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Nesta is an innovation foundation. For us, innovation means turning bold ideas into reality and changing lives for the better. We use our expertise, skills and funding in areas where there are big challenges facing society.

Helping in Hospitals guide and evaluation report

The Health Lab is pleased to publish its final output from the Helping in Hospitals programme: ‘Helping in Hospitals - a guide to high impact volunteering in hospitals.’ The guide was created with contributions from the Helping in Hospitals project teams, their volunteers and staff, and from patients and families.

The Helping in Hospitals programme was founded on the belief of people powered health and our collective ability to work alongside public services to make meaningful contributions to the way our NHS services are provided. The programme builds on the great work that is already happening in hospitals with volunteers.

With the support of the Cabinet Office and the Department of Health, Nesta has worked with ten hospital trusts from 2014 to 2016 to help them be more strategic with volunteering services, by creating impact roles that contribute to better patient experience, wellbeing and care and measuring impact more systematically.

The evidence generated through the programme has shown promising results related to improvements in patient experience, mood, anxiety levels, nutrition and hydration, and releasing nurse time to care. The full evaluation results, written by The Social Innovation Partnership (TSIP), can be found in: 'Measuring the Impact of Helping in Hospitals - The final evaluation report'.

The 'Helping in Hospitals - a guide to high impact volunteering in hospitals’ explains, in detail, how the projects achieved these outcomes and navigated their experiences. It covers the key steps in creating and running an impact volunteering programme. We hope that this guide, alongside the other excellent resources available and referenced throughout the guide, will encourage others to build impact volunteering programmes across the country.

For any questions on the Helping in Hospitals programme or the guide, please email [email protected]

Author

Annette Holman

Annette Holman

Annette Holman

Programme Manager, Government Innovation Team

Annette worked in the Government Innovation Team at Nesta focusing on social action priorities, specifically on the Connected Communites and Second Half Fund.

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Jullie Tran Graham

Jullie Tran Graham

Jullie Tran Graham

Programme Manager

Jullie worked with a number of health and ageing projects funded through the Accelerating Ideas programme, focusing on social innovations that make it possible for people to be more in…

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