What’s the opportunity? 

Whizz Kidz create opportunities for young wheelchair users to get the equipment, skills, and confidence to live life as independently as possible. They aim to help young people to enjoy all the opportunities and activities that so many others take for granted ‐ at home, at school, at work and beyond. Whizz Kidz provides mobility equipment (wheelchairs) and wider support including Wheelchair Skills Training, access to activity days where young wheelchair users get to try all sorts of new activities such as skiing, surfing, cycling, etc and the opportunity to engage in campaign projects to raise awareness of the barriers faced in society.  

Whizz Kidz want to better evidence the wider social and economic impacts their support can provide. This would be used to influence key decision makers in Westminster, the NHS, healthcare commissioning and local Government to improve Wheelchair Services and provide the right equipment at the right time.  

What do we need from a volunteer? 

Whizz Kidz are looking for volunteers to help them shape the design of an economic evaluation. This would include: 

  • Mapping the charity’s core activities and programmes to be included in the assessment.  
  • Exploring how Whizz Kidz could demonstrate impact of improving access to specialist or updated / innovative wheelchairs via Whizz Kidz, for those who require them 
  • What evidence or data can be used for this analysis to demonstrate the impact of shifting appropriate cohorts of children / young people (e.g. children with Cerebal Palsy, other conditions) to use specialist/ innovative wheelchairs rather than standard wheelchairs. 
  • Exploring how Whizz Kidz could demonstrate the impact that reduced NHS waiting lists for children requiring wheelchairs will have 
  • Examine what evidence or data can be used to demonstrate the short to long term disbenefits for children on the waiting list for 24/12 weeks and associated cost to the system (from both an NHS and wider societal perspective).  

Volunteers will have the opportunity to work alongside experienced healthcare evaluators from the Health Economics Unit – a team that has specialist expertise in using NHS datasets to support evaluation. 

Note: the volunteers are not expected to deliver the evaluation as part of this assignment. The first phase of this work is to assess what’s possible and what potential next steps could be for the charity before they make a commitment. 

The ideal volunteer should: 

  • Have practical experience completing economic evaluations 
  • Experience communicating complex technical issues to a non-technical audience 
  • Be based in the United Kingdom  
  • Have had their registration confirmed. 

An applied knowledge of health economics or health data will also be helpful for this project. 

What are the timescales? 

Starting: November 2025 

Estimated Timeline: 5-7 days over 2-3 months from start 

Closing date for applications: 26 October

If you are selected to volunteer for this project:  

  • You will be working directly with Whizz Kidz. PBE is only responsible for matching. 
  • If Whizz Kidz share personal data with you, you should only use the data as instructed by them. 

PBE is an equal opportunity organisation and values diversity. We encourage applications from all parts of the community, and we give all applicants and volunteers fair and equal treatment, regardless of age, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or nationality.  

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