What new NHS data tells us about the vital role of volunteers in our healthcare service

By Ellie Orton OBE, CEO of NHS Charities Together

New statistics recently released by NHS England  show that almost 73,000 people give their time each year to support the NHS, contributing over 5.3 million hours of care and practical help, a figure that has increased slightly this year.

These numbers are important as they help us understand the scale of the contribution that volunteers make to our healthcare service, and ensure their work is visible within national reporting.

But they do not fully capture what that contribution feels like in practice.

Because behind the hours that volunteers provide are moments of human connection that do not always sit neatly within traditional NHS performance data.

I experienced this personally recently while attending a hospital appointment feeling stressed and daunted. A volunteer greeted me, reassured me, guided me through the hospital and made sure I got where I needed to be. That simple human interaction took away so much anxiety and completely changed my experience of care.

As CEO of NHS Charities Together, I have the privilege of seeing first-hand the extraordinary impact volunteers have - not just on patients, but on families, staff, and on local communities.

And yet, too often, their contribution is seen as “nice to have” rather than essential.

It is time we changed that.

Because volunteers are not an add-on to the NHS. They are part of its fabric.

They are the person who sits at a bedside so that no one dies alone. The calming presence guiding a worried relative through a bustling hospital corridor. The friendly face who turns a clinical environment into something warmer, more human - whether that’s setting up play schemes for poorly children on the ward or providing art therapy for rehabilitation patients. I believe that this focus on the whole person and putting their emotional needs front and centre, alongside their medical needs, is a unique strength that we bring as an NHS charity sector.

Take Alessia, a volunteer at The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust. She supports patients at the end of life, offering something profoundly simple yet deeply meaningful at the end of someone's life: presence.

Or Vivian, who has helped transform a hospital garden into a space of healing for patients living with dementia - reconnecting people with memory, nature, and calm.

Or Elizabeth, whose journey from therapy dog visits to ward volunteering now sees her supporting patients and easing pressure on busy teams.

Simply put - volunteers help make the NHS more human and more compassionate.

We know that the NHS is under immense pressure. Staff are working tirelessly in increasingly stretched environments, and resources are finite.

In that context, investing in volunteering is not just the right thing to do - it is a strategic necessity.

A well-supported volunteer programme does more than add capacity. It enhances care. It improves patient experience. It supports staff wellbeing. And it strengthens the connection between hospitals and the communities they serve.

This is where NHS charities play a vital role.

Because volunteers do not operate in isolation - they rely on the infrastructure, training, and support that NHS charities provide and the support of their NHS trust.

At NHS Charities Together we are working with NHS England, Trusts and NHS Charities to test and scale up what works best in terms of volunteering best practice, through the £10 million Volunteering for Health Programme, to unlock even more opportunities in future to improve patient experience and care and take pressure off the NHS workforce.

The latest data from NHS England captures scale – an army of volunteers, giving millions of hours of their time.

What it cannot capture is impact.

We must use Volunteers’ Week to recognise that improving our NHS depends not only on clinical excellence, but on the everyday compassion and connection that volunteers help bring to patients, families, and communities across the country at a time of immense pressure on healthcare services.