Expand volunteer programme to bolster NHS workforce, charity says
The move could help with staffing problems in the health service as well as slashing the cost of relying on agencies that supply temporary staff, experts said.
The Volunteer to Career programme has been piloted by the charity Helpforce in 48 NHS organisations across England.
It provides training, mentorship and support to help volunteers transition to professional roles.
Helpforce is now urging the Government to consider the scheme as part of its upcoming 10 Year Health Plan, claiming it could help fill around 23,600 frontline vacancies and related study placements by the end of the current Parliament in 2029.
According to the charity, around 107,000 NHS secondary care roles in England are vacant and the annual cost of using agency and bank staff has topped £10 billion.
Amerjit Chohan, chief executive of Helpforce, said: 'The success of the Volunteer to Career programme to date has been significant.
'Together with our partners in NHS trusts and other organisations, we've helped people who are interested in healthcare careers but don't have a background in the field to gain valuable experience before applying for paid roles.
'Through expertly designed and structured pathways, volunteers can find their niche without the immediate pressure of employment, while being upskilled and given confidence to take into job interviews.
'Since we launched the pilot initiative in 2022, hundreds of people have taken part, with 55% of them successfully transitioning from volunteering roles to paid careers in healthcare or associated courses – such as in nursing and midwifery.
'Our analysis shows that with the right investment, there's clear potential to supersize the opportunity, with conservative capacity for each of the 215 NHS trusts in England to support an average of 50 volunteers annually.
'We urge the Government to consider Volunteer to Career expansion within its upcoming NHS 10-Year Health Plan, unleashing the potential of home-grown healthcare talent.'
It comes after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer set out a number of measures to help bring down immigration on Monday.
The White Paper includes plans to end care worker visas for overseas recruitment.
Think tanks the King's Fund and the Health Foundation have backed Helpforce's call to the Government.
Dr Jennifer Dixon, Health Foundation chief executive, said the results of the pilot have been 'significant' and scaling it up ' has to be worthy of serious consideration by a government that's eager to get people back to work'.
Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of the King's Fund, added: 'At a time when the NHS is severely stretched and tackling long-standing and chronic workforce shortages, Helpforce is doing excellent, innovative work to support volunteers to explore opportunities for an NHS career.
'To implement Volunteer to Career on a mass scale would require strategic investment in volunteer managers across NHS Trusts, but such investment would likely be cost-effective when set against paying high fees to agencies that supply temporary staff and helping to reduce the health services' reliance on recruiting large numbers of healthcare staff from overseas.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
STEPHEN POLLARD: Labour's created an atmosphere where the hard working middle class are now fair game for bigotry
That an eight-year-old can be refused healthcare on the NHS because of the school he attends is deeply troubling. It shows that the service once described by Margaret Thatcher 's Chancellor Nigel Lawson as 'the closest thing the English people have to a religion,' has become a battleground for class war where children seeking treatment are seen as the enemy of the proletariat. That includes my children. I am lucky enough to be able to pay for them to attend private schools. I pay the fees on top of my taxes, of course. Now it seems the NHS regards my kids as non-citizens to be shunned.
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Victory for Darlington nurses as they win landmark battle for a female-only hospital changing room
Eight pioneering nurses who formed their own union to defend the rights of women have won a landmark battle for a female-only changing room. The Darlington nurses launched a legal action saying transgender policies put them at risk, deprived them of dignity and breached their human rights. They claimed a biological male colleague identifying as a woman called Rose stared at their breasts as they were getting undressed and lingered too long in the changing room. One nurse had a panic attack after Rose repeatedly asked when they were alone, 'Are you getting changed yet?' Now, with their case heading to the courts, Health Secretary Wes Streeting has intervened, ordering Darlington Memorial Hospital to give the women their own room. One of them, Bethany Hutchison, said they 'hugely appreciate' the action 'to restore our safety and dignity in the workplace in line with the law'. And she said the nurses would not 'stop until this action is extended urgently to female workers across the NHS without any unnecessary delay'. The Darlington nurses sued their NHS trust a year ago, winning overwhelming support across the country. 