helps improve the quality of service they can give to patients
100%
Volunteer to Career solved one trust's health care assistant recruitment challenge(Data from 40 health and care organisations that took part in the programme, updated in July 2024. Staff: N=555, volunteers: N=250 of 380 volunteers who have completed the VtC pathway.)
Our approach
Like all our services, the Volunteer to Career programme gives you consultancy-type support. We take our partners through a well-established development, delivery and sustainment process to make sure the project delivers on the five factors that we know are critical to the programme’s success:
Clinically led
Good stakeholder engagement and governance
Robust career pathways
Effective community engagement
Tailored to your organisation's workforce challenges
Working with us
NHS England and the Burdett Trust for Nursing have funded major VtC programmes. We are also funded by ICSs, NHS trusts and other health and care organisations to create Volunteer to Career programmes to meet their workforce needs.
Our well-grounded experience and evidence means we can support Volunteer to Career pathways in a wide range of health and care settings – from NHS trusts and local hospices, to ambulance trusts and GP surgeries.
Developing our Volunteer to Career pathway, with the support of Helpforce, has been hugely beneficial to us at St Oswald’s Hospice. It is the ideal way for participants to see if health and social care is right for them, while giving them invaluable tools to take the next career steps. Volunteer to Career also helps the hospice by providing us with a pipeline of engaged volunteers who can support our expert team of clinicians to deliver our excellent care to everyone.
Steph Edusei, Chief Executive of St Oswald’s Hospice
Volunteer to Career in action
Organisations that are currently taking part in the Helpforce's Volunteer to Career programme:
- Alder Hey Children's Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Ardgowan Hospice, Greenock
- Anuerin Bevan University Health Board
- Bradford District Care NHS Trust Foundation Trust
- Bradford Allied Health Professionals
- Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust
- Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
- Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust
- County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust
- Compton Care, Wolverhampton
- Cheshire & Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
- East Lancashire Hospitals Trust
- East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust
- East Kent Healthcare Partnership HCP
- Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice, Huddersfield
- Friends of Moorefields Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust
- Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust
- Liverpool Women’s NHS FT
- Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust
- North Tees and Hartlepool NHS FT
- North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust
- Norfolk and Waveney ICB
- Oxford Health NHS FT
- Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust
- Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust
- South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- South Central Ambulance Charity
- St Oswald's Hospice
- St Michael’s Hospice, Herefordshire
- St Michael’s Hospice, Hastings
- Somerset NHS Foundation Trust
- Suffolk and North East Essex ICB
- Shrewsbury & Telford Hospitals NHS Trust
- The Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust
- UCLH (University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust)
If you are a member of the public and you would like to join the Volunteer to Career programme, please contact organisations listed above for more information. For general volunteering opportunities, please contact your local NHS organisations. Alternatively, you can visit www.volunteering.england.nhs.uk/volunteer or www.volunteer.scot.nhs.uk. For those who live in Wales and North Ireland, we advise you to visit your local NHS organisation's websites.
Find out more about Helpforce
How we can help you
Here we explain how we can help you meet key challenges and the specialist services that allow us to do this.
Developing volunteering services
Expert support to develop volunteering services that help solve your organisational challenges and reduce operational pressures.
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 with an interest in volunteering in health and care to share your knowledge, learn from peers and find practical support and resources.
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