Social Prescriber

Role Overview

Promoting social prescribing, its role in self-management, and the wider determinants of health. Build relationships with key staff in GP practices within the local Primary Care Network (PCN), attending relevant meetings, becoming part of the wider network team, providing reports including monitoring and evaluation including general feedback on social prescribing.

Be proactive in developing strong links with all local agencies to encourage referrals, recognising what they need to be confident in the service to make appropriate referrals. Work in partnership with all local agencies to raise awareness of social prescribing and how partnership working can reduce pressure on statutory services, improve health outcomes and enable a holistic approach to care.

Community Engagement

Seek regular feedback about the quality of service and impact of social prescribing on referral agencies. Be proactive in encouraging self-referrals and connecting with all local communities, particularly those communities that statutory agencies may find hard to reach.

Provide personalised support, giving people time to tell their stories and focus on what matters to them. Build trust with the person, providing non-judgmental support, empathy, respecting diversity and lifestyle choices.

Strength-Based Approach

Work from a strength-based approach focusing on a person's assets. Be a friendly source of information about wellbeing and prevention approaches. Help people identify the wider issues that impact on their health and wellbeing, such as debt, poor housing, being unemployed, loneliness and caring responsibilities. Work with the person, their families and carers, and consider how they can all be supported through social prescribing.

Support and Independence

Help people maintain or regain independence through living skills, adaptations, enablement approaches and simple safeguards. Work with individuals to co-produce a simple personalised support plan based on the person's priorities, interests, values, and motivations.

Where appropriate, facilitate the introduction of people to community groups, activities, and statutory services, ensuring they are comfortable. Follow up to ensure they are happy, able to engage, included, and receiving good support.

Personal Health Budgets

Where people may be eligible for a personal health budget, help them to explore this option as a way of providing funded, personalised support to be independent, including helping people to gain skills for meaningful employment, where appropriate.

Collaboration with Local Groups

Support community groups and Voluntary organisations to receive referrals: Forge strong links with local organisations, community and neighbourhood level groups, utilising their networks and building on what’s already available to create a map or menu of community groups and assets.

Ensure that local community groups and organisations being referred to have basic procedures in place for maintaining vulnerable individuals' safety and address safeguarding concerns appropriately.

Community Resilience

Work collectively with all local partners to ensure community groups are strong and sustainable: Encourage people connected to community support through social prescribing to volunteer and give their time freely to others, building their skills, confidence and strengthening community resilience.

Data Management

Work sensitively with people, their families and carers to capture key information, enabling tracking of the impact of social prescribing on their health and wellbeing. Encourage feedback and sharing of stories about the impact of social prescribing on lives.

Work closely with GP practices within the PCN to ensure social prescribing referral codes are inputted into the EMIS system and that the person's use of the NHS can be tracked, adhering to Data Protection legislation and Data Sharing Agreements with the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

Professional Development

Work with your line manager to undertake continual personal and professional development, completing the NHSE/I online learning, and participating in reviewing and developing roles and responsibilities. Adhere to organisational policies and procedures, including Confidentiality, Safeguarding, Lone Working, Information Governance, GDPR and Health and Safety.

Miscellaneous

Undertake any tasks consistent with the level of the post and the scope of the role, ensuring that work is delivered in a timely and effective manner. Duties may vary from time to time, without changing the general character of the post or the level of responsibility.