Social Prescribing Link Worker

Job title:

Social Prescribing Link Worker

Location:Sunderland

Contract Type:
Permanent

Hours:

37.5 Hours

You will play a vital role in supporting people take greater control of their health and wellbeing. Provide time, space and personalised support, focusing on 'what matters to me' and work with individuals to understand their strengths, needs and priorities, helping to build confidence, independence and resilience.

Join an award-winning organisation. For the third consecutive year, Sunderland GP Alliance has been named in The Sunday Times Best Places to Work and holds the Better Health at Work Gold Award with Continuing Excellence status. In addition, we offer 33 days' annual leave and a comprehensive range of employee benefits.

Sunderland GP Alliance is a not-for-profit collaboration of GP practices in Sunderland.

All GP Practices in Sunderland are members of the organisation, covering approximately 285,000 patients.

The Alliance also runs three practices:
Monument Surgeries, South Hylton and New Silksworth.

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Working under the guidance of the referring GP, take referrals from a wide range of agencies, including PCNs, GP practices and multi-disciplinary teams as well as the wider system and occasionally via self-referral.
• Provide personalised support to individuals, their families and carers to empower people to take control of their lives, support low level mental health and promote self-care. Encourage people to live independently and improve their health access and outcomes, as a key member of the PCN multi-disciplinary team.
• Engage and develop trusting relationships by giving people time and focus on what matters to me and taking a holistic approach, based on the persons priorities and the wider determinants of health.
• Co-produce a simple personalised care and support plan to improve health and wellbeing, including introducing or reconnecting people to appropriate community groups and statutory services.
• Manage and prioritise own caseload in accordance with the needs and priorities of individuals on the caseload.
• Maintain a strong awareness and understanding of when it is appropriate or necessary to refer people back to other health professionals/agencies.
• Work with a diverse range of people and their communities, to draw on and increase the strengths and capacity of local community groups, enabling local VCSE organisations to receive social prescribing referrals.
• Work collaboratively with all local partners to contribute towards supporting the local VCSE organisations and community groups to become sustainable.
• Ensure that community assets are nurtured, through sharing intelligence regarding any gaps or problems identified in local provision with commissioners and local authorities.
• Educate non-clinical and clinical staff within their PCN multi-disciplinary teams on what services are available within the community and how to access them.

Role Specific Key Tasks

Education

• Promote all aspects of social prescribing across the PCN, Health & Social Care professionals and the wider system, including its role in self-management, addressing health inequalities and the wider determinants of health.
• 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 access and outcomes and enable a holistic approach to care.
• Provide referral agencies with regular updates about social prescribing, including training for their staff and how to access information to encourage appropriate referrals.
• Promote low level mental health guidance, signpost to self-help and the most appropriate service.

Referrals

• Receive and action referrals for social prescriptions via agreed systems.
• Manage and prioritise referrals appropriately.
• Redirect referrals, using the agreed protocols, to more appropriate Social Prescribing Link Workers or agencies.
• Be proactive in developing strong links with all local agencies to encourage referrals.
• Support referral agencies to provide appropriate information about the person they are referring.
• Provide appropriate feedback to referral agencies about the people they referred.
• Work closely within the MDT and with GP practices within the PCN to ensure that the social prescribing referral codes are inputted into clinical systems.
• Adhere to data protection legislation and data sharing agreements.

Personalised Support

• Listen to and talk with people and their…