University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) could be invited to ‘buddy’ other acute trusts over the success of its volunteering programme.

UHB is looking to get involved in the new £1.5 million ‘Helping in Hospitals Fund’, which is being managed by independent charity Nesta on behalf of the Cabinet Office.

Nesta aims to support up to 15 hospitals in England to improve and grow their volunteering services, with five of the hospitals who have well-developed volunteer programmes effectively mentoring the rest.

The Helping in Hospitals programme is launched as the King’s Fund publishes what is believed to be the first ever national survey into the scale and value of volunteering.

The report by the independent think-tank estimates that for every £1 invested in the training and management of a volunteer, the Trust receives a value of at least £11 in return.

It adds that acute trusts have an average of 471 volunteers, ranging from befriending and visiting to supporting patients at meal times.

And this equates to more than 78,000 volunteers across all acute trusts in England who are contributing at least 13 million hours per year in total.

Carol Rawlings, Associate Director of Patient Affairs at UHB, said: “We have already expressed an interest in the Helping in Hospitals programme.

“What they want is a sort of buddying system.

“They want five Trusts who are well developed in their volunteer programmes, with a further ten that are just starting or have got a very limited volunteer programme. We are bidding for one of the five.”

Carol, who is also Chair of the National Association of Voluntary Services Managers, took on her role at UHB in 2005, since then the volunteering programme has grown significantly.

She added: “It was WRVS with pockets of just a few Trust volunteers on top. I came into the role looking to develop a strategy and we now have 600 volunteers.

“Many patients and carers like to think of giving something back. We know that people are very keen to get involved. They see it as a big part of their local community, but they also see the great work that goes on in the NHS and are motivated to help.”

The King’s Fund report, which was sponsored by the Department of Health, also found that volunteering is a growth area, with 87 per cent of voluntary service managers expecting an increase over the next three years.

“From my perspective as Chair of the National Association of Voluntary Service Managers we have been frustrated by the fact there isn’t a national picture of what is happening in the voluntary sector.

“This report has given us a real basis to start from.”

The full report is available by visting the King’s Fund website.