This report considers the role and value of volunteers in health and social care. It looks at the important part that volunteers play in improving patient experience, addressing health inequalities, and building a closer relationship between services and communities.
The research on which this paper is based was commissioned from The King’s Fund by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) to inform its work to develop an anti-poverty strategy for the United Kingdom. The overarching question addressed is, how can the NHS make a better contribution to tackling poverty? We ...