Volunteering for Health is a £10 million programme being delivered in partnership by NHS England, NHS Charities Together and CW+, the official charity of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. The programme aims to improve how volunteering in our health and care system in England works to realise the potential of volunteering in improving the experience and outcomes of people using our health and care systems. To do this, the programme focuses on improving the infrastructure (processes, systems, support) that enables volunteering to happen.

Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership, together with their system partners, is one of 15 partnerships in England to successfully bid for funding as part of Volunteering for Health. Our aim as a partnership is to release the untapped potential of 16+ youth volunteers play a more central, transformative role in enhancing service delivery and improving patient and staff experience, and to boost routes into the health and care workforce across Humber and North Yorkshire.

Because 16+ is a key age for thinking about your future career. Volunteering experience can inspire a young person to explore a career in health and care, and help them identify the right course, apprenticeship or job to take their next steps on this journey.

Volunteering also builds skills and confidence, giving them the chance to find out – and show to others – what they’re capable of. We have numerous examples of young volunteers going on to succeed in getting a job or apprenticeship in the organisation they volunteered for. If we want a representative workforce, we need to be giving these opportunities to young people.

Hundreds if not thousands of young people volunteer in health and care organisations across Humber and North Yorkshire. Some organisations often have more demand than they can accommodate, while others sometimes struggle to find volunteers. Through the Volunteering for Health programme, we want to make it easier for young people to find roles across the health and care system and ensure every organisation can benefit from their energy, enthusiasm and skills.

But we also know that some young people aren’t yet aware of the benefits of volunteering or that these opportunities are open to them. So, we’re also working on projects to help increase this awareness and develop the skills, confidence and motivation needed to apply for and succeed in volunteering roles.

Among other projects, we’re working to develop a youth volunteering toolkit – a collection of resources and support aimed at improving engagement amongst health and care organisations, motivation to offer youth volunteering opportunities, and help to do so effectively and safely.

The toolkit will draw on what already exists, and what organisations and young people tell us they need. We’ll be tapping into best practice and useful networks, sharing impact and opportunity, with a view to building engagement and confidence.

A Strategic Volunteer Lead, Susanna Glover, has been appointed to deliver the Volunteering for Health programme. Employed by York CVS and based within the ICB’s VCSE team, Susanna is leading on this project by working closely with our key expert organisations at each of the 6 places within Humber and North Yorkshire.

These organisations are:

It’s very important to us that the voices of those might offer youth volunteering opportunities, and those who might volunteer as a young person, inform and shape the toolkit.

During Summer and Autumn 2025, our lead organisations will be talking to organisations and young people across Humber and North Yorkshire, gathering insights into the experiences, challenges, benefits and opportunities of youth volunteering in health and care. We want to identify gaps to be developed, and to explore opportunities for working together, for co-design, and for piloting the toolkit to launch new youth volunteering opportunities.

We value and respect any time you give to talking with us and the information you provide. We also want you to feel you have full control over this.

The purpose of our conversations and insight gathering is to help inform the development of a toolkit to support health and care organisations to buy into, develop and deliver safe and effective youth volunteering opportunities. It will also inform our wider work on pathways into volunteering and health and care careers and what we can do to address barriers and capitalise on opportunities to widen access, improve experience, and increase youth volunteering across the system.

We like to give credit where credit is due, so we’d like to namecheck all the organisations who have contributed, and against any quotes or case studies that support the content. However, we won’t share anything identifiable unless you first give us permission.

We know lots of people have questions about bringing on board young volunteers, especially if they’re 16 or 17. And we want to know what these questions and concerns are so we can meet organisations where they’re at.

Young volunteers bring a lot of value – they’re learning and growing as well as contributing, and with the right support they can become some of your most passionate advocates. They can boost your visibility, diversify your workforce, and strengthen community ties. Many organisations have found that with clear expectations and mentorship, young volunteers thrive—and often return as long-term contributors. Today’s youth volunteers are tomorrow’s health and care professionals. Volunteering is a gateway to careers in your sector—why not be part of that journey?

We’re building this toolkit to help you create safe, structured, and rewarding experiences for both young people and your teams. Remember this isn’t a solo effort. We’re building a community of organisations sharing best practices, tools, and support to make youth volunteering work for everyone.

During Autumn and Winter 2025, we’ll be collating resources and creating new ones to fill any gaps, as well as capturing case studies and impact stories to tell the story of the power of youth volunteering.

We expect to start piloting the toolkit with organisations interested in starting to offer youth volunteering in the first half of 2026. This will help us test and review the toolkit before publishing and launching a final version which we’ll make widely available to anyone who wants to offer youth volunteering.

If you’d like to be involved in reviewing the toolkit content or in piloting the toolkit, we’d love to hear from you. We’ll also send a link to where you can find the final published version to everyone who has contributed.

We’d love to talk to you about your experience and your views. We want to understand your context and what you believe are the challenges and the opportunities.

We’ll be looking for people to share their comments and stories, and to get involved in designing or giving feedback on specific elements of the toolkit.

We hope that some health and care organisations will begin to offer youth volunteering for the first time, and will test out and pilot the toolkit as they get started.

We hope to build our network of organisations interested in youth volunteering in health and care, with a view to growing relationships and improving pathways for young people to get into volunteering and to build on their experience to explore a health and care career.

If you know of any other organisations or individuals who’d be interested too, please share our details with them. Be a champion and talk about this work with your networks.