Social prescribing empowers people to take control of their health and wellbeing through referral to non-medical link workers who give time, focus on what matters to me and take a holistic approach, connecting people to community groups and statutory services for practical and emotional support.
The Social Prescribing Link Worker (SPLW) role will be based within a Primary Care Network (PCN) and part of the multidisciplinary practice teams across the PCN. This role will help to strengthen wellbeing, community resilience and personal resilience and reduce health inequalities by addressing the wider determinants of health, such as debt, poor housing, and physical inactivity, by promoting active involvement with local communities and services.
Please note this job may close earlier than the date provided subject to applications.
Main duties of the job
At Saville Medical you will work as part of a large team of social prescribers and hold a caseload of you own self managed patients who you support with their emotional and practical needs. You will contribute to the cover of our daily triage list contacting patients aged 18+ and allocating them to your own caseload or signposting outward where appropriate You will also become involved in other projects within the PCN for example our annual reviews and team development meetings.
About us
Saville Medical Group and NGPS both offer a friendly and supportive working environment. Both the team within the surgery and the wider NGPS have a depth of knowledgeable in social prescribing and are always there to support new comers.
Newcastle GP Services (NGPS) is the GP federation for Newcastle-upon-Tyne. We are a member organisation for 27 out of the 28 general practices in Newcastle. Our role is to support them to provide excellent clinical care and a positive patient experience.
Were a skilled team of non-clinicians and clinicians with significant experience working in healthcare. We help practices work at scale across Newcastle, providing targeted and effective patient care and innovative methods of working to improve quality and efficiency.
You can find out more about NGPS and the services we offer on our website here:https://newcastle-gp-services.co.uk/
Job responsibilities
Thefollowing are the core responsibilities of the SPLW. There may be, on occasion,a requirement to carry out other tasks; this will be dependent on factors suchas workload and staffing levels.
Referrals
a.Take referrals from a wide range of agencies; be proactive in developing strong links with all localagencies to encourage referrals, provide updates and offer training whererequired.
b. Build relationships with key staff in GP practiceswithin the local PCN, attending relevant meetings, becoming part of the widernetwork team, giving information and feedback on social prescribing.
c. Seek regular feedback about the quality of service andimpact of social prescribing on referral agencies.
d.Beproactive in encouraging self-referrals and connecting with all localcommunities, particularly those communities that statutory agencies may findhard to reach.
e.Manage and prioritise your own workload.
f. Meet people on a one-to-one basis, making home visitswhere appropriate within applicable policies and procedures. Give peopletime to tell their stories and focus on what matters to me. Build trustwith the person, providing non-judgmental support, respecting diversity andlifestyle choices. Work from a strength-based approach focusing on apersons assets.
g. Be a friendly source of information about wellbeingand prevention approaches.
h. Help people to identify the wider issues that impacton their health wellbeing, such as debt, poor housing, being unemployed,loneliness and caring responsibilities.
i. Work with the person, their families and carers andconsider how they can all be supported through social prescribing.
j. Help people maintain or regain independence throughliving skills, adaptations, enablement approaches and simple safeguards.
k. Work with individuals to co-produce a simple personalizedsupport plan based on the persons priorities, interests, values andmotivations including what they can expect from the groups, activities andservices they are being connected to and what the person can do for themselvesto improve their health and wellbeing.
l. Where appropriate, physically introduce people tocommunity groups, activities, and statutory services, ensuring they arecomfortable. Follow up to ensure they are happy, able to engage, includedand receiving good support.
m.Wherepeople may be eligible for a personal health budget, help them to explore thisoption as a way of providing funded, personalized support to be independent,including helping people to gain skills for meaningful employment, whereappropriate.
Support community groups and VCSE organizationsto receive referrals.
n. Forge strong links with local VCSE organizations,community and neighborhood level groups, utilizing their networks and buildingon whats already available to create a map of menu of community groups andassets. Use these opportunities to promote micro-commissioning or smallgrants if available.
o. Develop supportive relationships with local VCSE organizations,community groups and statutory services, to make timely, appropriate andsupported referrals for the person being introduced.
p. Ensure that local community groups and VCSE organizationsbeing referred to have basic procedures in place for ensuring that vulnerableindividuals are safe and, where there are safeguarding concerns, work with allpartners to deal appropriately with issues. Where such policies andprocedures are not in place, support groups to work towards this standardbefore referrals are made to them.
