The Cabinet Office has today announced the recipients of funding from two projects working with health volunteers.
A £2m project called Reducing Winter Pressures Fund will support eight charities to help volunteers working with elderly people during the winter. And £600,000 funding from the £14m Innovation Fund will support volunteer projects in six hospitals.
The minister for civil society, Brooks Newmark, who was appointed into the position last month when Nick Hurd stepped down, said: “I am pleased to announce the winners of these exciting new funds. Taken together, we believe that these projects will showcase the potential of social action to reduce hospital pressures and improve patient experience, and will be sustained into the long-term by local commissioners.”
The Reducing Winter Pressures Fund will be used run projects to help the elderly stay healthy and to quickly recover from illnesses and, as a result, avoid unnecessary pressure on A&E services and delayed discharges from hospitals.
The money comes from a partnership between the Cabinet Office and the National Tripartite, a group set up to work on local improvement plans for A&E standards.
The £600,000 funds will be given to six hospitals through the Helping in Hospitals’ programme, and will be used to grow existing volunteer schemes that work on improving overall patient satisfaction and outcomes.
Vicki Sellick, director of Nesta, said: "We're delighted to support six hospitals to expand upon their volunteering service to increase the positive impact that volunteers can have on patients, friends and family."
The funding comes as part of a commitment by both the Government and NHS England to support “innovative solutions” to help ease the pressure on A&E and other services, particularly around busy periods.
So far there are seven confirmed organisations that will receive funding through the Reducing Winter Pressures Fund, the eighth is yet to be announced but is expected to be confirmed next week.
The seven organisations are:
- Westbank Community Health and Care (based in Devon)
- Royal Voluntary Service (based in Leicestershire)
- Age UK South Lakeland
- Age UK Cornwall and Isles and Scilly
- Age UK Oxfordshire
- Age UK Leeds working with British Red Cross
- British Red Cross Society (based in North Derbyshire)
The hospitals that will receive funding as part of Helping in Hospitals programme are:
- Barts Health NHS Trust
- Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Trust
- Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
