The latest data suggests that around 22 per cent of adults over 16 years old volunteer at least once a month across England (Payne 2017) – that’s around 10.4 million people giving freely of their time for the benefit of others. There is a wide range of convincing evidence that volunteering benefits people’s health and wellbeing in multiple ways (Casiday et al 2008). We all know of people who volunteer for health or care organisations, and we may do so ourselves. Yet until very recently we knew very little about volunteering in health and social care.