'Millions of women stand with them,' said Their victory comes after it emerged last week that NHS chiefs have been forced to rip up their pro-trans guidance after it was rendered illegal by the Supreme Court. The NHS Confederation, which represents trusts, has quietly withdrawn guidance telling hospitals that they should allow trans people to use their chosen lavatories and changing rooms. A senior NHS England official visited Darlington Memorial Hospital unannounced last week and described the changing facilities for female staff as 'inadequate'. The official apologised to one of the Darlington nurses, promising to act 'with speed' by providing male, female and gender-neutral changing rooms, adding: 'We want you to feel comfortable and safe.' Last year, after raising concerns the nurses were told by HR that they needed to get 're-educated', 'compromise' and 'be more inclusive'. After the nurses publicised their claim, the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust gave them a 'temporary' office for changing into uniforms. However, supporters of the nurses said that the office had no lockers and opened on to a public corridor, resulting in the women branding it as 'dehumanising' and 'humiliating'. When their union was reluctant to lend its support, the eight nurses formed their own, the Darlington Nursing Union and submitted their proposals for a way forward to Mr Streeting. Their guidelines provided 'a fair and manageable way forward to protect safe single-sex spaces for all NHS staff in line with the equality law'. In addition, it respected the rights of those with the protected characteristic of 'gender reassignment', legally known as 'transexuals'. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch backed the nurses saying: 'A woman should never be forced to get undressed in the presence of a man. The case of the Darlington Nurses is yet another example of women being demonised and patronised for raising legitimate concerns about single-sex spaces.' Mr Streeting was forced to wait until after April's Supreme Court ruling that the word sex in the Equality Act means biological sex before making his latest intervention row. Last month it was revealed that even before the Supreme Court ruling, the Royal College of Nursing had written to the Darlington trust saying they were acting unlawfully. The letter ordered the trust to provide single-sex changing rooms 'without delay.' Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said: 'A climate of fear has pervaded the system and many from top to bottom have been intimidated into silence and inaction. Equality and diversity policies have been weaponised to silence dissent and to prevent women's safety and dignity being protected in the workplace. 'We are grateful for the action from Wes Streeting and NHS England in this matter and pray that they will now quickly follow this through so that the nurses can return to the female changing rooms without delay.'
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The NHS recoups just £29million for treating European patients... while forking out £1billion in return
The Government is failing to recoup what could amount to millions of pounds each year from European countries for treating their citizens on the NHS, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. The Department of Health and Social Care charged European nations just £29.5million last year to pay for their citizens to be treated in Britain's hospitals. Yet the UK's bill for the healthcare costs of British pensioners and holidaymakers treated in European hospitals came to nearly £1billion in the same period. Critics say it raises concerns that the Government is allowing the NHS to be 'taken for a ride' by Europe on healthcare costs. While European nations bill the Government for care provided to Britons based on hospital invoices, the MoS has learned UK officials compile bills for countries based on 'estimates' of costs incurred by the NHS to treat their citizens. Campaigners say the true figure is likely to be significantly higher. And while the NHS is failing to get the best deal possible for taxpayers – Chancellor Rachel Reeves is preparing a £30billion boost to the health service at the expense of the police and councils. The revelations come after the MoS revealed in April that hospitals in England had written off £256.4million owed by overseas visitors for NHS procedures. Alp Mehmet, chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: 'The problem lies in our total inability to monitor non-UK nationals' use of the NHS, a scandalous failure to secure payments due, and naivety when dealing with the EU which has so often taken us for a ride.' Tory MP Joe Robertson, a member of the Health and Social Care Select Committee, said: 'It beggars belief that the NHS has no record of the cost of care it provides to foreign nationals. 'Our NHS is not supposed to be a subsidised health service for the rest of Europe but plainly that's what it is becoming.' There is a 'reciprocal agreement' for healthcare in Europe, which means all citizens in the European Economic Area (EEA) are entitled to some, or all, of their healthcare needs to be paid for by their home nation when abroad. While European health systems, which usually charge upfront, are good at logging such details, the NHS is not – hence the rough estimates. The figures, which come from a Freedom of Information request by the MoS, reveal the NHS billed Spain £6.7million during 2023/24 and paid back around £441million. Some £225million went to Ireland and £186million to France – but the NHS billed just £17million and £11million in return. Germany received £10.9million and paid back £3.5million to the UK. And there are also more British visitors to Europe (63million) every year than European visitors to the UK (26million). But the gap between what the UK pays, and what it bills back, has worsened over the last decade. In 2014/15, the UK claimed back £49.7million from Europe but in 2023/24, it was £20.2million less, a drop of 40 per cent. And bills for Britons treated abroad have risen by 40 per cent, from £674.4million in 2014/15 to £948.9million last year. Mr Robertson said he had written to the Public Accounts Committee to look at this subject and 'force the Government's hand'. A Department of Health spokesman said the UK charges EU nations when their citizens use the NHS as part of a deal which ensures Britains 'can also get healthcare when visiting Europe'.
