NHS and Care Volunteer Responders Service

Commons Urgent Question

The following Answer to an Urgent Question was given in the House of Commons on Monday 19 May.

“I thank the honourable Member for giving me the opportunity to speak about this topic and highlight the important role that volunteering plays in our health and social care system. The NHS has always benefited from the generous contribution made by volunteers, who play a vital role in supporting our patients, staff and services. We are grateful to the thousands of volunteers who donate their time to support the NHS in a wide variety of roles, from helping patients to leave hospital faster and settle in at home, to supporting emergency cardiac incidents and providing companionship to patients during end-of-life care.

The national NHS and Care Volunteer Responders programme was first established as part of the Covid response, and then adapted to respond to other organisational pressures. However, a model that worked well in that national crisis is no longer the most cost- effective way of facilitating the important contribution of our much-valued volunteers, so NHS England has recently taken the decision to close the current programme. Instead, a new central recruitment portal for NHS volunteers will be fully launched this year, providing opportunities for the current pool of volunteer responders to continue to play their part. Volunteers will have had that information emailed to them recently.

NHS England will also work with NHS providers that draw on the support of the volunteer responders programme to ensure that they are helped in developing other volunteering interventions that meet their service needs.

The roles of 50,000 additional volunteers who are recruited and supported by NHS trusts directly will be unaffected by the closure of this programme. That is in addition to many more thousands of volunteers who support the NHS either directly or indirectly via other local and national voluntary sector organisations.

Successive volunteering programmes in the NHS are primarily run locally by individual trusts and integrated care systems identifying the best opportunities for volunteering interventions that meet their specific service needs. That means local NHS action to build relationships with voluntary sector organisations and co-developing volunteering programmes and pathways that support patients, staff and NHS services. There will continue to be opportunities to strengthen and encourage innovation in NHS volunteering at national level. The Government recognise the need for sufficient and agile volunteering capacity and capability of support in particular scenarios, such as pandemics and flu seasons, when the health and care sector is particularly stretched”.

15:20:00

My Lords, the NHS and Care Volunteer Responders service has completed more than 2.7 million tasks and shifts, including more than 1.1 million telephone support calls, over the past five years. It provides volunteering support seven days a week, underpinned by wraparound support and assurance, as well as safeguarding, problem-solving teams and helplines running from 8 am to 8 pm. Volunteers are ID checked, have role guidance, hold DBS checks when required and have their expenses paid by the programme. How will the Government ensure that volunteering in the NHS and social care is encouraged and facilitated, given that the need for volunteers across the country remains acute? When will the new scheme begin operating and can the Government guarantee that existing patients will not be left in the lurch?

I start by saying, as I am sure the noble Earl agrees, how grateful we are for the generous contribution made by volunteers. They play a vital role in supporting patients, staff and services in many ways. The national NHS and Care Volunteer Responders programme was first established as part of the Covid response, and the noble Earl helpfully set out its contribution. The fact is that a model that worked well in a national crisis is no longer the most cost-effective option, so there will be a new recruitment portal for NHS volunteers to be fully launched this year. This is all about expanding voluntary opportunities and getting more volunteer hours to further support patients even better than volunteers do already.

Where will the current funding for this programme go? Will it go into the new scheme the Minister has mentioned, or into community services or support for vulnerable groups, or will this result in some kind of cut to services?

I assure the noble Baroness that there is no intention that this will impact on services. As I mentioned, this is about getting value for money; the previous scheme did so during the Covid pandemic and just after, but we are in a totally different world now. All those who volunteered through the scheme that is being brought to an end will have been sent an email advising them how they can continue their volunteering—we do not want to lose people—and how it will be easier. The launch of the portal will provide a one-stop shop, overseen by NHS England. That is what will be funded. I hope that the noble Baroness and other noble Lords will find the website a much friendlier place through which they can volunteer.

My Lords, can the Minister assure me that we will not use volunteers to plug the gap in NHS services and that people will get an appropriate level of care when they arrive at an NHS facility?

