The government is expanding the NHS Volunteer Responders programme into social care.
- NHS Volunteer Responders Programme to be expanded into social care
- Potential volunteers being asked to come forward to sign up for the programme in their local area
- Volunteers to provide support to people receiving care from local services in their community
Following the success of the NHS Volunteer Responders Programme scheme over the pandemic, the government has announced it will expand it into social care to form a joint NHS and care volunteering programme and allow care providers to recruit volunteers to help people in their local areas.
Backed by £3 million, the scheme will use the same GoodSAM app that NHS volunteers currently use, to bring providers and volunteers together. The roles available for care volunteers are:
- Check in and Chat Plus: contacting people who have been identified as particularly vulnerable to offer a friendly voice to those who may be experiencing loneliness
- Pick up and Deliver: helping to transport medicines or small items of medical equipment to people’s homes or community settings from NHS sites to aid discharge from hospital or continued healthcare support
- Community Response: collecting and delivering food shopping and essential items as well as prescriptions and medications to people in the community
All roles available to volunteers will help ease pressure on the health and social care system, but the Pick Up and Deliver role is specifically designed to support hospital discharge and prevent admissions.
It will help to address challenges around pharmacies dispensing medicines - which NHS professionals cited as one of the biggest difficulties when trying to discharge patients from hospitals - as volunteers will deliver medications directly to patients, allowing them to return home sooner from hospital and removing the need to wait for prescriptions.
Jointly delivered by the Royal Voluntary Service and GoodSAM, the expansion of the NHS programme into social care will also help to ease pressure on the NHS as volunteers will be able to step in to support people waiting to be admitted to hospital, those recently discharged and people in the community. This will free up the social care workforce enabling them to focus on those with more complex needs to live independently.
The government is also continuing to look at ways to expand and maximise the benefit of volunteers in the NHS, such as whether it would be possible to make it easier to apply for volunteer roles by, for example, removing the requirement for employment history where this isn’t necessary.
Volunteers can be crucial in supporting the health and care sector and complement the existing workforce. They do not replace the existing, highly valued, paid health and care staff.
Background
There are 3 roles now available for volunteers to sign up to:
- Check In and Chat Plus
- Community Response
- Pick Up and Deliver
For further information on the roles and how to sign up see NHS and Care Volunteer Responders Supporting Health and Social Care.
