Young Persons Social Prescriber Link Worker

Job responsibilities

Key Tasks

Referrals

Individuals will be assessed by a clinician before being referred for support.

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, giving information and feedback on social prescribing.

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 practices 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 referral agencies.

Provide personalised support

Provide personalised support to individuals, their families, and carers to take control of their wellbeing, live independently and improve their health outcomes. Develop trusting relationships by giving people time and focus on what matters to me. Take a holistic approach, based on the persons priorities and the wider determinants of health.

Meet people on a one-to-one basis. Give people time to tell their stories and focus on what matters to me. Build trust with the person, providing non-judgemental support, respecting diversity and lifestyle choices. Work from a strength-based approach focusing on a persons 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.

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 Care Partnership (LCP) and 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.

Work collectively with all local partners to ensure community groups are strong and sustainable

Work with commissioners and local partners to identify unmet needs within the community and gaps in community provision.

Support local partners and commissioners to develop new groups and services where needed, through small grants for community groups, micro-commissioning, and development support.

Where appropriate 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

Encourage people to provide peer support and to do things together, such as setting up new community groups or volunteering.

General tasks 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 clinicians to provide appropriate information about the person they are referring. Use the case management system to track the persons progress. Provide appropriate feedback to referral agencies about the people they referred.

Work closely with GP practices within the PCN to ensure that social prescribing referral codes are inputted to SystmOne and that the persons use of the NHS can be tracked, adhering to data protection legislation and data sharing agreements with the integrated care board (ICB).

Professional development

Work with your line manager to undertake continual personal and professional development, taking an active part in reviewing and developing the roles and responsibilities.

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

Work with your line manager to access regular clinical supervision, to enable you to deal effectively with the difficult issues that people present.

Miscellaneous

Work as part of the team to seek feedback, continually improve the service and contribute to business 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.

Duties may vary from time to time, without changing the general character of the post or the level of responsibility

Confidentiality

In the course of your employment you will have access to confidential information relating to the organisations business. You are required to exercise due consideration in the way you use such information and should not act in any way, which might be prejudicial to the organisations interests. Information which may be included in the category which requires extra consideration covers both access and to the general business of the organisation and information regarding individuals. If you are in any doubt regarding the use of information in the pursuit of your duties you should seek advice from your manager before communicating such information to any third party.

Data Protection

You must not at any time use the personal data held by organisation for a purpose not described in the Register entry or disclose such data to a third party. If you are in any doubt regarding what you should or should not do in connection with data protection, then you must contact your line manager, or appropriate senior lead at the time.

Health & Safety

Employees must be aware of the responsibility placed on them under the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) to maintain a healthy and safe working environment for both staff and visitors.

Employees also have a duty to observe obligation under the organisation Safety policies, and to maintain awareness of safe practices and assessment of risk.

Safeguarding

SEL GP Group, LS25/26 PCN and our Practices are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults, both as service users and visitors to our services. All staff have a responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and adults. The post holder, in conjunction with their line manager, will be responsible for ensuring they undertake the appropriate level of training relevant to their individual role and responsibilities and that they are aware of and work within the relevant safeguarding policies and procedures.

Dignity & Respect

The post holder is expected to treat patients, service users and carers with courtesy, care and compassion at all times, treating each person as an individual by offering a personalised service. Staff will adopt behaviours and attitudes which promote, supports and respects privacy and dignity. Staff are expected to challenge poor practice in relation to dignity and treat each other with respect.

LS25/26 and our Practices are committed to providing consistently excellent and safe patient-centred care for all those who access our services, through highly skilled, committed and compassionate staff working together. We do this by putting our patients at the centre of all that we do and providing the best quality care with passion and pride.

Equality & Diversity

The post holder will support the equality, diversity and rights of patients, carers and colleagues, to include:

Acting in a way that recognises the importance of peoples rights, interpreting them in a way that is consistent with Practice Procedures and Policies, and current legislation.

Respecting the privacy, dignity, needs and beliefs of patients, carers and colleagues.

Behaving in a manner which is welcoming to and of the individual is non-judgmental and respects their circumstances, feelings, priorities and rights.

Financial Regulations

All staff are responsible for security of the property of SEL GP Group, LS25/26 and our Practices, avoiding loss or damage of property, and being economical and efficient in the use of resources.

Experience

Essential

• -Experience of working directly in a community development context, health and social care, learning support or public health/health improvement (including unpaid work)
• -Experience of supporting people, their families and carers in a related role (including unpaid work), in particular young people
• -Experience of working with the VCSE sector (in a paid or unpaid capacity), including with volunteers and small community groups
• -Experience of partnership/collaborative working and of building relationships across a variety of organisations

Desirable

• -Experience of supporting people with their mental health, either in a paid, unpaid or informal capacity
• -Experience of data collection and providing monitoring information to assess the impact of services
• -Experience of setting up a new project or service

Other

Essential

• -Meets DBS reference standards and has a clear criminal record, in line with the law on spent convictions
• -Willingness to work flexible hours when required to meet work demands
• -Access to own transport and ability to travel across the locality on a regular basis

Qualifications

Essential

• - NVQ Level 3, Advanced level or equivalent qualifications or working towards
• - Demonstrable commitment to professional and personal development

Desirable

• - Training in motivational coaching and interviewing or equivalent experience

Personal Qualities and Attributes

Essential

• -Ability to listen, empathise with people and provide person centred support in a non-judgemental way
• -Able to get along with people from all backgrounds and communities, respecting lifestyles and diversity
• -Commitment to reducing health inequalities and proactively working to reach people from all communities
• -Able to support people in a way that inspires trust and confidence, motivating others to reach their potential
• -Ability to communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing, with people, their families, carers, community groups, partner agencies and stakeholders
• -Ability to identify risk and assess/manage risk when working with individuals
• -Have a strong awareness and understanding of when it is appropriate or necessary to refer people back to other health professionals/ agencies, when what the person needs is beyond the scope of the link worker role e.g. when there is a mental health need requiring a qualified practitioner
• -Able to work from an asset based approach, building on existing community and personal assets
• -Able to provide leadership and to finish work tasks
• -Ability to maintain effective working relationships and to promote collaborative practice with all colleagues
• -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
• -Demonstrates personal accountability, emotional resilience and works well under pressure
• -Ability to organise, plan and prioritise on own initiative, including when under pressure and meeting deadlines
• -High level of written and oral communication skills
• -Ability to work flexibly and enthusiastically within a team or on own initiative
• -Understanding of the needs of small volunteer-led community groups and ability to support their development
• -Knowledge of and ability to work to policies and procedures, including confidentiality, safeguarding, lone working, information governance, and health and safety

Skills and knowledge

Essential

• -Understanding of the wider determinants of health, including social, economic and environmental factors and their impact on communities
• -Knowledge of community development approaches
• -Knowledge of IT systems, including ability to use word processing skills, emails and the internet to create simple plans and reports
• -Knowledge of motivational coaching and interview skills

Desirable

• -Knowledge of the personalised care approach
• -Experience using SystmOne clinical system
• -Knowledge of VCSE and community services in the locality
• -Knowledge of the safeguarding interventions and awareness of the Mental Capacity Act.

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.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).