An NHS volunteer programme is to be expanded into social care to provide services to people in the community.

The £3 million scheme will use the GoodSAM app currently used by NHS volunteers to provide support for people struggling with loneliness as well as delivering medical equipment to aid hospital discharge or continued healthcare support.

Volunteers will also be asked to collect and deliver food shopping as well as prescriptions and medication.

Minister for care, Helen Whately said: “Volunteers can be a lifeline for people needing support. They can provide help to people needing a hand with food shopping, picking up prescriptions or even battling loneliness by lending a listening ear. 

“That’s why we are building on the success of the NHS Volunteer Responders programme by expanding into social care. This launch will support the discharge of medically fit patients from hospital, freeing up the time so our workforce can focus on meeting more complex needs and most importantly support people to live independently at home for longer.”

The initiative was met with strong criticism from unions and care organisations.

Karolina Gerlich, chief executive of The Care Workers’ Charity (CWC), told us: “This programme is definitely not going to fix social care.

“The CWC is worried that the government thinks that this is going to be a solution to the recruitment and retention crisis and further undermine the skills required for people to be a care worker.

“We have to be very clear that volunteering is not suitable to replace care workers and to fill the gap in care worker vacancies in the sector.

“We need government investment to reflect that care workers are highly skilled and deserve much greater recognition.”

UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said: “This ridiculous scheme will do nothing to ease the huge staffing problems hampering social care. Irresponsible employers will have a field day.

“As well-meaning as volunteers might be, untrained individuals are simply no substitute for the army of care workers needed to fill the growing number of vacancies. 

“Until the government makes care a decently paid career, the sector will struggle to recruit and hold on to staff. A National Care Service is needed. That demands wholesale reform of the sector, not pointless tinkering like this.” 

Helen Wildbore, director of Care Rights UK, said: “This will be a kick in the teeth for relatives and friends of those in care who were so desperate to provide support and prevent loneliness during the pandemic but were prevented from doing so by government restrictions.”

Homecare Association chief executive, Dr Jane Townson, said: “Volunteers can provide valuable practical and emotional support for people. Many offered a lifeline for people in the community during the Covid-19 pandemic. In some areas, councils already commission voluntary sector organisations to support people without care needs when discharged from hospital. People with care needs require well-trained and skilled care professionals to support them. There is potential for volunteers to work collaboratively with regulated care providers to help with lower level support needs. This is unlikely, though, to help with workforce shortages in the professional care workforce.

“To ensure we have a care workforce that meets needs now and in future, the social care sector needs a 10-year workforce strategy aligned with the NHS People Plan. ,  

“We call on the government to invest adequately in home care so we can improve careworkers’ pay and terms and conditions of employment to meet the growing demand for care.”