About us
We are the UK's leading charity dedicated to advancing healthcare volunteering and community-powered wellbeing.
Guided by our vision of a nation where community power and volunteering are integral to healthcare at its very best, we work with hundreds of organisations across the UK to mobilise local people, skills and resources – improving experiences and outcomes for patients and staff, strengthening social connections and delivering measurable impact.
Making a difference at scale
Health and care in the UK face many challenges and staff are under immense pressure. Volunteers are part of the solution and could play a much bigger role.
Helpforce was founded in 2017 to make this happen. More volunteers mean frontline staff are free to concentrate on their clinical and caring roles
Since 2017, Helpforce has worked with NHS trusts, hospices, local authorities, and voluntary and community organisations to establish hundreds of volunteering services, supporting thousands of people.
Our mission
To harness the power of communities and transform healthcare volunteering, delivering measurable benefits for patients, professionals and places.
Helpforce partners with healthcare and community organisations to increase volunteering opportunities and accelerate their impact.
Our values
We will harness the power of community by:
- Connecting people
- Creating and learning together
- Being inclusive
We will champion volunteer innovation by:
- Driving improvement through evidence
- Pioneering new services
- Being curious about new ways of working
We will have integrity in all we do by:
- Delivering on our promises
- Being open and transparent
- Being a trusted partner
How we work
We are the only independent charity focused exclusively on working with healthcare and community organisations to establish high impact volunteering services.
We bring specialist knowledge, expertise and tools to our partnerships with organisations, working together to establish and evaluate the volunteering services that meet their challenges.
Our volunteering solutions make the most of links to voluntary community and social enterprise (VCSE) services. And we gather insight, so we can spot opportunities to innovate and support our partners to sustain and scale up successful volunteering services.
Our services
Our current partners
- Aneurin Bevan University Health Board
- Ardgowan Hospice, Greenock
- Bath Royal United Hospital
- Bradford District and Craven Health and Care Partnership
- Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
- Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust
- Cheshire East ICP
- Compton Care, Wolverhampton
- Cornwall and Isles of Scilly ICB
- County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust
- Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust
- East Kent Health and Care Partnership
- East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust
- East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust
- East Sussex Trust
- Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice, Huddersfield
- Foundation Group
- George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust
- Gloucester ICB
- Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust
- Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust
- Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Norfolk and Waveney ICB
- NHS England
- NHS Kent and Medway
- Norfolk and Waveney Health and Care Partnership
- North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust
- North East and North Cumbria ICB
- North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust
- North West London ICB
- Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust
- Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust
- Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust
- South Central Ambulance Charity
- South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust
- St Michael’s Hospice, Herefordshire
- Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust
- Sussex ICB
- The Lighthouse
- The Foundation Group
- Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust
- University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust
- University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust
- West London NHS Trust
- Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
- Wye Valley NHS Trust
Our team
Our staff team brings wide-ranging skills and experience to all we do, together with a personal commitment to improving everyone’s experience across healthcare.
Helpforce is guided and supported by a Board of Trustees made up of some of the leading lights in healthcare practice and policy. Our mission is directed by their expert knowledge and extensive experience.
Giving back, transforming care
A bold three-year campaign designed by Helpforce to inspire national conversations, foster deeper public engagement, and shift perceptions of healthcare volunteering from a 'nice to have' to a strategic imperative.
Reimagining Healthcare Volunteering
The NHS stands at a crossroads, facing acute workforce shortages, productivity gaps, and widening health inequalities. Yet, we are not maximising an extraordinary, largely untapped resource: volunteers.
We cannot solve these challenges by doing more of the same and we know that no single magic bullet will solve the problems. But volunteering can be part of the solution – and a significant one at that. So, we propose Volunteering 2.0 to increase NHS capacity, reduce staff burnout, achieve substantial cost savings, and strengthen neighbourhood health.
How we are funded
Helpforce is funded by NHS and care organisations, and charitable trusts and donors. Find out more about where our money comes from and how we spend it.
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