About us
Royal Voluntary Service supports people, communities and the NHS in every part of Great Britain.
We inspire and enable people to give the gift of voluntary service to meet the needs of the day. Through the power of volunteering, we provide one-to-one, group and online services that improve health and wellbeing, resilience, confidence and connections.
No need has been greater since wartime than the COVID-19 pandemic, and Royal Voluntary Service has been the largest single mobiliser of volunteers to support the COVID response. During the pandemic, our volunteers and staff have made a vital contribution, making hundreds of thousands of welfare and companionship phone calls, essential grocery and prescription deliveries, distributed emergency food packs, delivered activity packs to people living with dementia, made garden gate visits, delivered library books and accompanied clients on walks. They have assisted the NHS with medical equipment supply, patient transport and vaccination services.
We also built a new volunteer army for NHS England, the NHS Volunteer Responders, to shield the NHS and provide practical help to the 2.5M people most at-risk from COVID-19. The programme represents a volunteering revolution, using technology to register, alert and deploy volunteers quickly, wherever needed. Enabled by the GoodSAM app, the programme has created a safety net of on-call support across England. To date, volunteers have responded to 1.6M help requests. High demand continues and the programme has expanded to support the vaccination programme.
Online, we have established the Virtual Village Hall, a popular activity hub and community that connects people and helps them stay active.
Volunteers will play an important role in the Covid recovery and beyond, and we will continue to support people and communities in need, particularly where there are health inequalities and social deprivation. We will also assist NHS hospitals during seasonal pressures.
To support our volunteers we run a full range of fundraising activities that enable them to continue their vital work.
Find out more about volunteering with Royal Voluntary Service
Governance
Royal Voluntary Service is a registered charity in accordance with the Charities Act 1993. Our registered charity number in England and Wales is 1015988 and in Scotland is SC038924.
Our registered office is:
Royal Voluntary Service
Beck Court
Cardiff Gate Business Park
CARDIFF
CF23 8RP
Royal Voluntary Service is also constituted as a company limited by guarantee and is registered under the Companies Act 1985. Our limited company number is registered in England and Wales, number 2520413.