When ministers set out to recruit a 250,000-strong army of NHS volunteers and 750,000 signed up, it generated headlines around the world and was heralded by Boris Johnson as proof, contrary to Thatcher’s famous dictum, that there “was such thing as society”.
Nearly a month on, however, and only 75,000 tasks had been logged by the end of last week, rising to 100,000 yesterday — many of them repeat trips for the same household – leaving many volunteers confused or disgruntled that they have yet to be called upon.
NHS Volunteer Responders hoped to attract a quarter of a million helpers to provide app-based community support for vulnerable people self-isolating against coronavirus, but numbers spiralled as the scheme caught the public imagination.
After a frantic vetting process, 150,000 of the 750,000 initial applications were rejected, leaving 600,000 ready to be deployed.
Huge numbers are still waiting to be allocated a task after weeks on standby.
Student Sarah Rimmer tweeted on April 22: “Signed up for the #NHSvolunteer scheme not too long ago. Been ‘Active’ on the app for approx. 2 weeks now. Nothing has happened. I’ve given up.”
She confirmed at the weekend that she was still waiting for a first task. “I’m fed up with the situation, as I was hoping to be of some help during the pandemic but they obviously had more people than they needed sign up and some of us have fallen under the radar.”
The RVS charity, which operates NHS Volunteer Responders, said it had “a good number of referrals coming in” and expected many more over the coming weeks as recent changes to the scheme, including allowing some charities to refer and enabling vulnerable people to directly contact it for help, took effect.
“Some (volunteers) are naturally disappointed they have not had a call. We are constantly checking in with them to say ‘we are in it for the long run’. Our key priority is to reach all those people who need help and support,” said Rebecca Kennelly, the RVS director of volunteering.
The charity declined to say how many volunteers had yet to be called upon but said demand and supply for helpers could fluctuate over the next few weeks, particularly if people started returning to work.“Have we got too many (volunteers)? This is a crisis. We don’t know what the need will be in coming weeks and months,” said Kennelly.
Although the RVS believes the scheme – effectively built from scratch in five weeks – is working efficiently and safely, and has “phenomenal coverage” of volunteers across every region of England, it is aware that there are some areas where referrals are especially low.