q. Check that community groups and VCSE organizationsmeet in insured premises and that health and safety requirements are inplace. Where such policies and procedures are not in place, supportgroups to work towards this standard before referrals are made to them.
r. Support local groups to act in accordance withinformation governance policies and procedures, ensuring compliance with theData Protection Act 2018
Work collectively with all localpartners to ensure community groups are strong and sustainable.
s. Work with commissioners and local partners to identifyunmet needs within the community and gaps in community provision.
t. Support local partners and commissioners to developnew groups and services where needed, through small grants for communitygroups, micro-commissioning and development support.
u. Encourage people who have been connected to communitysupport through social prescribing to volunteer and give their time freely toothers, in order to build their skills and confidence, and strengthen communityresilience.
v. Develop a team of volunteers within your service toprovide buddying support for people, starting new groups and finding creativecommunity solutions to local issues.
w. Encourage people, their families and carers to providepeer support and to do things together, such as setting up new community groupsor volunteering.
x.Providea regular confidence survey to community groups receiving referrals, toensure that they are strong, sustained and have the support they need to bepart of social prescribing.
y. Work sensitively with people, their families, andcarers to capture key information, enabling tracking of the impact of socialprescribing on their health and wellbeing.
z. Encourage people, their families, and carers toprovide feedback and to share their stories about the impact of socialprescribing on their lives.
aa. Support referral agencies to provide appropriateinformation about the person they are referring. Use the case management systemto track the persons progress. Provide appropriate feedback to referralagencies about the people they referred.
bb. Work closely with GP practices within the PCN toensure that social prescribing referral codes are inputted to EMIS/SystmOne andthat the persons use of the NHS can be tracked, adhering to data protectionlegislation and data sharing agreements with the Integrated Care Board(ICB).
Training and development
a.Undertake all mandatory training and induction programmes. Beinvolved in actively seeking training that would benefit the role and remain incommunication with line manager regarding areas of interest for personaldevelopment and training opportunities.
b.Attend a formal appraisal with their manager at least every 12months. Once a performance/training objective has been set, progress will bereviewed on a regular basis so that new objectives can be agreed.
Safeguarding
a.Identify and escalate Safeguarding concerns as appropriate to bothAdult Social Service sand NGPS line management.
b.Report all incidents relating to work to line managementregarding patient or staff safety or anything that classes as a significantevent.
Managesickness and holiday absence in line with your patient calendar and referralstream. Keep practices informed of any absence as well as NGPS line managementwith as much advance notice as possible for the smooth running of the service.
Person Specification
Skills
* Skills and ability to manage complex cases to best meet service user need
* Excellent written and verbal communication skills
* Ability to deal with ambiguity and show initiative
* Excellent organisation and time management skills, with a proven ability to meet deadlines
* Ability to network and build collaborative relationships
* Advanced knowledge and understanding of Microsoft Office packages e.g. Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint
* Excellent organisation and time management skills
* Keen attention to detail and ability to produce work to a high standard
* Forward thinker with a solutions-focused approach to problem-solving
* Personable and approachable
* Commitment to continuous service improvement
* Self-motivated and confident able to work with minimal direction
* Adaptable and innovative
* Enthusiasm, with energy and drive
* Hard working, reliable and resourceful
* Ability to work flexibly, and outside of core hours where required
* Considered, steady approach
* Diplomacy
Experience
* Experience as a social prescriber
* Experience of signposting to and navigating complex service users' needs
* Experience of working in a demanding environment with competing priorities
* Experience of handling confidential information and an up-to-date knowledge of data protection legislation
* Experience of team working and versatility to take on a variety of tasks
* Experience of managing your own workload and independently manage your time
* Experience in communicating with others, including via phone, email and face to face and experience of working with patients directly in patient facing roles
* Experience of working with service users, and excellent customer service skills
* Experience and understanding of Safeguarding; legislation, policies, and escalation
* Experience in healthcare (specifically General Practice)
* Experience working with GP clinical systems
* Experience in supporting and developing others
* Experience of working within a budget
* Experience of support patients with long term needs over an extended time frame
Qualifications
* Educated to GCSE or equivalent experience gained through employment, with evidence of effective numeracy, literacy and word processing skills
* Training relevant to social prescribing, such as mental health first aid or counselling qualifications
* Evidence of a commitment to continuing professional development
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.
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