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Stephen Colegrave investigates whether the NHS Volunteer Responders scheme is working and discovers an amazing array of local and community initiatives.
A couple of days ago, I tweeted that I didn’t know anyone who had done any tasks for NHS Volunteer Responders – the Government scheme for people to carry out simple, non-medical tasks for the vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic. I received a torrent of messages from people who had signed up and also from an amazing number of really impressive local and community initiatives that were already helping shielded people across the country.
Some people said they were already performing tasks on their NHS Volunteer Responders app, but many more were still waiting. Earlier this week, those administering the scheme emailed everyone to tell them that they expected the number of tasks to increase soon. At the same time, I was inundated by people busily helping their communities in a range of ways from street level WhatsApp groups to much more sophisticated operations that have sprung up in the past three weeks.
So, what is the real picture? And how will NHS Volunteer Responders complement and extend what is already happening?
The concept of NHS Volunteer Responders is ambitious and laudable. When the Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced that sign-ups had far exceeded the 250,000 target, and eventually reached 750,000, this was a remarkable sign of the public’s generous spirit. But, like most Government statements or hype during this crisis, it was a headline-grabbing soundbite, but there has been no follow-up updating the public. It is therefore not surprising that the public at large is wondering what happened and the hundreds of thousands of volunteers who are diligently signing on to their app as ‘available’ are bemused as to why many of them are not yet being utilised.
Responding to Speed
It is easy to make comparisons with the very successful Games Makers volunteer programme for the London 2012 Olympics, but there were years to prepare for the event. Neil Churchill and his team at NHS England, who have set up NHS Volunteer Responders scheme, are working on crash timings. Also, they are dealing with vulnerable people, so checking out credentials and verifying people is even more important. The app has only been live less than two weeks. I asked Churchill about this.
“The biggest challenge was probably speed – the scheme went live for recruitment a week after it was approved,” he said. “We recruited volunteers very quickly – 750,000 in just four days – when we had expected it would take considerably longer. We started on referrals immediately but it takes time to reach every GP practice, pharmacy, local council etc. Now we have live examples to share, more people can see how it works, which helps.”
The aim of NHS Volunteer Responders is not to replace community or council initiatives, but to complement them. So, if a council is short of volunteers on a particular day or a pharmacy needs help, someone nearby on call can help. Also, whilst community groups are doing a great job, their coverage isn’t 100%. Indications are that rural, suburban and small towns are very well covered but that some poorer inner-city areas are not so lucky. These areas were less likely to have their own WhatApp groups or community hubs. So, if NHS Volunteer Responders can fill in these gaps, it will be important. But it is going to take time to connect with every GP practice and council.
“The app works by linking with local tasks in addition to the four already available, there may be additional NHS tasks that can be added,” Churchill told me. “We want to signpost local schemes that need extra help and we can signpost national opportunities too.”
There are a wide range of potential tasks that responders could eventually be helping with including: delivering medicines from pharmacies, blood sugar monitors to pregnant women and sample kits to people with Cystic Fibrosis; driving patients to and from appointments; helping people who are self-isolating to manage shopping; and moving NHS equipment between locations.
NHS Volunteer Responders is not perfect. The app was obviously put together very fast and was originally designed for cardiac episodes and finding people with defibrillators. The sign-up process also had flaws as many people who had impeccable credentials were rejected by its verification process seemingly without reason.
Many responders feel that they have been on call for hundreds of hours but nothing has happened and feedback has been that communication could be much simpler and better. Also, some people feel worried about what is happening to their data and need more reassurance about this.
The initiative is still suffering from being over-hyped in the first place and it is important that it takes the public with it and that responders are persuaded to stick with it so there is the capability as it builds.
On Twitter, I did hear from responders who have had referrals spoke positively about the scheme. It has the potential to play an important role as it builds over the next few weeks.
A Town with a Plan
While NHS Volunteer Responders has been setting up nationally, an amazing array of local and community initiatives have sprung up very quickly to fill the gap.
Corrine Bailey, in Bewdley, with a background in microbiology, was concerned when she saw what was happening in China and then, when the Coronavirus spread to Italy, she knew she had to do something. Corrine set up a Facebook page to initially provide guidance about the risks of catching the virus but very quickly built up a group of 50 DBS-checked volunteers that have already helped 180 people.
“Boris Johnson came here to Bewdley on 8 March to meet people who had been impacted by the floods,” she said. “He was casually shaking hands with people, which I thought was reckless at the time. On 12 March, Johnson addressed the nation and said ‘many would lose loved ones’. I was so shocked by this casual approach that I set up the website.”
By the next Saturday, Corrine had pulled her first four volunteers together, to work out how they could support those who were isolating and the first emergency food parcel went out that day.
The scale and organisation of some of these local initiatives is astounding. In Burntisland, with a population of 7,000 just north of Edinburgh across the Forth, there had been a plan ready for years.
“We had an emergency plan in place for the last 20 years that we had developed with the local authority”, Alex MacDonald, chair of the Royal Burgh of Burntisland Community Council, told me. “It has been continually updated but never put into action – this time we decided to activate it. The plan identifies a network of properties and people that could come together.”
This meant that, immediately once the UK’s lockdown was announced on 23 March, the community council was able to turn the Toll Community Centre into the centre of operations. It has 77 volunteers, as well as a call centre and a collection po