The government partially accepts this recommendation. NHS England has been working with St John Ambulance since January 2021 to establish a framework that can be used to commission additional capacity as required. The COVID-19 vaccines programme has also invested significant effort in setting up contingent staffing solutions to support the ongoing delivery of the programme. Since December 2020, St John Ambulance volunteers have provided over 26,000 volunteer vaccinators volunteering over 800,000 volunteering hours to the vaccine deployment programme. Working with the charity, NHS England has supported rapid mobilisation of volunteers when there has been a need to increase vaccination activity. They have provided assistance through their mobile treatment vehicles to support roving and pop-up delivery of vaccines and continue to do so. NHS England has also worked with other organisations such as the Royal Voluntary Service (RVS) to build a network of volunteers who have supported the vaccine programme and other services throughout the pandemic. To date they have provided over 200,000 hours of support. NHS England is continuing to consider ways to improve the volunteer model and ensure that assistance can be provided at pace across the health and care system.