Department of Health allocates £6m for charity projects

The Department of Health has committed £6 million in funding to support health and social care-related projects in the voluntary sector.

Coinciding with Volunteering Week, the government department has announced its first ever Volunteering Fund National Awards, which will allocate funding to 13 organisations over the next three years.

Each of these charitable bodies – including Family Lives, Action for Blind People, Bliss and YMCA England – has been selected for its ability to improve healthcare standards or create a more patient-centric NHS system.

This comes as part of government plans to provide more than £40 million towards volunteering and social action schemes over the next two years.

Care services minister Paul Burstow said: “13 very different charities have been selected to receive this funding, all united in the compassion of their volunteers and commitment to improving health and wellbeing.”

Last month, Public Finance reported comments from Sir Stephen Bubb, chief executive of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations, stating that charities have been kept “too much at the margins” of health service provision in the past.