The NHS is not using health charities to their full potential, according to a report by think tank NPC on behalf of charities including the British Red Cross and Age UK.
The report, Untapped Potential: Bringing the voluntary sector’s strength to health and care transformation, claims that while health charities have “the right tools and expertise” to make the government’s plan a reality, “worrying signs have emerged” that the “full potential of the voluntary sector is yet to be tapped”.
The report was written by NPC for the Richmond Group, which is made up of 12 of the UK's largest health charities.
Dan Corry, chief executive of NPC, said: “The NHS is in a hole right now. Officials and charities need to find new ways to work together as part of re-designing healthcare in the UK.
“We have the absurd situation where the NHS holds masses of data, but it remains largely inaccessible to charities who work with the same patients. This is no good for anyone, and patients lose out most of all.”
Corry also called for “officials and charities” to work together “more smartly”.
“Charities can produce impressive outcomes, but sometimes struggle to communicate their value to commissioners, while commissioners can be deaf to what charities are trying to tell them,” he said. “If they can find a way through this, there is real potential to help the NHS through its current crisis and get to a place that delivers even better care.”
The report urges the NHS to bring charities into discussions about service design and delivery, in order to “boost efforts towards early intervention and more person-centred care”.
According to NPC, charities have the potential "save the NHS money", "bring down hospital admissions" and "provide better patient outcomes".
In return, the think tank calls for the NHS to enable better evaluation for health charities through data sharing and investment. It also calls for the NHS to be clearer about what information it requires from charities – and why – and to move away from evaluating “complex system interventions”.
But charities must “avoid over-stating the evidence case”, “communicate evidence of impact and value in a way that aligns with the interests of decision-makers” and “collect and manage data in a way that is useful to partners,” according to NPC.
Chief executive of Age UK, Tom Wright, said charities are keen to “do more to support the NHS because we know this would be good for the service and good for our beneficiaries”.
“The report shines a light on the contribution we could make if we are prepared to change some of the ways we do things, and if commissioners are prepared to flex some of their approaches,” he said. “I hope some of the findings will also be useful to other charities, including much smaller ones who clearly also have a hugely important role to play.”
