New collaboration will bring record support to NHS staff who manage volunteers

10th September 2019

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Helpforce, a national charity shaping the future of volunteering in the NHS, and the National Association of Voluntary Services Managers (NAVSM), have confirmed a powerful new working relationship. This will see the two organisations combining their strengths to ensure hundreds of Volunteer Service Managers (VSMs), and their teams across the UK, have more support to manage, lead, and scale their services.

This partnership will make it easier for members to connect across the country, share best practice, and provide more training and development opportunities for VSMs, and their teams. In turn, this will bring enormous benefits to the thousands of volunteers giving their time to the NHS, and will provide new opportunities for clinical leaders to shape volunteer roles.

Sally Williams, Helpforce Network Manager, said: “At Helpforce, our vision is to transform the lives of patients and NHS staff through the power of volunteering. We therefore, truly believe that a network of volunteer managers and clinical leaders working with volunteers is key.

We’re delighted to work with NAVSM to support them and their members, encouraging them to network with us, share education and training opportunities for their members. and use our infrastructure to share best practice. The more that members of our networks share with each other, the faster change can happen. NHS volunteers will have support they need to make a real difference to patients and staff.

We look forward to this new collaboration where we can really benefit from the knowledge that NAVSM and their members have, and together we will raise the profile of volunteering services within the NHS.

Louise Mabley, chair of NAVSM, added:

We are pleased to work in collaboration with Helpforce to support, advise and share our knowledge and expertise in voluntary management developed over 50 years.

“Together with our established network of voluntary service managers and regional Hubs we will be able to provide an excellent platform for sharing best practice.

“Our commitment to Helpforce will be to influence policy development at a national level, inspire and contribute to the education and development of robust VSMs and their teams and to strengthen our management network within the NHS through integrated networking.”

Notes to editor:

About Helpforce

Helpforce is using the power of volunteering to improve the health and wellbeing of people across the UK. It wants to see a recognisable improvement in the range and quality of volunteer roles available to support patient care in hospital and at home.

About NAVSM

The National Association of Voluntary Services Managers is a membership organisation that exists to support and develop best practice in volunteer management in the NHS and Healthcare to enhance the experience of patients, carers, the public and staff.

If you would like to contact us for further comments or information, please email us at:

Beth Vaughan – Head of Communications at Helpforce: bv@helpforce.community

Vy Tran – Knowledge and Content Manager at vt@helpforce.community