Harnessing social action to support older people

E-books

133 p.

<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Volunteering has long been a feature of both health and socialcare services. The past decade has seen an increase in effortsby government and others to promote volunteering across allpublic services. In August 2014, the Cabinet Office, NHS England,Monitor, the NHS Trust Development Authority and the Associationof Directors of Adult Social Services launched the 2 millionReducing Winter Pressures Fund. Seven projects in England wereselected to receive funding based on proposals to use volunteers(a form of ‘social action’) to offer support to older people, improvetheir wellbeing and increase their capacity to live independently.This report is the outcome of an independent evaluation of theprogress made by the projects. In it we describe how the projectsused volunteers to support older people in a range of ways andthe challenges they faced in setting up services in the communityand in hospitals. We analyse the impact of these projects onsubsequent hospital use and report on the experience that olderpeople, volunteers and NHS staff had with the projects. Wealso offer some learning both for the voluntary sector and forcommissioners and NHS providers.</span>