Helping you create impactful volunteer services
Support to ease winter pressures on health and care services
We help organisations quickly create flexible volunteer roles to reduce pressure on services
We know the volunteer roles we help create make a real difference:
- 85% of staff agreed that volunteers helped them to feel less stressed
- 25% more patients had support to help them eat meals
- 44 minutes - The amount of time volunteer support speeded up patient discharge
- 59% of people on Helpforce's Volunteer to Career programmes went on to secure employment or further education/training in health and care
With our support, health and care organisations can get volunteer roles ready to go live within 8 to 16 weeks
Our proven approach helps you to turn things around quickly
Developing new volunteering roles can take significant time to design and test before volunteers are making a difference on the ground.
Helpforce’s Adapt and Adopt service has worked with nearly 50 health and care organisations across the UK to develop roles and support that will allow you to deploy volunteers where they’re needed within weeks.
Our volunteer service development programme
Through our Adapt and Adopt service, we run a special programme that provides health and care organisations with extensive support to roll out impactful volunteering models.
This free programme is now open for applications.
Scroll down for more information about the programme
Organisations who work with us say they see the impact of the volunteer role within 7 weeks of the role going live
Support you receive from joining the programme
We provide a mix of tools and training to help your volunteer service grow in the way you need it too. The support you get includes:
- Making a business case for your service
- One-to-one sessions with Helpforce programme managers
- Online learning
- Access to a large peer-to-peer network
- Help with evaluating your service
We have identified four key model volunteering roles, which we know we can help you put into action quickly
1. Emergency response service volunteers
Emergency department volunteers reduce pressure on staff, providing reassurance to patients at a stressful time.Key outcome: 85% of staff agreed that volunteers helped them to feel less stressed
2. Mealtime companion service volunteers
Staff and patient wellbeing improves as volunteers provide companionship and support at mealtimes.
Key outcome: 25% more patients had support to help them eat meals
3. Active response support service - for discharge
Health care organisations benefit from flexible volunteers, trained to provide responsive non-clinical support.
Key outcome: 44 minutes - The amount of time volunteer support speeded up patient discharge
4. Volunteer to Career volunteers
The Helpforce Volunteer to Career programme allows volunteers to explore a health and care career and builds a future workforce for the health and care sectors.
Key outcome: 59% of volunteers went on to secure employment or further education/training
Our approach to help you create impactful volunteer services
Step 1 - Adopting
We begin by asking questions. What does your organisation need? What are the main challenges it faces? What volunteer roles would help it the most?
Step 2 - Translation
Your Helpforce programme manager works with you to choose a volunteer role or service that will work in your healthcare setting.
Step 3 - Adapting
You make a realistic delivery plan with your Helpforce programme manager. This step helps you adapt the volunteer role into a workable service for your organisation.
Step 4 - Embedding
You launch the new volunteer role at your organisation. We help you integrate it into your service and discuss how you can sustain it in the long term.
Step 5 - Scale
Once your new role or service is running effectively, we help you look at how you can grow and expand it across your organisation.
What our partners say
Kristine Davies
Head of Voluntary Services, University Hospitals Coventry Warwickshire NHS Trust