My noble friend makes an important point and I can give her that assurance. For me, volunteering provides a different type of resource. For example, Mid Yorks is advertising for trolley volunteers, ward befriending volunteers and café volunteers. It is about supporting the staff in their efforts, and supporting patients. Volunteers have always had a role, and long may that continue.

My Lords, if the Minister is concerned about the use of volunteers, will she then consider the role of community first responders? Responses by volunteers are included in measuring the response times of ambulances to 999 calls. Based on her logic, she should now exclude that from response times so that we get the required transparency.

This announcement does not affect transparency or services directly provided by the NHS. We are seeking to improve the volunteering offer to make it more cost-effective, and to retain, recruit and better utilise volunteers. I will look at the point the noble Baroness raises, but I emphasise my point to your Lordships’ House.

My Lords, I declare an interest as a non-executive director of the Whittington Hospital, which is my local hospital. It has a very strong volunteer scheme and is recruiting volunteers all the time. Can my noble friend the Minister assure me that this is about enhancing the work that is done locally, because most volunteers are recruited and most volunteering is done locally?

My noble friend makes a very important point and I can certainly give her the assurance she seeks. Over 50,000 additional volunteers are recruited by NHS trusts, which they then support directly in the way my noble friend describes. Their roles are totally unaffected by the change to this programme. There are many thousands of volunteers who support the NHS directly or indirectly via other local and national voluntary sector organisations, and I pay tribute to them all.

My Lords, I declare an interest as president of Attend. Can the Minister explain how, in the new system, the Government will work with an organisation such as Attend, which provides insurance, legal advice, financial services and networking to a whole series of agencies that provide volunteers across the country, to ensure that there are rigorously high standards and that those who volunteer are protected in their role, and that they benefit in addition to providing maximum benefit to the recipients?

The noble Baroness raises an important point. I am sure there are many, like me, who have volunteered, or still volunteer, and gained as much as they gave, although they did not expect to. It is important to have standards, and to protect volunteers and everybody involved. That will be the case. A lot of local action builds relationships with local organisations, which is a very successful way of harnessing the benefits of volunteers and volunteering.

My Lords, I in no way denigrate volunteers, but can the Minister confirm that when a volunteer in a hospital comes across information about patients it has the same level of confidentiality as it would if it had been found by a member of staff, and that it is not acceptable for any information gathered by a volunteer to be used improperly?

I share the noble Lord’s view. Various directions are given to volunteers about how to behave when they receive information that may be to do with safeguarding, and where it should go. It is important that volunteers and staff do not keep it to themselves and that action is taken, so I can give the assurance that he seeks.

My Lords, the Air Ambulance Service is a vital part of emergency care. It is a matter of concern and shame that one of the richest countries has to rely primarily on charitable donations, which cannot provide a consistent and stable service. I urge the Minister to ensure that the Air Ambulance Service is properly funded from the public purse.

There is a role for charitable organisations. One example is hospices. As I have been told many times in this Chamber, as well as outside it, many hospices and other charities, including air ambulances, welcome and relish the freedom they have as charities and do not want government funding or intervention. Of course, we very much respect and appreciate the role that the Air Ambulance Service plays. My own brother was saved some 10 years ago, so I feel very connected to this point. He is grateful, as am I.

My Lords, I hear what the Minister says—that this is about a new scheme that will encourage volunteers within the NHS. However, sadly, data shows that instances of volunteering are declining across this country. Does the Minister know what measures will be put in place to ensure that all the volunteers who are currently on the scheme that is going to be closed are supported into whatever the requirements are in the new scheme? Having to go through DBS checks again, reapplying or anything like that might just put barriers in the way of supporting people who are already valued into the new scheme.

I understand that point. It is important to retain and develop people’s interest and commitment. The new portal will be a one-stop shop and will be much better at achieving what the noble Baroness and I seek. I know, having heard about it already, that it has functionality that is not there now. I cannot currently put in my postcode and find out what volunteering opportunities there are, which seems ever so basic—we do that on many other fronts. The new portal will allow that. In other words, the potential volunteers will find it much more accessible and will be matched better. The standards of recruitment will be higher and we will retain people. The noble Baroness makes a very good point—it is why NHSE has written to everybody on the old functionality.