£870k National Lottery funding awarded to Helpforce to support up to 200,000 people

Helpforce is celebrating after being awarded £876,240 in National Lottery funding for its Integrated Care System (ICS) Back to Health Programme. This new funding from The National Lottery Community Fund will allow the charity to establish six ‘place’-based volunteering projects with Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), focusing on how the NHS and VCSE (Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise) sector can work more closely together to help patients attend their appointments, get them home quicker as soon as they’re fit, and live well at home.

Working within Integrated Care Systems, like North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care, will allow the projects to demonstrate how volunteers can help improve people’s health and care across a ‘Back to Health’ pathway through the NHS and in the community. Helpforce will support the ICSs to design, deliver and evaluate volunteering services that help meet their specific needs and situation, but always optimising the role of the VCSE and strengthening links to their local communities.

Over the next three years the projects aim to support up to 200,000 patients, staff and volunteers. We will also share what we’re learning from the projects with other health and care organisations.

Mark Lever, Helpforce Chief Executive, said: “We are thrilled to have received this invaluable support from The National Lottery Community Fund.

“With our NHS and care systems under so much pressure, it is more important than ever to mobilise volunteers and local community services to improve patients’ experience and free up staff to concentrate on their clinical and caring roles.

“With this timely funding, we will build on our existing pilot work with ICSs to demonstrate, at scale, how the health and care system can make the most of volunteers’ time, skills and compassion, within the health system and the community.

“We have ambitious targets to support volunteering infrastructures across six ICSs that will allow volunteers to help more people across the three years of the programme:·

• over 20,000 people will be supported in hospitals, 30,000 referred for support from local community services, and volunteers will make 120,000 calls to patients before and after treatment
• 10,000 medically fit patients will get home from hospital faster, with help from volunteers

• calls from volunteers will reduce missed diagnostic and treatment appointments by at least 2%, so people get into treatment faster and saving staff and clinic time

“This programme will allow local volunteers to play a bigger role in hospitals and the community, helping Integrated Care Systems deliver on their mission to join up care, so people recover as quickly as possible and stay healthy.”

NHS North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) is already working with Helpforce on a pilot project where volunteers support patients in North Tyneside after discharge from hospital. This was developed with VODA (Voluntary Organisations Development Agency), Northumbria Healthcare, and North Tyneside Council.

Samantha Allen, the ICB's chief executive, said: "We are proud to have a highly skilled workforce of around 170,000 people in health and care in our region, but volunteers can bring something extra to improve the patient experience.

"We're already testing out how volunteers can add value to the work of health and care staff, as well as having a rewarding experience themselves. This funding makes it possible to use what we have learned and focus on areas where volunteers can make the biggest impact.