Volunteers’ Week gives us all the opportunity to celebrate the incredible contribution volunteers make across our communities and local health services.
One great example comes from a Patient Participation Group at Clarendon Lodge Medical Practice in Leamington Spa, who have worked with Integrated Primary Care Digital Champions to support patients to confidently use the NHS App.
From learning new digital skills to running their own patient support sessions, these volunteers are helping more people access care in a way that works for them. Read the full case study or check out the summary below:
💡How it started: supporting patients to go digital
With the NHS App increasingly central to how patients manage their care, our Digital Champions team have been working with local practices and PCNs to help people get set up and confident using it.
The Patient Participation Group (PPG) at Clarendon Lodge wanted to take it further and run their own support sessions for patients. The PPG recruited volunteers from their group and the wider community to take part.
👥From learners to leaders
Before supporting patients, PPG volunteers took part in hands-on training with the Digital Champions.
They explored:
- NHS App features
- Common patient queries
- Troubleshooting support
- How to guide people step-by-step
This helped build confidence so they could later support others independently.
📊Putting theory into practice
After training and shadowing sessions, the PPG volunteers delivered their own NHS App support session, and the results were fantastic:
- Patients left feeling more confident using the NHS App
- One-to-one support was delivered calmly and effectively
- Volunteers ran the session independently with minimal input
By working with our Digital Champions, volunteers were able to move from participation to leadership – running sessions for their own community in familiar venues.
🚀From pilot to long-term support
Following the success of their pilot session, the PPG has planned regular NHS App support sessions over the next 12 months.
📍Hosted in a local community venue
📅Bi-monthly sessions planned
👥Around 120 patients directly supported
And the impact goes even further as patients share what they’ve learned with friends and family.
Manjot Singh Atwal, Digital Champion, said: “It’s been wonderful working with Clarendon Lodge PPG on this project. It’s a great example of how Patient Participation Groups can help make a difference in their local communities. We’d like to say a huge thank you to all the volunteers taking part in this project to help more people access digital health services.”
Read the full case study here and read more news from IPC in our Latest section.
