How does Tickets for Good work with the NHS to deliver free tickets across the UK?
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From West End shows and international football matches to intimate NHS-exclusive comedy nights, NHS workers are now able to attend all kinds of memorable events — and we’re always keen to find out what they want to see more of. Find out how we’re working with NHS teams to bring them more brilliant events, and researching the impact on wellbeing that attending live events can have.
How do NHS workers access free tickets?
NHS workers log onto our ticket platform and choose the events they want to attend from our listings — and membership is free, of course! The platform is only open to NHS workers and healthcare students with an NHS placement. And — even better — the tickets are always free at face-value, or occasionally, heavily discounted.
The only cost for NHS workers is our £3.50 booking fee, just enough to cover our costs, and help us secure more tickets from event partners by bringing them the highest possible attendance rates from NHS teams. All that’s needed is an NHS email address (or an NHS ID uploaded to the site, if email isn’t possible), and staff can log in and choose from hundreds of events at a tiny fraction of their face-value cost.
Did you know…
…we have NHS workers signed up from every Trust in England, Scotland and Wales? That’s more than 200 trusts, from Cornwall to the Cairngorms, with a total of over 76,000 NHS workers! Some of our biggest fans are from Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospital, with more than 3600 TFG members. With a huge range of event genres proving popular with their teams, we dug deeper to find out how they use Tickets For Good.
A deep-dive with Guy’s and St Thomas’s
Their most-attended events included West End shows, club nights at Printworks and fabric, and as much sport as we could get our hands on — football, basketball and boxing. We also found that the Trust are big fans because they talk about it at work — more than 40% signed up because a friend or colleague told them about us!
Guy’s and St Thomas’s are also great at sharing our updates, with 36% of staff discovering Tickets for Good via a hospital communication. Excitingly, we found that 90% of staff would like to attend an event with their whole team — so we can’t wait to make this happen with event partners and NHS trusts very soon.
Thanks to our expanding London audience, we organised two NHS-exclusive comedy nights at 21Soho in Central London, headlined by Ed Gamble and Phil Wang! Check out the video from our Christmas event with Ed Gamble here. With huge NHS demand for free tickets in the area, we’re able to secure events on behalf of staff all year round.
Impact that goes beyond just one night out
Having carried out our own study into the longer-term impacts of live events on the wellbeing of charity service users pre-pandemic, we’ve been delighted to find that NHS workers have reported boosts to their sense of wellbeing, and an increased ability to enjoy their time off to the fullest. Here are some of the comments we’ve received from NHS workers across the UK:
“You guys are amazing and this service has made a huge difference to my life. I was very close to leaving the NHS due to burn out, and attending plays regularly has made me feel better and as a result I am happier in my job / home balance.”
“I have never watched basketball before and I would not have gone had it not been for Tickets for Good. The atmosphere was amazing.”
“It feels emotional to receive such a tangible kindness from you rather than just an applause and nice words which we’ve been getting for a long time. These offers actually make a big difference to us and I’ve met other NHS staff at events who express similar sentiments.”
We are so grateful to our members for this feedback, as it means we can keep securing tickets for amazing events. It’s hard evidence that removing the financial strain of attending events which bring joy to working people helps everybody — venues, local centres, and of course, NHS teams themselves, who can achieve a more balanced and varied lifestyle as a result.
What comes next?
Our 150,000+ NHS members are just the start — we know there are thousands more people who could benefit from this too. If you’re a team leader, wellbeing lead, people manager or senior manager in an NHS organisation, send us a message via pippa@ticketsforgood.co.uk to discuss how we can bring Tickets for Good to everyone in your Trust.
If you’re a researcher in this field, we’d love to hear from you, so we can expand our knowledge base — drop us an email as above.
And if you’re an NHS worker keen to attend live events, all you need to do is sign up (free, of course) to our platform via ticketsforgood.org/nhs and we’ll do the rest!
