Social Prescribing Link Worker

Job description

Job responsibilities

Social Prescribing

Social prescribing empowers people to take control of their health and wellbeing. Social prescribing link workers give people time to focus on what matters to me and take a holistic approach to an individuals health and wellbeing.

Social prescribing link workers:

Take a whole population approach, working with a range of people such as those who are lonely, have complex social needs, low level mental health needs and long-term conditions.

Help people to identify issues that affect their health & wellbeing and co-produce a simple personalised care and support plan.

Support people by connecting them to non-medical, community-based activities, groups and services that meet their practical, social and emotional needs

Use coaching and motivational interviewing techniques to support people to take control of their own health and wellbeing.

Support development of accessible and sustainable community offers by working in partnership with VCSE organisations, local authorities and others to identify gaps in provision, and take a community development approach to enabling growth in community activities and groups.

Key responsibilities

Take referrals from the PCNs Core Network Practices who recognise the nature of this Social Prescribing specialism.

Provide personalised support to individuals, their families and carers to help them take control of their health and wellbeing through co-producing a simple personalised care and support plan and introducing people to appropriate activities, groups and services as described above.

Refer or signpost people to other health professionals/agencies as appropriate or necessary.

Build ongoing relationships with local infrastructure organisations, community activities and support services to increase knowledge of the community support offer, and work collaboratively to develop effective partnership working to support the community offer to be sustainable, identifying gaps in provision, nurturing community assets and sharing intelligence on gaps or problems with commissioners and local authorities.

Work with the line management and supervision provided by your employer.

Promote Social Prescribing as an approach across the PCN and wider agencies, including its role in supported self-management, in addressing health inequalities and the wider determinants of health, reducing pressure on statutory services, improving access to healthcare and improving health outcomes, and in taking a holistic approach to care.

Evaluate the impact of the service and feedback to the referrers and PCN.

Key Tasks

Referrals

Promote Social Prescribing as an approach across the PCN and encourage appropriate referrals by attending relevant MDT and other practice meetings.

Seek feedback about the quality of service and impact of Social Prescribing on referral agencies.

Proactively develop strong links with local agencies to encourage appropriate referrals

Proactively encourage equitable participation in social prescribing through taking self-referrals and connecting with diverse local communities through a range of methods, particularly communities that statutory agencies may find hard to reach and where health inequalities are most prevalent.

Provide personalised support.

Give people time to tell their stories and focus on the question, what matters to me? Build trust and respect with the person, providing non-judgemental and non-discriminatory support.

Take a holistic approach. Help people identify the wider issues that impact on their health and wellbeing, such as unemployment, loneliness and caring responsibilities as well as other existential or spiritual factors. This will include exploring with the patient what internal (including spirituality) and external resources (including relationships and community resources) they have or can access to cope with, adapt to or recover from their sense of loss.

Work with individuals to co-produce personalised support plan to address the persons health and wellbeing needs based on the persons priorities, interests, values, cultural and religious/faith needs and motivations.

Provide personalised support to individuals through these sessions to enable patients to take greater control of their health and wellbeing in order to improve their health outcomes.

Assess how far a patients health and wellbeing needs can be met by other services and opportunities available in the community. This may involve referring to health professionals or signposting patients to a wide range of services, including social services, faith communities, and other community resources.

Use appropriate judgement to ascertain the number and length of sessions required, responding to the needs of the individual and their circumstances, for approximately 6-12 sessions with review points. Evaluate, supported by the use of wellbeing measurements, how far the actions in the care and support plan are meeting the individuals health and wellbeing needs, allowing change but not dependency.

Data capture

Ensure referral agencies provide appropriate information about the person they are referring, including demographic data.

Provide appropriate and timely feedback to referral agencies about the people they referred.

Work sensitively with people to capture key information to measure impact of Social Prescribing on their wellbeing, using validated tools determined locally such as the ONS4 wellbeing scale to assess need and measure outcomes.

Encourage people, their families and carers to provide feedback on their experience, for example, through patient satisfaction surveys, and to share their stories about the impact of social prescribing on their lives.

Ensure that Social Prescribing referral SNOMED codes are coded appropriately into clinical systems (as outlined in the Network Contract DES)

Adhere to policies around data protection legislation and data sharing agreements, ensuring people give appropriate consent.

