We’ve announced the six pioneering hospitals which will benefit from £600,000 through our Helping in Hospitals programme, to significantly expand the reach and impact of their volunteering schemes, and share the evidence of the impact this has had on patients and their families. 

The hospitals are:

• Barts Health NHS Trust

Barts plans to double the number of volunteers. It will also recruit volunteers with experience of a specific illness or condition to support patients experiencing a similar health problem, as well as making sure there are more volunteers to help meet and greet new patients.

• Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Cambridge aims to double its number of volunteers. Many of these new volunteers will be supporting older patients, helping reduce anxiety and confusion for those with cognitive impairment and improving patient nutrition. It is hoped this can help reduce the length of patient stays.

• Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Trust

Derbyshire plans to mobilise new volunteers, by replicating the best hospital volunteering schemes in a community trust setting. This will include a new ‘hospital to home’ scheme, where volunteers accompany vulnerable patients home to help them settle back into normal life. 

• Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Great Western Hospitals intends to increase the number of hospital volunteers by around50 per cent across Wiltshire. New volunteers will get training and mentoring and some will be deployed in helping vulnerable patients settle back in at home after a stay at hospital.

• Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Kingston plans to train up new volunteers especially to help patients with dementia, patients struggling to navigate the hospital and patients who need encouragement at meal times. It plans to almost double the number of active volunteers during the programme.

• Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Sheffield aims to increase the number of volunteers by a third. It will introduce a number of roles that it has been piloting to date, including mealtime volunteers and an ‘on-call’ role which will allow volunteers to be paged to respond to the most pressing needs on different wards. 

Vicki Sellick, Director of Nesta’s Innovation Lab, 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."

Helping in Hospitals is part of the Centre for Social Action’s £14million Innovation Fund, funded by the Cabinet Office and run by Nesta.

Funding is subject to Nesta’s standard grant procedure.