Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to help improve how NHS England works with clinically trained volunteers.

NHS England does not directly manage volunteers, with volunteering services being managed and delivered by National Health Service organisations and commissioned partners.

The 2023 NHS Volunteering Taskforce report highlighted the untapped potential of volunteering to tackle some of the NHS's greatest challenges, particularly in improving health outcomes for patients, reducing health inequalities, and increasing the resilience of health and care services at times of extreme pressure. NHS England is committed to delivering on the recommendations outlined in the report, in order to maximise the all-round benefits of involving volunteers.

The NHS continues to appreciate the contribution of clinically trained volunteers, from the thousands of trained Community First Responders across the ambulance service, to volunteers from partner organisations such as St John Ambulance who are commissioned to deliver NHS England’s national ambulance auxiliary offer.

NHS England continues to support the growth and development of volunteering across the NHS, which includes volunteer roles that support the delivery of clinical care, where this is appropriate, whilst ensuring that volunteers are never substituted for our substantive paid workforce.

Building on learning from the pandemic, NHS England is working with national emergency preparedness, resilience, and response teams, NHS organisations, and voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) partners, regarding the role of volunteers and the VCSE sector in enhancing NHS resilience.