Taskforce makes recommendations to boost volunteering across the NHS
NHS England will be making £10m of funding available to support NHS volunteering infrastructure within local systems. This investment follows the publication of The NHS Volunteering Taskforce Report and Recommendations on 9th June.
The Taskforce was a coalition of experts from across the NHS, government and the voluntary sector who helped NHS England to identify the opportunities and current barriers to achieving the full potential of NHS volunteering. NHS England has accepted all of its recommendations and will work to achieve:
- Improved volunteering data to better understand the impact of volunteering on NHS priorities.
- Enhanced local and national leadership support for NHS volunteering.
- Improved volunteer experience and increased access to volunteering opportunities in health and care.
- Easy access for NHS organisations to volunteers and voluntary sector emergency support.
This transformation programme will complement work that NHS England is already doing to grow volunteering across health and care services which includes:
- Developing a national volunteer recruitment portal to make it easier for health and care organisations to find volunteers and volunteers to find volunteering opportunities.
- Extending the reach of its Volunteer Responders – set up to support the national pandemic response – to support the needs of local health and care services.
- Promoting volunteering as a route into an NHS career through programmes such as NHS Cadets and Volunteer to Career.
Over the coming weeks NHS England will be looking at how best to allocate the new funding. Further information and future updates will be shared in the volunteering section of the NHS England website.
