Discussion roundup: Moving from the NHS to the voluntary sector

The voluntary sector can provide a wealth of opportunities for those who have worked in the NHS. Photograph: Gary Roebuck/Alamy

Joop Tanis, independent consultant in innovation and entrepreneurship in health and social care: "There is a great opportunity for NHS clinicians and managers to organise themselves into co-operatives or social enterprises. This provides diversity of options for commissioners, and the opportunity to deliver the services you are passionate about in a way that is less constrained by the big NHS apparatus."

Neil Hogan, team leader and recruiter for Charity People: "Areas of opportunity that I've come across for healthcare professionals include policy, service delivery, leadership, campaigning, commissioning and bid tendering."

John Illingworth, policy manager at the Health Foundation: "We employ a wide range of people - project managers, research managers, communications, policy and corporate services professionals. In other words, roles and skills that you would find in a range of healthcare organisations."

James McHugh, responsible for research and policy at Skills - Third Sector: "In addition to the opportunity for NHS professionals to spin out into co-operative or mutual structures, there are also many opportunities for healthcare professionals to work in the existing third sector. Over half of the third sector's 800,000 paid employees work in health and social care. There are also around 37,000 organisations in the UK third sector which are active in this area. Much of this employment growth has been as a result of increased commissioning of such services from third sector organisations."

Neil Matthewman, chief executive of Community Integrated Care: "The voluntary sector, I have found, can offer greater freedom from bureaucracy and the opportunity to develop more influential relationships, raising the profile of our charity, influencing organisational development and directly improving the quality of the support that we are able to offer."

Steve Hindle, programme lead, Macmillan Cancer Support: "The ability to work for organisations such as Macmillan offers far greater scope and flexibility than many will have enjoyed in the NHS, as well as the satisfaction of making a difference, potentially at a national level."

Neil Matthewman: "In the third sector, we don't have this same level of restriction/support [as in the NHS]. So, organisational development can be lead by your own personal experience and skills. I have been able to influence the strategic direction of Community Integrated Care in a way that I couldn't directly do when working in the NHS and have been able to develop strong partnerships with other organisations as a result personal initiative. This has been refreshing and exciting."

Neil Matthewman: "As a financial consideration, leaving the NHS Pension Scheme is a potential challenge for some people. From my personal experience, this has been a barrier to some people joining the third-sector. I found that leaving my existing well-established professional networks was also slightly daunting."

Claire Westall, Macmillan Cancer Support: "Things move more quickly and decisions are made faster so I think that can be a significant culture shock sometimes. People may find they have a unique level of responsibility and ownership in the third sector, that didn't exist in the NHS, and this can be challenging at first."

James McHugh: "There are also a higher proportion of temporary roles in the third sector (around one in ten of all jobs) and the funding streams may seem more precarious in the third sector."

Joop Tanis: "I was surprised by the sense of empowerment and the ability to make decisions and actions quickly, but also the need to focus on delivering outcomes and milestones, which in my experience was much more 'immediate' than it felt in the public sector. However transferable to core skills - and they often are - the approach and culture is very different."

Neil Matthewman: "I was struck by the lack of external influencers when I moved to the third sector, other than organisations like the Charity Commission or CQC. In the NHS, we had milestones, world class commissioning etc. which heavily guided organisation development. This was a bit scary at first but liberating in many other ways, as it relies on you, as an individual leader, to take the organisation forward, based upon your knowledge and experience."

Joop Tanis: "While my managerial responsibility (budget, headcount etc) was much greater in the NHS, my ability to do things and have an impact was greater outside."

Steve Hindle: "I think a further difference for people moving from the NHS may be the way that the voluntary sector can work with the media to highlight awareness of issues and spread innovative solutions."

John Illingworth: "I think people moving from the NHS feel a certain degree of liberation, from daily fire-fighting to championing good causes in order to deliver real improvements for people."

Steve Hindle: "What I've found during my time at Macmillan is that colleagues who have recently left the NHS are invaluable for their expertise, often based on decades of experience, and their understanding of the way current issues are impacting on outcomes."

James McHugh: "From a third sector perspective some of the skills/expertise around commissioning, service design, people management, governance, monitoring and evaluation, and partnership work are immensely valuable."

Joop Tanis: "Apart from the obvious clinical or service skills, [healthcare professionals] have an in-depth knowledge of the current services, standards and decision making processes. They often understand commissioning."

Steve Hindle: "There are a range of skills that can transfer into the voluntary sector - speaking for my survivorship team, I have people with combinations of clinical expertise, service development and service redesign expertise, commissioning skills, policy work, project/programme management, user involvement and negotiating and influencing skills."

Neil Matthewman: "At a senior level you need an ability to lead people strategically and to set the direction for the organisation. The ability to hold people to account is also important. From a personal perspective, understanding commerciality is also particularly important."

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