Continuing professional development

Work with a supervisor and line manager to undertake continual personal and professional development in line with the Social Prescribing Workforce Development Framework Competency Framework, the standards of the UK Board of Healthcare Chaplains Code of Conduct and to practice in accordance with the Capabilities and Competencies described by this Board,

Take an active role in reflecting, reviewing and developing professional knowledge, skills and behaviours

Attend appropriate mandatory training before working with people and be aware of own competence, maintaining boundaries around scope of practice and referring onwards for people whose needs fall outside of these boundaries

Adhere to organisational policies and procedures, including confidentiality, safeguarding, lone working, information governance, equality, diversity and inclusion training and health and safety.

Miscellaneous

Work as part of the MDT to seek feedback, continually improve the service, and contribute to service planning.

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.

To undertake any other duties consistent with the purpose and nature of the post. Duties may vary from time to time, without changing the general character of the post or the level of responsibility.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Demonstrable commitment to professional and personal
• development
• Knowledge of the personalised care approach; committed to completing the NHS England online learning programme accessed via the Personalised Care Institute. Willing to undertake appropriate training as outlined by the Personalised Care Institute Core Curriculum
• Understanding of the wider determinants of health, including social, economic and environmental factors and their impact on communities, individuals, their families and carers
• Understanding of, and commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion.
• To have the ability to follow process when assessing peoples needs, to liaise with other agencies and to record outcomes
• Excellent interpersonal skills for working with a wide range of professionals and service users
• Well-developed listening skills and high level of written and oral communication skills
• Able to work from an asset-based approach, building on existing community and personal assets
• Ability to organise, plan and prioritise on own initiative,
• including when under pressure and meeting deadlines
• Have awareness and understanding of when it is appropriate or necessary to refer people back to other health professionals/agencies, when the persons needs are beyond the scope of the role for example, when there is a mental health need requiring a qualified practitioner
• Confidently approaches difficult conversations

Desirable

• Training in motivational coaching and interviewing or equivalent experience
• Able to provide motivational coaching to support peoples behaviour change
• Knowledge of how the NHS works, including primary care and MDT working
• Knowledge of community development approaches including asset-based community development and community resilience

Experience

Essential

• Experience of partnership/collaborative working and of building relationships across a variety of organisations
• Ability to maintain effective working relationships and to promote collaborative practice with all colleagues
• Ability to work flexibly and enthusiastically within a team or on own initiative
• Experience of working to policies and procedures, including confidentiality, safeguarding, lone working, information governance, and health and safety

Desirable

• Experience of working directly in a community development context, adult health and social care, learning support or public health/health improvement
• Experience of supporting people, their families and carers in a related role
• Previous NHS experience
• Experience of working with the VCSE sector (in a paid or
• unpaid capacity), including with volunteers and small community groups
• Experience of data collection and using tools to measure the impact of services

Other

Essential

• Meets DBS reference standards and criminal record checks
• Willingness to work flexible hours when required to meet work demands
• Access to transport and ability to travel to other sites and visit people in their own homes

Personal qualities & attributes

Essential

• Ability to actively listen, empathise with people and provide person-centred support in a non-judgemental way
• Able to provide a culturally sensitive service, by supporting people from all backgrounds and communities, respecting
• lifestyles and diversity
• Empathetic, compassionate, committed, professional and visionary
• Able to support people in a way that inspires trust and confidence, motivating others to reach their potential, adapting to individual levels of activation and health literacy
• Ability to communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing
• Shares the values of the NHS
• Commitment to reducing health inequalities
• Can demonstrate personal accountability, emotional resilience and ability to work well under pressure and adapt to change
• Commitment to collaborative working with all local agencies (including VCSE organisations and community groups). Able to work with others to reduce hierarchies and find creative solutions to community issues

Desirable

• Share the ethos and vision of Karis Neighbour Scheme
• A commitment to participate in regular clinical supervision

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Employer details

Employer name

Karis Neighbour Scheme

Address

c/o Church of the Redeemer

Monument Road

Birmingham

West Midlands

B16 8UU

Employer's website

https://karisneighbourscheme.org/ (Opens in a new tab)