National Charity Working with NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Wins Major UK Health Award

A national charity working with the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Integrated Care System to strengthen health and care volunteering has won a prestigious UK health award.

Helpforce Recognised for Transforming Health Volunteering

Helpforce, a London-based charity dedicated to expanding the role of volunteers in health care, has been named one of the ten winners of the 2025 GSK IMPACT Awards. The awards, run in partnership with The King’s Fund, recognise outstanding contributions by charities improving health and wellbeing in the UK.

The charity helps NHS and community health organisations establish effective volunteering programmes, ensuring patients receive essential practical and emotional support. This includes initiatives to help people ‘wait well’ before treatment, ‘recover well’ to avoid hospital readmission, and ‘live well’ to prevent future health issues.

Following a competitive selection process, Helpforce was chosen from a record number of entries and will receive £40,000 in unrestricted funding, along with a place on a leadership development programme provided by The King’s Fund.

Supporting Health and Care in Cornwall

In Cornwall, Helpforce supports a community hub model with over 51 hubs run by the voluntary sector, providing a vital point of support for local communities. The charity’s evaluations found that if these hubs did not exist, 50% of people would have approached a healthcare provider for support instead.

The success of this model led to Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Integrated Care Board committing £700,000 per year for three years to the Community Gateway and hub network. This funding shift is moving care and resources away from hospitals and into the community, aligning with the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan’s aim of enhancing community-based health support.

Bridging the Gap in Health Volunteering

Since 2017, Helpforce has worked to increase the scale and impact of volunteering in health care, ensuring programmes deliver long-term benefits. The charity has:

• Assisted 49 NHS partner organisations in securing £3.5 million to expand their volunteering programmes.
• Launched the ‘Back to Health’ campaign, engaging with 100 health care partners to support one million people.
• Found that 82% of patients felt less anxious with volunteer support, 87% of staff believed volunteers improved service quality, and 90% of volunteers reported a greater sense of purpose.

Helpforce has also developed the ‘Volunteer to Career’ programme, designed to help volunteers explore health care careers. Nearly three-quarters of participants from 28 organisations involved in the programme have since secured employment or entered further education. The charity is now piloting versions of this programme for veterans, their spouses, refugees, and asylum seekers.

Praise for Helpforce’s Impact

Lisa Weaks, Senior Associate at The King’s Fund, praised the organisation’s work, saying:

“Helpforce is a unique and strategic organisation that is doing excellent work to help the NHS and other health and care partners grow and nurture their own volunteering programmes and increase the influence these have within their organisation.”

Amerjit Chohan, CEO of Helpforce, expressed gratitude for the recognition, stating:

“We are thrilled to receive the prestigious GSK IMPACT Award. It is a ringing endorsement of the impact we are having in driving forward high-quality, innovative and robust volunteering programmes that are transforming the health and wellbeing of people at scale.”

What’s Next for Helpforce?

With financial pressures growing across the charity sector, the award judges highlighted Helpforce’s innovative approach to designing and sustaining NHS volunteer programmes. The charity will now join the GSK IMPACT Awards Network, a UK-wide group of 130 past award winners working together to enhance health care volunteering.

For more information on Helpforce, visit helpforce.community.

For details on the GSK IMPACT Awards, visit The King’s Fund or GSK’s website.