Helpforce's response to William Hague's article for The Times

William Hague is right that we risk a major missed opportunity if we fail to harness people’s desire to volunteer (There’s a volunteer army awaiting its orders, 13 September). Nowhere is this truer than in our NHS, where volunteering has huge potential yet is currently a massively underused asset.

Volunteers have been incredibly important in supporting the pandemic response. Volunteers will help us all to recover and rebuild from the pandemic, and they need to be an integral part of the NHS’ long-term future.

The pandemic has had a devastating impact on the UK’s health – increasing waiting lists, worsening health inequalities and mental health concerns, and putting staff and services under immense strain. Working alongside brilliant medical staff, volunteers can provide additional support to make treatment more effective or even reduce the need for it.

Volunteers help patients to stay active and reduce their risk of falls and readmission by supporting their mobility back at home. They help vulnerable patients to eat and drink. They speed up the discharge process, helping to free up space in hospital. Patients supported by volunteers say it improves their social contact, confidence and happiness – particularly for patients without their own friends or family. If volunteers were a medical treatment, they would be hailed as a breakthrough.

Despite all this, volunteering is not maximised across anywhere near enough healthcare settings. We need a change in mindset, so that the proven power of volunteering is prioritised across all health and care settings. We need healthcare leaders to help create high impact roles ready for volunteers to step into across health and care. And we must build volunteers into the design of healthcare delivery from the outset.

If ever there was a time to seize the moment for volunteering across health and care, this is it. The power of volunteering is vital to helping the UK get back to health.