We’re looking for voluntary organisations to tell us how their work can save money by reducing the burden on the health and care system.
WCVA’s Health and Care Project is working with the University of South Wales on a research project that will examine the economic contribution of the voluntary sector in preventing use of the health and care system in Wales.
We’re keen to hear from the voluntary sector about any research or evaluations they have carried out or commissioned that could contribute to a paper that will summarise the current evidence.
THE OBJECTIVES
The objectives of this paper are to:
- Identify what areas of support provided by the voluntary sector are suitable for researching the economic impact and/or value of its contribution to preventing people’s use of the health and care system.
- Identify suitable economic research methodologies, research partners and funding bodies.
THE RECOMMENDATIONS
This research has been commissioned, in part, to explore recommendations from WCVA’s recent research papers The values and value of the third sector, the value and values of volunteering, and Why the third sector matters to health and social care in Wales. These recommendations included:
- ‘All sectors, and the public, need to fully understand the benefits the third sector delivers’. To do this we need to ‘develop, understand and communicate the third sector’s value in respect of health and social care outcomes’.
- Volunteers are critical to supporting voluntary sector organisations’ delivery. We therefore need to ensure health and social care leaders ‘understand the nature and true value of volunteering’.
As part of this research, the Project is keen to know about any relevant research that your organisation may have published since January 2015.
CONTACT US
If you have any reports or information you believe would help the paper fulfil its objectives, please email it to David Cook, WCVA Health and Social Care Project Officer, at dcook@wcva.cymru by Friday 20 May 2025.
PDFs, Word documents and direct links are all welcome.
All research used will be appropriately referenced in the final paper.