Over the past two years we know some of our services made referrals to the NHS Volunteer Responders Service. For those who may still be accessing this service here is an important update.
A message from the Royal Voluntary Service.
Dear Referrer,
We are writing to you because you have previously referred people to the NHS Volunteer Responders (NHSVR) programme, to tell you about changes to the support available from our volunteers.
NHSVR was set up two years ago to help people self-isolating or shielding because of COVID-19 and to support the NHS and social care. Since then, we have helped more than 200,000 people and completed more than 2.2m individual tasks.
Feedback from clients, volunteers and referrers suggests we have successfully met our original challenge to help vulnerable people through the pandemic and reduce pressure on services. The big challenge ahead is to improve access to health and care services and reduce waiting times for people needing care.
A great deal has happened since we introduced the programme to help people through the COVID-19 pandemic and we have noticed a drop in demand in recent months for volunteers to support people who are self-isolating. On the other hand, we are also aware that people have new priorities, especially help in accessing health and care services and support while they wait.
Therefore, we have decided to suspend the volunteer activity which directly supports individuals, such as shopping, picking up prescriptions, help getting to medical appointments or a friendly listening ear. This means you will be unable to request support from the following volunteers:
- Check in and Chat – telephone befriending
- Check in and Chat plus – telephone befriending for vulnerable people
- Community Response – shopping and fetching medication
- Community Response plus – shopping and fetching medication for vulnerable people
- Patient Transport – transport to medical appointments
This change will happen over the next four weeks allowing you to assist anyone you have referred to the programme who still needs help to find appropriate local support. We are also writing to all clients who have referred themselves for NHSVR support and helping them identify alternative, local support if they think they will need it after 13 May.
The table below shows the key dates for you to be aware of.
|
Last date for repeat referrals (see additional information) |
Last date for requesting patient transport shifts |
Last date for one off referrals, including patient transport tasks |
Last date on which support will be delivered |
|
Thursday 11 April |
Thursday 11 April |
Friday 6 May |
Friday 13 May |
|
Additional information |
All current referrals for Community Response Plus and Check in and Chat Plus will automatically be extended to week ending 13 May |
||
NHS Volunteer Responders will continue to support the NHS. Our Steward Volunteers are devoting thousands of hours a week to supporting COVID-19 vaccination centres, while our NHS Transport Volunteers remain available to help transfer equipment, supplies and medication between NHS sites. You can find out how to access this support here.
Meanwhile, we are exploring other ways that our volunteers can help the NHS and social care in their vital work to reduce waiting lists and improve access to services. If you would like to be part of this, contact england.voluntarypartnerships@nhs.net.
For further information and guidance on how these changes affect your patients, please call the NHS Volunteer Responders Support Team on 0808 196 3646.
Our Support Team line will remain open to you and your patients until 6pm on Friday 20 May, from which point it will no longer be in use.
Yours sincerely,
The NHS Volunteer Responders Team