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Social Prescriber Link Worker- Dashwood PCN

FedBucks Ltd

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Job summary

Dashwood Primary Care Network

Salary:In the range of £25,000 - £27,000 dependant on experience

Working hours:Full Time 37.5 hours

NHS Pension

33 days annual leave inclusive of bank holidays

Employee Assistance Programme 24/7 Support

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Social Prescribing Link Worker who is passionate about empowering people to take control of their health to join our existing developing team within our PCN, we provide high quality support to our patients and are looking for an enthusiastic, empathetic individual to join the team to support us in achieving this.

We are looking for someone to be proactive in getting to know and support our local community assets and should be motivated by helping people to become active and independent members of their local community.

Main duties of the job

With experience of working positively with people facing complex social and emotional challenges, and some knowledge of solution-focussed coaching approaches. The successful candidate will be working with people from diverse cultural and social backgrounds and will need to work confidently and effectively in a diverse, and sometimes challenging environment.

Social prescribing empowers people to take control of their health and wellbeing through referral to link workers who give time, focus on what matters to me and take a holistic approach to an individuals health and wellbeing, connecting people to community groups and statutory services for practical and emotional support. Link workers also support existing groups to be accessible and sustainable and help people to start new community groups, working collaboratively with all local partners. Social prescribing link workers (SPLW) will work as a key part of the primary care network (PCN) multi-disciplinary team.

The successful candidate will have excellent interpersonal and communication skills, and be organised, patient and empathetic. They will have experience of working in health, social care or other support roles including direct contact with people, families or carers.

Previous experience within a Primary Care setting and / or previous experience of patient consultations is preferred.

About us

We are a federation of 47 GP practices covering a population of over 485,000 patients across Buckinghamshire. We began in 2016 and now employ around 200 members of staff across our head office sites, and our planned and unplanned care services.

As a GP Federation, we are proud to represent our member practices and to champion primary care by working with local general practice and system partners in the provision of community-based healthcare services. We are dedicated to providing safe and compassionate care to our patients across our range of primary and unplanned healthcare services in Buckinghamshire, and believe in continuous commitment to quality service delivery and positive patient outcomes.

Patients are at the heart of everything we do, and we pride ourselves in ensuring our patients feel safe, supported, communicated with and respected, at a time when they may be feeling vulnerable. Our vision is to provide high quality, seamless health care that enables people to lead healthier lives, whilst feeling supported and cared for.

Date posted

02 May 2024

Pay scheme

Other

Salary

Depending on experience

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

2 years

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

E0093-24-0037

Job locations

Carrington House Surgery

19 Priory Road

High Wycombe

Buckinghamshire

HP13 6SL

Job description

Job responsibilities

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, providing reports including monitoring and evaluation including general 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.

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.

Seek regular feedback about the quality of service and impact of social prescribing on referral agencies.

Be proactive in encouraging self-referrals and connecting with all local communities, particularly those communities that statutory agencies may find hard to reach.

Provide personalised support

Give people time to tell their stories and focus on what matters to me. Build trust with the person, providing non-judgmental support, empathy 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.

Help people maintain or regain independence through living skills, adaptations, enablement approaches and simple safeguards.

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, facilitate the introduction of 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 Voluntary organisations to receive referrals:

Forge strong links with local 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.

Develop supportive relationships with local organisations, community groups and statutory services, to make timely, appropriate and supported referrals for the person being introduced.

Ensure that local community groups and organisations being referred to have basic procedures in place for maintaining vulnerable individuals are safe and where there are safeguarding concerns work with all partners to deal appropriately with issues. Where such policies and procedures are not in place, support groups to work towards this standard before referrals are made to them.

Support local groups to act in accordance with Information Governance policies and procedures, ensuring compliance with GDPR.

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

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, confidence and strengthen community resilience.

Develop a team of volunteers within your service to provide buddying support for people, starting new groups and finding creative community solutions to local issues.

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

Provide a regular confidence survey to community groups receiving referrals, to ensure that they are strong, sustained and have the support they need to be part of social prescribing.

General tasks, including 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