Job responsibilities
Job
Summary
Primary Care Networks have been established to bring together resources
from a range of different organisations to deliver holistic integrated health,
social and care support for their local population.
As a Social Prescribing Link Worker (SPLW), you will work as a key part
of the primary care network (PCN) multidisciplinary team. Social prescribing
empowers people to take control of their health and wellbeing through referral
to non-medical link workers who give time to focus on what matters to me.
They take a holistic approach, connecting people to community groups and
statutory services for practical and emotional support. SPLWs support existing
groups to be accessible and sustainable and work collaboratively with all local
partners.
Referrals
Be proactive in developing strong links
with staff within your local GP surgeries 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.
Provide your local GP surgeries with
regular updates about social prescribing, including training for their staff
and how to access information to encourage appropriate referrals.
Seek regular feedback about the quality
of service and impact of social prescribing on your local GP surgeries.
Provide
personalised support
Meet people on a one-to-one basis, in the
surgery, local community or making home visits where appropriate within
organisations policies and procedures. Give people time to tell their stories
and focus on what matters to me.
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.
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 persons priorities, interests,
values and motivations including what they can expect from the groups,
activities and services they are being connected to and what the person can do
for themselves to improve their health and wellbeing.
Where appropriate, physically introduce
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.
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.
Support community
groups and VCSE organisations to receive referrals
Forge strong links with local VCSE
organisations, community and neighbourhood level groups, utilising their
networks and building on whats already available to create a map or menu of
community groups and assets. Use these opportunities to promote
micro-commissioning or small grants if available.
Develop supportive relationships with
local VCSE organisations, community groups and statutory services, to make timely,
appropriate and supported referrals for the person being introduced.
Ensure that local community groups and
VCSE organisations being referred to have basic procedures in place for
ensuring that vulnerable individuals are safe and, where there are safeguarding
concerns, work with all partners to deal appropriately with issues. Where such
policies and procedures are not in place, support groups to work towards this
standard before referrals are made to them.
Check that community groups and VCSE
organisations meet in insured premises and that health and safety requirements
are in place. Where such policies and procedures are not in place, support
groups to work towards this standard before referrals are made to them.
Support local groups to act in accordance
with information governance policies and procedures, ensuring compliance with
GDPR.
Work collectively
with all local partners to ensure community groups are strong and sustainable
Work with GPs, PCNs and wider
Multi-Disciplinary teams as required.
Work with commissioners and local
partners to identify unmet needs within the community and gaps in community
provision and support development of new groups and services where needed,
through small grants for community groups, micro-commissioning and development
support.
Encourage people who have been connected
to community support through social prescribing to volunteer and give their
time freely to others, in order to build their skills and confidence, and
strengthen community resilience.
Develop a team of volunteers within your
service to provide buddying support for people, starting new groups and
finding creative community solutions to local issues.
Encourage people, their families and
carers to provide peer support and to do things together, such as setting up
new community groups or volunteering.
Provide a regular confidence survey to
community groups receiving referrals, to ensure that they are strong, sustained
and have the support they need to be part of social prescribing.
Data capture
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 people, their families and
carers to provide feedback and to share their stories about the impact of
social prescribing on their lives.
Support referrers to provide appropriate
information about the person they are referring. Use systm1 to track the
persons progress. Provide appropriate feedback to referral agencies about the
people they referred.