Who runs befriending services
Befriending services in the UK are run by four kinds of organisation: national charities operating through local branches, independent local charities, schemes funded by the NHS or a council, and faith or community groups.
Anyone who has found the name of a befriending service and wants to know what kind of organisation is behind it before they ring.
Your expectations. A council commissioned scheme and a church visiting rota both offer company, and they behave very differently about waiting, records and who they will take.
People assume a national charity name means a single national organisation with one waiting list. It usually means a family of separate local charities, each deciding its own eligibility, so being turned down in one town says nothing about the next.
All four match a volunteer with a person who is isolated for regular company, usually an hour a week or an hour a fortnight in person, or a weekly telephone call of 20 to 45 minutes. What differs is who pays, who is eligible, how long the wait is and how formal the paperwork feels.
This page describes the types. It does not list, rate or recommend individual services, and naming an organisation here is a statement of fact about what that organisation does, not a referral to it.
National charities working through local branches
National charities that run befriending almost never run it nationally. Age UK is one of the national charities that runs befriending for older people, and local Age UK organisations are separate registered charities deciding their own services, so the befriending offer in Birmingham is not the same product as the one in Leeds and one may exist where the other does not. Age Concern was the earlier name across much of that network, before the merger that created Age UK, and some independent Age Concern charities still operate under their own registration. The practical consequence: the branch, not the national office, holds the waiting list and answers yes or no.
National charities carry a large share of telephone befriending, because a call service can be run centrally while home visiting needs a volunteer living near enough to travel.
Independent local charities
Independent local charities run a large share of befriending in the UK and are the hardest to find, because a charity covering four wards of Glasgow or one district of Edinburgh has no marketing budget and no brand you have heard of. They are often the best fit for a specific need, since many were founded for one community: people with a particular condition, refugees, carers, bereaved partners, or a language group. Their funding is a mix of small grants and donations, which makes them agile about who they accept and fragile about how long they can guarantee a service.
Health funded and council commissioned schemes
Health funded and council commissioned schemes are delivered by a charity but paid for under contract, and the contract shapes them. Expect a defined catchment, written eligibility and a formal referral form, and expect the scheme to prefer referrals arriving through a professional route such as a social prescribing link worker, a hospital discharge team or adult social care. These are the most reliable schemes to reach if you fit the criteria and the most rigid if you do not. They also end when the contract does, which is why a service that existed two years ago may not exist now.
Faith groups and community organisations
Faith groups and community organisations run some of the oldest visiting arrangements in the country, many without ever using the word befriending. A congregation’s visiting rota, a mosque or synagogue welfare committee and a village good neighbour scheme all do the same work. Support from a faith group is normally offered to anyone, not only to members, and you may ask directly whether that is so. Checking and supervision vary far more here than in a contracted scheme, so it is fair to ask what training the visitor has had and who supervises them.
| Provider type | Who pays | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| National charity, local branch | Donations, local grants, some contracts | Recognisable process, telephone befriending likely, eligibility set branch by branch |
| Independent local charity | Small grants and donations | Narrow area, specific communities, flexible, funding less secure |
| Health funded or commissioned | NHS body or council contract | Written eligibility, formal referral, professional route preferred, ends with the contract |
| Faith or community group | Congregation or community funds | Quick start, informal, checking and supervision vary, open to non members |
What is the same whoever runs it
Four things hold across all four types, and a service that fails any of them is worth questioning before you go further. Befriending from a charity is normally free to the person supported, whichever type runs it: the volunteer is not paid and the person visited is not billed, and a service that does charge should say so in writing before the first visit. Every volunteer working one to one with an adult at risk or a child is checked, through the Disclosure and Barring Service in England and Wales, PVG scheme membership in Scotland, or AccessNI in Northern Ireland. Every scheme names a coordinator. And every scheme costs money to run, £700 to £2,500 per match per year, with 60% to 80% of that being coordination rather than the volunteering, which is why free to you never means free to deliver. Where a scheme sits in that range is mostly about how complex its referrals are and whether the coordinator is full time.
The befriender
- Comes at the agreed time, or tells the coordinator when they cannot
- Keeps the relationship inside what the scheme agreed, and raises anything else with the coordinator
- Handles no money, no bank cards and no medication
The person visited
- Decides whether to accept the match, and may decline without giving a reason
- Says what they would rather do, because company is not a fixed menu
- Reports anything that feels wrong to the coordinator, not to the befriender
The scheme holds the duty of care whoever runs it. It recruits, checks, trains and supervises the volunteer, keeps records of the match under a written retention policy it can show you, and ends a match that is not working. A group that cannot describe any of that is offering goodwill, which is a real thing, but it is not a befriending service.
Someone arrives at the door saying a service sent them
Ring the scheme’s own number, taken from its website or a previous letter rather than from the caller, and confirm the visit before letting anyone in. Real schemes expect this and will not be offended. A genuine befriender is introduced by a coordinator at a first meeting, carries identification, never asks for bank details, and never arrives unannounced.