Response to Levelling Up and Elective Recovery Plan

Back to Health Blog

Feb 2022

By Mark Lever, Helpforce CEO

Last week we saw the publication of two important documents: the ‘Levelling Up White Paper’, and the ‘NHS Elective Recovery Plan’. Commentaries on both have made reference to the tremendous response of civil society, local communities and NHS staff to the challenges presented by the pandemic. The White Paper sets out an ambition to focus on the growth of social capital, social fabric and wellbeing. The recovery plan sets out the level of investment in digital resources, community hubs and staff recruitment to tackle the challenges of the recovery of elective care.

I wonder if there is a way of bringing the ambitions of the two documents closer together? If we look behind the headlines of graphs showing a dramatic upward trend in numbers on NHS waiting lists over time, and the increasing amounts of red highlighting those who have been waiting over 12 months, what do we see? Well, we see over 6 million people sitting at home not knowing what’s going on, feeling isolated as their health deteriorates and their anxiety levels increase.

Whilst acknowledging the undoubted need for greater investment in diagnostic and treatment tools and clinicians, some of what is needed and set out in the recovery plan is ‘non-clinical’. Specifically the plan suggests a need for better information and support, symptoms awareness campaigns, support with access to specialist assessments and home appointments, support to achieve and maintain levels of fitness and transport to appointments which may no longer be local. These are all services that could be, and have been, provided by volunteers and voluntary groups.

To provide this support at the scale required, we need to do more to integrate community and health volunteering, ensuring local infrastructures are properly funded to achieve the long term sustainability within such programmes. We need to look beyond the emergency response role of volunteers and local communities like we have seen in the shielding and vaccination programmes. We need to embed volunteering as part of our “business as usual'' and build on the themes of social capital, social fabric and wellbeing in the White Paper to create integrated health and care pathways for people supported by volunteers at a local level.

Our Back to Health Campaign is seeking to support NHS Trusts to work more closely with community organisations to provide support to people not just when they are in hospital, but before and after their treatment.

If you would like to join our campaign please contact:

help@helpforce.community