Volunteers’ week: Macmillan looks at the role of volunteers in social care

3 million people in England regularly volunteer in health and social care.  They are involved in all parts of the system – for example, assisting with mealtimes in hospital, providing support for bereaved families and providing support in the community.

With so many people affected by cancer without the social care support that they need, increasing volunteers in the health and social care sector can only be a good thing. In fact, patients often value the contribution of volunteers differently to that of professionals. The Health Service Journal's recent article on volunteers highlights the value volunteers bring to social care, by: improving patient experience helping to build a closer relationship between services and communities co-ordinating care provided by different agencies.

How Government is supporting volunteering

The Coalition Government has recognised the benefits of volunteering in health and social care. However, it has said that it’s not its role to compel people to volunteer.

In recent years the Government has tried to encourage volunteering through:

• Reducing red tape
• Funding to support volunteering in general: £40 million in new funding was announced in 2011
•  Funding to support health and social care specifically: the Health and Social Care Volunteering Fund (HSCVF) was established in 2009 to provide local and national funds to various voluntary organisations

But, is volunteering being used to replace the paid workforce?

Though volunteers are extremely valuable, Community Care has stated that certain social care services should only be delivered by trained and qualified staff.

The King’s Fund recent report Volunteering in Health and Social Care: Securing a Sustainable Future explains that volunteers are increasingly being positioned as an integral part of the care team, rather than simply an “add-on”. This can be a good thing, but they warn that this can be portrayed as organisations using volunteers to replace the paid workforce.

To improve the current system of volunteering, The King’s Fund recommends:

• Service providers and commissioners should take a more strategic approach towards volunteering.
• Boundaries between professional and volunteer roles need to be clarified to allay concerns of job substitution.
• Providers of all kinds should focus on volunteering as a means of improving quality rather than cutting costs.
• Volunteer management should be resourced appropriately. 

We need to embrace the value that volunteers can bring to health and social care, but organisations also need to make sure that the volunteer role is clearly distinguishable from that of the paid workforce.

Government has a key role in ensuring that social care needs of people affected by cancer are met. That’s why we support the Care and Support Alliance’s campaign to ensure the Treasury invests in social care in its forthcoming Spending Review.

Do you or your family get support from volunteers? Do you have any non-medical needs that are not being met? What sort of things do you think a health or social care volunteer could help you with?