Social Prescriber

The main purpose of this post is to deliver a Social Prescribing Service to support patients by providing holistic assessments with the aim of improving their health and wellbeing.

Social Prescribing empowers people to take control of their health and wellbeing through referral to non-medical link workers who can take a holistic approach to someone’s overall health. They connect people to community groups and statutory services for practical and emotional support.

Social Prescribing can help to strengthen community resilience and personal resilience, and reduces inequalities by addressing the wider determinants of health, such as debt, poor housing and physical activity and by increasing peoples active involvement with their local communities. It works particularly well for people with long term conditions, for people who are lonely or isolated or have complex social needs which affect their wellbeing.

Main Duties

• Provide Personalised Support.
• Meet people on a one to one basis either within the Practice or making home visits where appropriate within line with local policies and procedures.
• Be a friendly source of information about wellbeing and preventative approaches.
• Provide people with continuity, remaining the point of contact throughout the social prescription.
• Help people identify the wider issues that impact on their health and wellbeing, such as debt, poor housing, social isolation or 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, adaptions, enablement approaches and simple safeguards.
• Work with individuals to produce a simple personal support plan based on their priorities, interests and motivation.
• Where appropriate, physically introduce people to community groups, activities and voluntary services ensuring they are comfortable.
• Offer ongoing emotional support and signposting to people which will include those suffering with poor mental health.
• Liaise with parents of children who are experiencing difficulties, these may be learning or social difficulties. This may require establishing and maintaining an ongoing communication link with Schools, Social Workers, Health Visitors and Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service.
• Promoting social prescribing and its role in self-management.
• Help to develop the Practice Teams knowledge on how to identify individuals suitable for a social prescribing referral.
• Build relationships with key staff across the PCN, attending relevant meetings and becoming part of the wider network team.
• Be proactive with developing strong links with all local agencies to encourage referrals, recognising what they need to be confident in the service to make an appropriate referral.
• Be proactive in encouraging self-referrals and connecting with all local communities, particularly those communities that statutory agencies may find hard to reach.
• Support Community Groups and Voluntary Organisations.

All Post Holders are expected to:

• Adhere to Practice policies and procedures.
• Adhere to data protection regulations, data sharing and respecting confidentiality of patients, colleagues and the Primary Care Network.
• Undertake a Disclosures and Barring Service (DBS) application.
• Be committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.
• Maintain personal and professional development in order to maintain their skills.
• Promote equality and diversity in a non-discriminatory way.

Confidentiality:

• In the course of seeking treatment, patients entrust us with, or allow us to gather, sensitive information in relation to their health and other matters. They do so in confidence and have the right to expect that staff will respect their privacy and act appropriately.
• In the performance of the duties outlined in this job description, the post-holder may have access to confidential information relating to patients and their carers, Practice staff and other Healthcare workers. They may also have access to information relating to the Practice as a business. All such information from any source is to be regarded as strictly confidential.
• Information relating to patients, carers, colleagues, other healthcare workers or the business of the Practice may only be divulged to authorised persons.

Health & Safety:

• It is the responsibility of all employees to ensure that they comply with the requirements of the Health & Safety at Work Act. Safe working practices are adhered to and any hazards are reported to the appropriate line manager immediately. Familiarisations with all health & safety policies within the Practices are key.

Equality and 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 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.

Personal/Professional Development:

• The post-holder will participate in any training programme implemented by the Practice as part of this employment, with such training to include:
• Participation in an annual individual performance review, including taking responsibility for maintaining a record of own personal and/or professional development
• Taking responsibility for own development, learning and performance and demonstrating skills and activities to others who are undertaking similar work

Quality:

• The post-holder will strive to maintain quality within the Practice, and will:
• Alert other team members to issues of quality and risk.
• Assess own performance and take accountability for own actions, either directly or under supervision.
• Contribute to the effectiveness of the team by reflecting on own and team activities and making suggestions on ways to improve and enhance the teams performance.
• Work effectively with individuals in other agencies to meet patients needs.
• Effectively manage own time, workload and resources.

Data Protection:

• If you are required to obtain process and/or use information held on a computer you should do it in a fair and lawful way. You should hold data only for the specific registered purpose and not use or disclose it in any way incompatible with such a purpose. Data is only to be disclosed to authorised persons or organisations as instructed. Breaches of confidence in relation to data will result in disciplinary action which may result in dismissal.
• Whilst this job description lists the main areas of responsibility, there may be additional tasks appropriately assigned by either the Clinical Director or the PCN Manager to this role. This list of duties is not intended to be exhaustive but indicates the main areas of work and may be subject to change after consultation with the post-holder to meet the changing needs of the service.

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