Realizing policy aspirations of voluntary sector involvement in integrated care provision: Insights from the English National Health Service

Integrating voluntary sector organizations (VSOs) into complex health and social care provision is a priority in global healthcare policy. However, realization of these policy aspirations in practice is limited, as VSOs struggle to collaborate with health and social care professionals, or influence the wider healthcare system, undermining their potential involvement in care provision. This paper aims to increase understandings of how the policy implementation gap could be addressed, by asking: how do new workforce roles support VSO involvement in delivering integrated care? Drawing on 40 interviews with VSO workers, healthcare commissioners, and healthcare professionals, conducted over 18 months in the English NHS, we outline how workforce capacity development through the introduction of coordinating roles, coupled with increasing regulatory control of VSO involvement, resulted in enhanced VSO integration in service provision. However, we also warn against the potential for exploitation of VSOs whereby they become replacements for health and social care provision, rather than a complementary service within an integrated team, resulting in patient harm. Our findings have important implications for policy makers, practitioners, VSO leaders and healthcare commissioners. We conclude that policy realization is dependent on the development of coordinating roles, coupled with levels of regulation which protect against exploitation without becoming normatively restrictive, thereby losing the important flexibility of VSOs.