Job responsibilities
Key Tasks
1.Promote social prescribing within Networks
- Use materials, approaches and systems to promote social prescribing within the PCN, its role in self-management, and the wider determinants of health.
- As part of the PCN multi-disciplinary team, build relationships with staff in GP practices within the local PCN, attending relevant MDT meetings, giving information and feedback on social prescribing.
- Be proactive in developing strong links with all local agencies to encourage referrals, recognising what they need to be confident in the service to make appropriate referrals.
- Support PCN efforts 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
2. Provide personalised support
- Be a friendly source of information about health, 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 to address the persons health and wellbeing needs 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
- including helping people to gain skills for meaningful employment, where appropriate.
- Seek advice and support by attending monthly team supervision supervisor to discuss patient-related concerns (e.g. abuse, domestic violence and support with mental health), referring the patient back to the GP or other suitable health professional if required. Attend 1-1 sessions with Line manager and attend monthly team meetings, which is gives an opportunity to share good practice, Training, and updates and new working practices
- Contribute information to help PCN, commissioners and local partners identify unmet needs within the community.
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.
Professional development
- Work with your supervising GP to access regular clinical supervision, to enable you to deal effectively with the difficult issues that people present.
Miscellaneous
- Work as part of the PCN healthcare team to seek feedback, continually improve the service and contribute to service improvement and business development.
- 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.
- The post holder must always respect patient confidentiality and the confidentiality of electronically stored personal data in line with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
- The post holder will be expected to take responsibility for self-development on a continuous basis, undertaking on-the-job training as required.
- The post holder will ensure they accurately represent the PCN and ensure the values of the PCN are always upheld in carrying out their work
- The post holder will work as part of a team and provide cover for absent colleagues.
- The post holder may be required to undertake duties at any location within the SLRPCN, in order to meet service needs.
- The post holder must always work in general accordance with the organisations policies and guidelines.
- The post holder must always adhere to the organisations information governance policy, ensuring that there is no breach of confidentiality as a result of his/her actions.
Equal Opportunities:
The organisation operates an equal opportunities policy and expects staff to have a commitment to equal opportunities policies in relation to employment and service delivery.
The post-holder must always comply with the Practices Health and Safety policies, by following agreed safe working procedures and reporting incidents using the organisations Incident Reporting Systems. The post-holder will comply with the Data Protection Act (2018) and Access to Health Records Act (1990).
Safeguarding children and vulnerable adults:
Post holders have a general responsibility for safeguarding children and vulnerable adults in the course of their daily duties and for ensuring that they are aware of the specific duties relating to their role.
Smoking Policy:
It is the organisation policy to promote health. Smoking, therefore, is actively discouraged. It is illegal within the organisations buildings and vehicles.
Codes of Practice:
The post holder will be expected to carry out work duties and tasks in accordance with all relevant codes of practice. These include general organisational codes of practice as well as the following:
- Care Navigation
- Social Prescribing Link Workers
Performance Management
Example numerical indicators include:
1. Numbers of patients benefiting from services
2. Service response times achieved
3. Number of users reporting improved outcomes
4. User perception of quality/usefulness/responsiveness of service
Job Description Agreement This job description is intended to provide an outline of the key tasks and responsibilities only. There may be other duties required of the post-holder commensurate with the position. This description will be open to regular review and may be amended to consider development within the Practice. All members of staff should be prepared to take on additional duties or relinquish existing duties to maintain the efficient running of the Practice and PCN. This job description is intended as a basic guide to the scope and responsibilities of the post and is not exhaustive. It will be subject to regular review and amendment as necessary in consultation with the post-holder.
Essential Skills
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 take responsibility for 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
Demonstrate personal accountability, emotional resilience and work 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
NVQ Level 3, Advanced level or equivalent qualifications or working towards
Demonstrable commitment to professional and personal development
Understanding of the wider determinants of health, including social, economic and environmental factors and their impact on communities
Meets DBS reference standards and has a clear criminal record, in line with the law on spent convictions
Access to own transport and ability to travel across the locality on a regular basis, including to visit people in their own homes
Desirable Skills
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
Training in motivational coaching and interviewing or equivalent experience
Experience of working directly in a community development context, adult health and social care, learning support or public health/health improvement (including unpaid work)
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 partnership/collaborative working and of building relationships across a variety of organisations
Knowledge of the personalised care approach
Knowledge of motivational coaching and interview skills
Knowledge of VCSE and community services in the locality
Willingness to work flexible hours when required to meet work demands
Allied Health South Lincolnshire offer an excellent staff wellbeing package, competitive Annual Leave allowance and Pension opportunities.
South Lincs Rural PCN adhere to the NHS People Promise.
For further information please contact Linda Smithlindasmith17@nhs.net
