Roundtable discussion: “Preparing for winter pressures – strengthening the links between hospital and community services through volunteering"

13 September 2023

Winter this year is expected to be extremely challenging for health and care services, with approximately 12,000 patients remaining in hospital every day despite being declared medically fit.

One solution that could help to address this challenge is to form collaborative relationships between NHS volunteering services and the VCSE sector, with a focus on mobilising volunteers effectively to respond to winter pressures.

With that in mind, Helpforce organised an online roundtable event to explore new ideas that could help forge collaborations between these two groups, helping health and care organisations prepare ahead of winter.

The panellists for this event shared with us real examples of how collaboration has worked for them, together with their insights on this topic.

Attendees had the opportunity to ask the panellists questions and share their own views.

Our panel:

• Laura Greene, Head of Volunteering and Community Partnerships at Kingston Hospital NHS FT and Hounslow & Richmond Community Healthcare Trust - Key initiatives showing how the Trust is working with community partners to speed up discharge and improve patients' wellbeing in the community
• Kristine Davies, ⁠Associate Director - Chaplaincy, Bereavement, Compassionate Communities and Voluntary Services, University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust - how the volunteer services team at UHCW have set up the ED Response Volunteering model to support the Trust during the winter period
• Sue Wales, Head of Strategic Transformation, Ashford & St Peter's Hospitals NHS FT, and the NW Surrey Alliance - sharing examples demonstrating how the NHS and the VCSE sector can work together to reduce the pressure on health and care services
• Sara Miles, Programme Manager, at Helpforce - sharing examples from organisations who have been able to mobilise response volunteers to speed up discharge
• Jen Williams, Regional Relationship Manager (West Midlands), NHS and Care Volunteer Responders programme, Royal Voluntary Service: How the NHS and Care Volunteer Responders service can work with health and care organisations to support people in the community.

A recording of the session can be found below:

Useful Links

• Adopt & Adapt Expression of Interest Form
• NHS Care volunteer responders referral form
• RVS Virtual Village Hall
• Welcome to the Anne Robson Trust | No-one deserves to die alone
• Webinar: Volunteer Training Programme

Start up or join in a conversation with network colleagues on our Forum

For copy of the presentation slides please download the attachment.