Helpforce publishes its 2024-25 Impact Report

At a pivotal juncture for healthcare volunteering, Helpforce has published its 2024-25 Impact Report – detailing how the charity is delivering solutions to some of the biggest challenges facing the health service and wider society.

With the Government having recently published its new NHS 10-Year Health Plan, which envisages the voluntary sector playing a crucial role in efforts to transform the health service, Helpforce’s achievements over the past year have underlined how expertly designed volunteering programmes can deliver impact at scale.

The report details how the charity has significantly extended its reach and impact – measurably improving the lives of more patients, more staff, and more volunteers.

It highlights how Helpforce’s flagship Back to Health programme hit the milestone of ‘one million people supported’. Involving more than 100 NHS and community organisations, it has helped individuals to ‘wait well’, ‘get well’, ‘recover well’, and ‘live well’.

And the report also celebrates the success of the charity’s trailblazing Volunteer to Career initiative which supports people from all walks of life who are interested in healthcare careers but don’t have a background in the field to gain valuable experience before applying for paid roles – such as healthcare assistants, mental health support workers and assistant physiotherapists – as well as further education or training. Across 61 healthcare organisations, 403 volunteers took part in the scheme, with 66% going on to secure career opportunities.

Impressive figures leap from the pages of the document, stemming from Helpforce’s expert work in evaluating and analysing volunteer-led healthcare programmes across the UK:

• 87% of hospital staff agree volunteers improve the quality of service they can provide

• 82% of patients agreed that volunteer support helped them feel less anxious

• 94,366 people patients, staff, and volunteers helped through Volunteer to Career

Helpforce Chief Executive Amerjit Chohan said: “We are proud of the many achievements detailed in this Impact Report.

“During a period in which healthcare services have continued to weather immense pressures, alongside an overhauling of NHS structures in England, the consistent contribution of dedicated volunteers to the nation’s health and wellbeing has been of critical importance.

“For the longest time, volunteering was overlooked by healthcare leaders and considered a ‘nice to have’. But Helpforce has dispelled that view as a strategic error. We know the voluntary sector can play a significant role in working with the Government to get services back on their feet and we’re continually engaging with healthcare leaders to help bring about the changes required: shifting care closer to home, getting people off long waiting lists, driving productivity in hospitals, and re-engaging staff.”

Helpforce’s Impact Report highlights a number of individual volunteering projects including The Volunteer Drivers’ Service, operated by North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, which helps people who are discharged from hospital to get home swiftly and safely, as well as providing transportation to and from outpatient appointments.

Another example is Kingston and Richmond NHS Foundation Trust’s gold-standard Falls Prevention initiative which sees dedicated volunteers receive specialist training in how to support patients with post-hospital rehabilitation exercises.

View the report here.