Volunteers can help NHS Trusts meet their targets

Guidelines to help NHS Trusts work more effectively with their 200,000 volunteers will improve patients’ lives and help Trusts meet their targets, claims national charity Volunteering England, which launches the guidelines – Volunteers Across the NHS - today with full Government backing.

At present, all 572 NHS Trusts across England have different arrangements in the way they recruit and use volunteers, which can lead to inefficiencies and less effective patient care.

Elaine Falkner, Community Outreach Manager for the National Society for Epilepsy, which has 220 trained volunteers working in the NHS, said: ‘Every health authority seems to have its own policy about volunteers. We've even had a case of one volunteer working with an epilepsy specialist nurse in one hospital not being able to work with that same nurse in a different hospital because each hospital fell under a different health authority, each with a different policy.’

Evidence shows, however, that volunteers can play an essential role in delivering health services if they are managed effectively and consistently.

In East Lancashire Hospitals, for instance, volunteers based in the pharmacy department deliver urgently required drugs to ward sisters for patients who have been discharged subject to their prescription being dispensed. In practice this means that patients are able to leave hospital earlier in the day and, in turn, beds then become more readily available.

Volunteering England Chief Executive Christopher Spence said: ‘Volunteers are not being used as effectively or consistently as they could be across the whole of the NHS. Our guidelines can remove the large disparities in the ways that volunteers are involved. Volunteers support paid staff by providing practical help and enhancing the patient experience.

‘The Guidelines have pinpointed good practice towards creating a more equal and consistent approach to the support offered to volunteers throughout the NHS. Everyone from ward helpers to Expert Patients Programme tutors can now be managed consistently.’

Liam Byrne MP, Under Secretary of State for Care Services, said: ‘The purpose of this guide is to help ensure that the NHS uses volunteers well. This guidance underlines the government’s support for expanding volunteering in NHS organisations and encouraging NHS organisations to think about new roles that volunteers could fulfil. However, there is often inconsistency in the way that volunteers are managed and reimbursed. This needs to change.’

The guidelines will be sent out to all NHS Trusts.

- end -

Notes to Editors

Christopher Spence, the Chief Executive of Volunteering England and the report author Sheila Hawkins, Head of Health and Social Care at Volunteering England, are available for interview. For more information, a copy of the guidelines, and to arrange interviews, call William Little on 020 7520 8932; email William.little@volunteeringengland.org or Sonya Roberts on 020 7520 8965; email Sonya.roberts@volunteeringengland.org. For out of office hours, please call: 07952 128057.

• The figure of 200,000 volunteers working in the NHS was collated using figures obtained from volunteer services based at local NHS Trusts.
• The full report Volunteers across the NHS: improving the patient experience and creating a patient-led service was formulated following extensive research and consultation across the NHS. Members of Strategic Health Authorities, Department of Health and NHS Trusts acted as advisors and critical readers to the project.
• The Department of Health and the Home Office jointly funded the Guidelines In order to help meet objectives in the new Health White Paper Out Health, our care, our say. See section 8.52, page 189, of the White Paper for more details.

Case studies:

We can provide volunteers and paid staff case studies from all of the projects below to speak to the press.

• In East Lancashire Hospitals, volunteers based in the pharmacy department deliver urgently required drugs to ward sisters for patients who have been discharged subject to their prescription being dispensed. In practice this means that patients are able to leave hospital earlier in the day and, in turn, beds then become more readily available.
• The National Society for Epilepsy, with the help of trained volunteers, operates information services in health care setting throughout England. Some Trusts allow volunteers to work in the NHS, while others don’t, denying patients support from a patient expert in their own condition.
• The Gateway project at University Hospital Lewisham helps long-term unemployed people gain skills which will help them gain employment or obtain qualifications.

Facts about volunteers in the NHS:

• There are almost 100 different volunteering roles in the NHS, including counsellors, drama assistants, hand holders (for surgery), home escorts for vulnerable patients, musicians, among many more, according to Volunteering England research.
• Many volunteers have won long service certificates for 30 years of volunteering.
• 91% of NHS staff feel that volunteers had made a difference to patients, according to a study at Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust.
• The Experts Patient Programme run by volunteer tutors expert in their own condition has resulted in a 16 per cent reduction in A&E admissions; a 7 per cent reduction in GP consultations and a 10 per cent reduction in outpatient visits, according to the report Stepping Stones to Success from the Expert Patient Programme.

About Volunteering England

• Volunteering England receives Government funding to promote and enhance volunteering in health and social care settings.
• Volunteering England’s aims are to increase the quality, quantity, contribution and accessibility of volunteering throughout England; secure and support an England-wide network of quality volunteer development agencies, promoting and enabling volunteering and community involvement; undertake research, policy and development activity; and provide grants, support and advice to sustain and develop volunteering.
• Support National Volunteers Week from 1^st to 7^th June 2006. For details, log onto www.volunteersweek.org.uk

• Download a free copy of "Volunteers Across The NHS"