Reimagining Healthcare Volunteering
The NHS faces workforce shortages, productivity gaps and widening health inequalities. Yet one powerful resource remains underused: volunteers.
Volunteering is not a silver bullet, but can be a significant part of the solution. Our blueprint – Volunteering 2.0 – can increase NHS capacity, reduce staff burnout, deliver savings and strengthen neighbourhood health.
Launching our calls to action
Everyone invested in our NHS wants to use all possible resources to fix it. That’s why at a reception in the House of Commons on 05th February ‘26, we brought together distinguished speakers and guests to explore how the healthcare and VCSE sectors, as well as policymakers and funders, can play their full role in transforming the impact of volunteers.
We also launched our landmark report, 'Reimagining Healthcare Volunteering'.
Reimagining Healthcare Volunteering calls on NHS leaders and local authorities to commit to a step-change in seeing volunteers as partners in healthcare delivery.
What we are calling for
We know what's possible. With real-word examples, our report demonstrates that when volunteers are embedded into core NHS operations - rather than operating on the periphery - they become a strategic asset that strengthens patient flow, releases clinical capacity, and improves workforce sustainability.
We call on healthcare organisations to build up their healthcare volunteering services based on four pillars:
1
Integration
Embedding volunteers within core operations as critical assets.
2
Innovation
Reframing volunteering to overcome workforce, productivity, and healthcare access challenges.
3
Inclusion
Ensuring volunteering reflects communities, expands care, and opens careers.
4
Impact
Implementing standardised measurement frameworks aligned to NHS priorities.
As the NHS reshapes operating models and strengthens neighbourhood care, volunteering must be viewed as a strategic imperative, not an afterthought
Volunteers who are transforming care
Robert Turner, 75, began volunteering as a discharge volunteer driver with Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital in May 2025.
"One of the primary aims of our scheme is to try and ensure that discharges happen quickly. Delayed discharges are a major issue. There was one evening when I was asked to take a patient to another hospital an hour away. The hospital transport couldn't get there until 10 o'clock. That would have meant four extra hours waiting for a bed. I was glad I could step in."
Julie Bignell, 55, volunteers for two hours every week at Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr Hospital, leading craft sessions with patients. Using her lived experience with mental health challenges, she supports patients through listening to them and sharing what she went through, helping individuals to feel seen and heard.
"Seeing the faces on the patients, how they are happy after doing crafting, and watching them grow more confident in talking - it makes all the difference," Julie shares. "I feel like I make a difference to staff too, giving them another channel to talk and helping them understand what patients are going through because of my lived experience."
After starting as a volunteer ‘responder’ - helping people find their way to appointments and transporting medications around the hospital - 18-year-old Henry Oliviera moved on to being a ward helper, looking after patients’ non-medical needs. He also assisted in the Acute Assessment Unit where he gave mealtime support and company to those waiting to be admitted to wards.
"I get a huge amount of satisfaction out of helping people and doing a good job, and I get experience that will aid my career, while the NHS gets a really committed volunteer who can take on tasks that the regular staff may not have time for. It’s a win-win situation,” said Henry.
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