A Health and Wellbeing Support Worker explains how a population health management approach helps her deliver personalised care to clients in Blackpool who need more than a ten minute GP appointment: When we hear that only 20% of our health needs can be met by medical interventions it’s hard to imagine why we don’t invest our time and money more heartily in finding and fixing the other 80%. As a Health and Wellbeing Support Worker in Blackpool, along with our newly recruited Social Prescribers, I’m lucky enough to be one of thousands of people like me across the country now trying to help individuals understand what’s driving their illness and help them get well, stay well and enjoy their lives. Not only am I lucky enough to have this rewarding job, I’ve also recently been part of the NHS England Population Health Management Development Programme in Lancashire and South Cumbria which has...

As Volunteering Week draws to a close, Neil Churchill, Director for Experience, Participation and Equalities at NHS England and NHS Improvement, reflects on the importance of volunteers for the future of the NHS. As we come to the end of Volunteers Week, I wanted to share some more information about NHS Volunteer Responders, a major part of our support for people shielding or vulnerable to COVID-19, which has been delivered in partnership with Royal Voluntary Service and GoodSam. Three quarters of a million people applied to be an NHS Volunteer Responder within 48 hours of launch, greatly exceeding our target of 250,000. Nearly 600,000 people were accepted, once identity checks had been competed. Having so many volunteers whom we can match with tasks through a geo-tracking system allows us to complete over 98% of tasks, because there is always a volunteer nearby, often in the same street as the person...