A new government: what next for health and care volunteering?

By Mark Lever, Helpforce Chief Executive

Mark Lever, our Chief Executive, considers the early signals from the new Government about health and care priorities and what they could mean for volunteering: concluding, it’s all about community.

And he commits Helpforce to sharing with senior officials and new ministers what we’ve learned with our partners about how to increase volunteers’ impact in all health and care settings.

Along with most health organisations, Helpforce and many of our partners have, understandably, been focused in recent years on tackling serious challenges in the acute system: the long waiting lists, and the glitches in patient flow – particularly where people get stuck in hospital when they could be at home, given the right support.

These issues are still very much live, and Helpforce knows volunteering at scale can make a difference. For instance, how volunteers calling people on waiting lists at George Eliot NHS Hospital Trust helped get people to their diagnostic and treatment appointments, reducing Did Not Attends by up to 5.8%.

But, we welcome the new Government’s shift in emphasis from hospitals to the importance of getting upstream and focusing on primary care and the community, echoing what we hear from our partners. Amanda Pritchard told NHS leaders on 8 July (shared by the Guardian) that there were three strategic shifts identified by the new Government. Alongside making better use of technology and data, these are:

• moving more care out of hospital into primary care and community services
• boosting prevention by supporting people to stay well, reducing health inequalities and helping people stay in work.

Surely, this is volunteering’s and the community sector’s sweet spot, and has always been a strong component of health and care. Volunteers aren’t a substitute for the paid professionals we need in primary and community care, but there’s a real opportunity to build on our local communities’ desire to help one another.

For instance, we’ve evaluated the inspiring Community Hubs project in Cornwall, proving how their support meant people’s confidence in managing their own health grew significantly. And over 50% of people said they would have approached a health professional with a problem, if they hadn’t had support from hub volunteers or staff.

This is a model that, if replicated across the country, could reduce pressure on local health services and improve millions of people’s health as part of wider support – making sure people get into treatment when they need it, but are otherwise supported to stay healthy.

Or, we can build on the many successful projects working to help people get in condition before or after treatment, as the Kingston Hospital Foundation NHS Trust are. We are helping them evaluate their new services, which take their original Falls Prevention service out into care homes and GPs’ surgeries.

All these services are at the same time, if indirectly, helping to meet hospitals’ challenges. Others offer support more directly. For instance, filling the gaps where families aren’t there to help, and taking people to and from appointments and delivering their meds, like the Tees Valley Volunteer Drivers service. (You can read our recent evaluation here.)

These are all examples that build on a rich heritage of individuals’ and voluntary groups’ contributions, and which could be introduced in every community. This will require an end to panicked funding to shore up hospitals as targets are missed, and new, considered, long-term investment in the NHS and community volunteering infrastructure and services that build community resilience, improve individuals’ health and reduce health inequalities.

At Helpforce, we’re looking forward to meeting with civil servants and ministers to make the case for the changes needed to allow volunteering to play a full role in improving people’s health. We’ll make sure we keep you updated as we do.

What do you think about the opportunities and challenges for volunteering as the Government’s priorities shift? Look out for our posts on Twitter/X and LinkedIn and let me know.